You should ask yourself these questions, and note down the answers clearly and accurately.

6 Questions to ask yourself

1. What is the information about?
   
2. What do the numbers on each axis represent?
3. What changes do the lines show?
4. How can the lines be compared to each other?
5. Which feature of the lines stands out most?
6. What conclusions can be drawn from the graph?

It is important to note that you must not add any information that is not given in the graph while describing it. So remember that opinions, outside information, inferences must all be avoided.

Answering the questions.

Here is how you could answer the 6 questions mentioned above

What is the information about?

the proportion of their money that UK households spent on certain things, on average, over a period of 50 years

What do the numbers on each axis represent?

horizontal axis: years; vertical axis: percentages

What changes do the line show?

Two show an increase and three show a decrease.

How can the lines be compared to each other?

Two almost always remain below the rest; expenditure is always lower.

Which feature of the lines stands out the most?

Expenditure on food shows a huge decrease.

What conclusions can be drawn from the graph?

Patterns of household expenditure have changed over 50 years; expenditure on food has changed the most.

Writing the report

• Language: accuracy and clarity are the essential features of a good report. The language you use should be plain and simple, but academic in style.
• Vocabulary: the range of language you need for describing data is small.
• Organization: organize the information so that you highlight the main trends or features. There is usually more than one suitable way of doing this. For example, for the graph above, you could focus on the relationship between the various spending categories, or you could focus on the different directions each has taken over 50 years. 

The Perfect Writing Task

Here is how you could summarise the responses to the questions into a clearly organised, finely-worded writing task that will get you the perfect score.

The graph shows what proportion of their total expenditure households in the UK spent, over a fifty year period, in five different categories: housing; transport and vehicles; food; clothing and footwear; and fuel, light and power.

Between 1957 and 2007 expenditure in all five categories changed to some extent, but the most marked change was in the food category. At the beginning of the period the proportion of expenditure on food was more than three times as high as that in all the other categories, representing more than thirty per cent of total household expenditure. However, by 2007 this figure had more than halved to around fifteen per cent, and was slightly less than expenditure on both housing and transport.

The two other areas where proportions of expenditure fell over the period are clothing and footwear, and fuel, light and power. However, the changes here were much less dramatic. Expenditure on the former dropped steadily from ten per cent to five per cent, and on the latter from six per cent to three per cent. For most of the fifty-year period, these categories used up a significantly smaller proportion of the household budget than the others.

In two categories, housing and transport, the proportions of expenditure almost doubled, rising from nine and eight per cent to nineteen and sixteen per cent respectively. Thus, by the end of the period, the highest proportion  of household expenditure went on housing, and the lowest on fuel, light and power.

In conclusion, the graph shows that the patterns of spending in UK households changed to some extent over the period 1957 to 2007, the part of the budget spent on food showing the most marked change.

A Note on Word Count

Do not worry about the word count. Especially in IELTS, and particularly in Writing Task 1, word count is not important. Clear language, and completeness are more important. The basic rule of writing a report can be summarised in the following manner:

Detailed Analysis

A more detailed analysis on this is available in the form of an image in our Telegram Channel. You can click on the post to view all the details on the Telegram Channel. In the post you will have a detailed analysis of the above writing task with the core language highlighted and examiner comments about why this is the perfect writing task.