The Definitive

Guide to

IELTS WRITING
TASK-1 : TABLE
STEP BY STEP
PROCESS TO SOLVE
IT

SAZZAD CHOWDHURY

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T H E R E A R E 4 T Y P E S I E LT S
W R I T I N G TA S K - 1 Q U E S T I O N S .
You need to write a report of at least 150 words

WRITING TASK1: DATA OR PROCESS

(150 W/20M)
TABLE

GRAPH/CHART

DIAGRAM

Each type of questions requires a certain strategy or

approach in order to make the best use of your time.
You should be flexible enough to use all these different
approaches that suit the question task. I
n this guide, you will find how to approach Table with
practical demonstration.

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A table will be presented to you and you must

write out approximately a 150 word discussion
on it within approximately 20 minutes.

You must evaluate the table, organize

your ideas, and develop them into a
cohesive and coherent explanation.
TO GET HIGH BAND SCORE

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H O W T O W R I T E A B O U T TA B L E
1
Write a descriptive
introduction

2
Write an overview
3&4
Describe key information
It is the time to look at the aforesaid steps in action and
discover how easy it is to write about a Table.
Cambridge IELTS practice book is used on this regard,
because it is the only official practice test book in the
market.
You can open the hard copy book if you already bought it.
Otherwise, follow the table cited below from the
Cambridge IELTS 2.

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PRACTICAL EX AMPLE
The table below shows the consumer durables (telephone,
refrigerator, etc.) owned in Britain from 1972 to 1983.
Write a report for a university lecturer describing the
information shown below. You should write at least 150 words
Consumer
durables

1972 1974

1976

1978

1979

1981

1982

TITLE OF THIS CHAPTER

SHALL GO HERE

1983

(% of
households)

Central heating
Television
Video
Vacuum
cleaner
Refrigerator
Washing
machine
Dishwasher
Telephone

31
93

43
95

48
96

52
96

55
97

59
97

60
97

87

89

92

92

93

94

95

73
66

81
68

88
71

91
75

92
74

93
78

93
79

94
60

54

3
60

3
67

4
75

4
76

5
77

42

50

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64
98
18

PARAGRAPH 1: WRITE A DESCRIPTIVE

INTRODUCTION
You should write total 3 sentences in the first paragraph.
First sentence would be introductory sentence by
paraphrasing the question statement because writing the
exact question statement will cut down your score.
The second & third sentence would be overview sentences
about the table.

H O W T O PA R A P H R A S E
To paraphrase the question you need to
Changing the reporting verb >> Write what the data represents
>> Time duration
The most commonly used reporting verbs for this purpose is
"shows". You can use (instead of shows):
Provide : The table provides information about...
Represent: The table represents statistics on....
Indicate: The table indicates the number of......
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 Just after changing the reporting verb, you can write

about what the data represents in the table in your
own words.
Check whether the table presents total volume or
percentage.
Next to this just write the time duration showed in the
table.

L O O K AT T H E S E E X A M P L E S

The table provides percentage of households in Britain using

different consumer durables from 1972 to 1983.
The table represents the percentages of household possess a
range of consumer durables in eight different years.
The table indicates the household statistics using consumer
durables in British households from 1972 to 1983.

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PARAGRAPH 2: WRITE AN OVERVIEW

Now, it is the time to write overview sentences.
In the first sentence you can write the general trend of the
table.
In the second sentence you can write any contrast or
comparism visible in the table.

STRUCTURE - OVERVIEW

Overall, _____increased/decreased between____.(General trend)

In particular___________ while_______________(Contrast)

It is clear from the figures that________________(General trend)

Nearly_____with a little differentiation in case of_____(Contrast)

Not surprisingly,________________________(General trend)

However, ___slightly fewer/less/more than ____ did. (Compare)

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Structure in Action
Now let`s put these sentence structure format for writing overview
for the above table

Overall, the household ownership of consumer

durables in Britain increased between 1972 and
1983. In particular, the percentage of households
with central heating rose, while the number of
households with a washing machine fell.
It is clear from the figures that there is an
increasing use of consumer durables in Britain from
1972 to 1983. Nearly, all products usage showed an
upward trend with a little differentiation in case of
washing machine.

Not surprisingly, the ownership of consumer

durables rose in Britain over the years. However,
the usage of central heating increased slightly more
than dishwasher did.

PA R A G R A P H 3 & 4 : D E S C R I B E
K E Y I N F O R M AT I O N
To describe key information in a table you should
describe the important data in the table. You
can`t write about every column and row, so look
for the significant ones.
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H O W T O F I N D S I G N I F I C A N T D ATA
The biggest and smallest number in columns or rows
The biggest change in numbers over the time period
The closest similarity, dissimilarity and exceptions
among categories of data

THE BIGGEST & SMALLEST NUMBER

Central heating

31

43

48

52

55

59

60

64

Television

93

95

96

96

97

97

97

98

Video

18

Vacuum cleaner

87

89

92

92

93

94

95

Refrigerator

73

81

88

91

92

93

93

94

Washing machine

66

68

71

75

74

78

79

60

60

67

75

76

77

Dishwasher
Telephone

42

50

54

It is interesting to see that the majority of____________.

In contrast, the lowest percentage/number
of________________________..
FORMAT FOR WRITING
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Now let`s put these sentence structure format for the above table
It is interesting to see that the majority of households
owned Television in 1972 and the figure has risen to 98%
from 93% by 1983. In contrast, the lowest percentage of
households used dishwasher and the figure rose from only
3% in 1978 to just 5% by 1983.

Notice the use of quantifiers (ex. the majority of

for countable noun households) in writing table.
You should be careful in using them with
countable and uncountable forms.
Only with
uncountable nouns

With uncountable
and countable nouns

Only with
countable nouns

a little

no/none

a few

a bit (of)

not any

a number (of)

some (any)

several

a great deal of

a lot of

a large number of

a large amount of

plenty of

a great number of

lots of

The majority of

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Therefore, while describing the above table, you can alternatively

write like:
It is interesting to see that the majority of/a large number of/a great
number of households owned Television in 1972 and the figure has
risen to 98% from 93% by 1983. . In contrast, the lowest percentage of
households used dishwasher and the figure rose from only 3% in 1978
to just 5% by 1983.

Notice the use of connective words (ex. in

contrast) in writing table. Following list contain
other connective words you can use describing
this type of comparison or contrast.
On the contrary

Alternatively

On the other hand

However

Whereas

So, you can write... On the contrary/ Alternatively/ On the other

hand/ However/ Whereas/ In contrast, the lowest percentage of
households used dishwasher and the figure rose from only 3% in 1978
to just 5% by 1983.

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The Biggest Changes in Numbers

Looking at the table, we can see that the biggest change in
numbers from 1972 to 1983 goes to Telephone (77-42=35)
and next is Central heating (64-31=33)
Central heating

31

43

48

52

55

59

60

64

Television

93

95

96

96

97

97

97

98

Video

18

Vacuum
cleaner

87

89

92

92

93

94

95

Refrigerator

73

81

88

91

92

93

93

94

Washing
machine

66

68

71

75

74

78

79

60

60

67

75

76

77

Dishwasher

Telephone

42

50

54

The greatest increase was in

_________________________rising from________________. Next
came to _________(category with second biggest
change), rising
from__________________________________________________.
FORMAT FOR WRITING
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Now let`s put these sentence structure format for the above table
The greatest increase was in telephone ownership, rising from 42% in
1972 to 77% in 1983. Next came to central heating ownership, rising
from 37% of households in 1972 to 64% in 1983.

Closest similarit y, dissimilarit y

and exceptions
Looking at the table, we can see that video category is
an exception(data available only for 1983) and
washing machine shows dissimilarity where all data
categories has an increase but the percentage of
washing machine comes down to 60 from 66 in 1983.

Consumer durables

1972

1974

1976

1978

1979

1981

1982

1983

Central heating

31

43

48

52

55

59

60

64

Television

93

95

96

96

97

97

97

98

Percentage
households with:

of

Video

18

Vacuum cleaner

87

89

92

92

93

94

95

Refrigerator

73

81

88

91

92

93

93

94

Washing machine

66

68

71

75

74

78

79

60

60

67

75

76

77

Dishwasher
Telephone

42

50

54

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Finally, it is worth noting that ___________________________,

meanwhile _______________________________________________.
FORMAT FOR WRITING

Now let`s put these sentence structure format for the above table

Finally, it is worth noting that ownership of washing machine actually

fell by 19% between1982 & 1983, meanwhile the video reorder just got
introduced into the market in 1983.
The Final Writing (160 words in 20 Minutes)
Adding up all the examples of writing different parts of a table,
let` see what comes up finally.
The table provides percentage of households in Britain using different consumer
durables from 1972 to 1983.
Overall, the household ownership of consumer durables in Britain increased between
1972 and 1983. In particular, the percentage of households with central heating rose,
while the number of households with a washing machine fell.
It is interesting to see that the majority of households owned Television in 1972 and
the figure has risen to 98% from 93% by 1983. In contrast, the lowest percentage of
households used dishwasher and the figure rose from only 3% in 1978 to just 5% by
1983.

The greatest increase was in telephone ownership, rising from 42% in 1972 to 77%
in 1983. Next come central heating ownership, rising from 37% of households in
1972 to 64% in 1983.
Finally, it is worth noting that ownership of washing machine actually fell by 19%
between1982 & 1983, meanwhile the video reorder for consumer just got introduced
into the market in 1983.

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FIND IT EASY !
If you implement all the steps mentioned here,
then you are guaranteed to write about any
table in your IELTS writing exam.
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M a s t e r I E LT S A c a d e m i c W r i t i n g
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