In this post I’d like to look at some of the best IELTS language for Academic Writing Task 1.

First of all, have a quick look at Data to analyse in IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 to get an idea of the different types of graphical data you might have to analyse.

OK, did you check them out?  Good, now we can jump right in to looking at some useful language.

Academic IELTS Writing Task 1 is basically asking us to describe trends, so first of all, I’d like to look at some of the most common language used to describe trends.

To indicate upward movement

Nouns                                                Verbs

a rise                                                  to rise

an increase                                      to increase / to go up

a climb                                               to climb

a jump                                                to jump

To indicate downward movement

Nouns                                                Verbs

a fall                                                   to fall

a drop                                                 to drop

a decline                                            to decline

a decrease                                        to decrease

To indicate stability and fluctuation

to level off at…

to remain stable at…

to remain steady at…

to fluctuate

to reach a peak

to hit a trough

As well as having language to describe the trend, we also need to be able to describe the degree of difference.

Degree of difference

• Large difference

X increased rapidly / sharply / dramatically / significantly (adverbs to go with verbs).

There was a rapid / sharp / dramatic / significant increase (adjectives to go with nouns).

.

X decreased suddenly / abruptly / steeply (adverbs to go with verbs).

There was a sudden / abrupt / steep decrease (adjectives to go with nouns).

.

• Small difference

X increased steadily / moderately / slightly / gradually / slowly (adverbs to go with verbs).

There was a steady / moderate / slight / small increase (adjectives to go with nouns).

.

X decreased steadily / moderately / slightly / gradually / slowly (adverbs to go with verbs).

There was a steady / moderate / slight / gradual / small decrease (adjectives to go with nouns).

Putting it all together

One of the biggest problems students tell me they have when answering Academic IELTS Writing Task 1 is actually putting all this language together to make a coherent response to the question.

IELTS Writing responses require a systematic approach and I usually give my students the following two example tables so they can organise their answers well and achieve the best IELTS score possible.
.

Time period	Subject of the sentence	Verb to describe change	Adverb to describe how much change
From January to February,	sales	rose	dramatically.
From February to April,	sales	fell	slightly.
From April to June,	sales	increased	moderately.

.

Time period	‘there’ + verb ‘to be’ in appropriate tense to introduce the subject	Adjective to describe the amount of change	Noun to describe change
From January to February,	there was a	dramatic	rise	in sales.
From February to April,	there was a	slight	fall	in sales.
From April to June,	there was a	moderate	increase	in sales.

.
Now let’s look at the individual columns in greater detail so that we can get more variety of language in our answer.  I have seen many students simply write ‘a catalogue of details’ (and then it went up, then it went down, then it increased again etc) when they answer an IELTS Writing Task 1; a variety of expressions is necessary to make your writing more interesting and get a higher band score.

Time period

‘From January to February…..’

We could also use the following alternatives:

• For one month
• Over the next month
• For a period of one month
• During the next month

Sentence subject

When you describe change, it is important to be clear about what exactly is changing.  Let’s say, for example, that the topic of the graph in the two tables was ‘cars’.  We cannot say ‘cars increased’ but ‘the sales of cars increased’ or ‘car sales increased’.

If the graph was describing the increase in cars on Sydney roads, then we would say ‘the number of cars increased’ or ‘car numbers increased’.

Verbs, adverbs, nouns and adjectives

See the selection at the beginning of the post.

Keep these guidelines in mind when doing practice IELTS Writing Task 1; you’ll soon find that using a variety of language will come naturally to you and that your answer will have a clear structure.

Here’s to the best IELTS score possible!