Written by Angela Rutherford
Introduction
If you are preparing for the IELTS academic exam, you’ve probably studied and practiced writing reports about solitary graphs (line, bar, chart, pie), but what happens when your exam has a Task 1 question with two or more DIFFERENT kinds of graphs? How do you summarize multiple sources of data in 150 words or so?
In this blog, you will discover an easy formula to use in this situation. In fact, you may begin to see that the important insights you need to cover are clearer when there is more than one graph. Let’s start by looking at an example:
NOTE: These statistics are not accurate and were created for this blog only.
The table gives information about the number of people who visited the Royal Ontario Museum in 2015 and 2020 before and after a renovation. The two pie charts give information about how satisfied visitors were in 2015 and 2020.
Overall, the number of visitors grew after the renovation and people were much more satisfied with the museum in 2020.
More people visited the museum after the renovation. In 2015, 2.5 million people came to see the exhibits and this number grew to 3.5 million in 2020.
In 2015, half the people that responded were not very happy with their visit. 40% reported that they were unsatisfied and 10% were very unsatisfied while only 15% were very satisfied and 30% satisfied.
By 2020, more of the visitors who chose to comment were either very satisfied (35%) or satisfied (40%) with the completed renovations and fewer reported dissatisfaction as only 15% were dissatisfied and 5% were very unhappy.
Analyze the sample. Before you look at the formula outline below, read over the example response. Where do you find the details and actual statistics and how is that information organized into paragraphs? Which paragraph summarizes the important observations that can be made about the data? Where do we learn how the data is presented and what the data is about?
Simple Formula for IELTS Academic Task 1: More than one graphic
Introductory Paragraph | What kind of visuals are used and what are they about? | The table gives information about the number of people who visited the Royal Ontario Museum in 2015 and 2020 before and after a renovation. The two pie charts show how satisfied the visitors were in 2015 and 2020. |
Overview Paragraph | Summarize the most important findings about the data. | Overall, the number of visitors grew after the renovation and people were much more satisfied with the museum in 2020. |
Detail Paragraph | Describe one category of data. | More people visited the museum after the renovation. In 2015, 2.5 million people came to see the exhibits and this number grew to 3.5 million in 2020. |
Detail Paragraph | Describe the next category of data. In this case, there is a comparison in the category to describe the earlier data in this paragraph. | In 2015, half of the people that responded were not very happy with their visit. 40% reported that they were unsatisfied and 10% very unsatisfied while only 15% were very satisfied and 30% satisfied. |
Detail Paragraph | Describe the later data in the same category OR the next category of data if there were another. | By 2020, more of the visitors who chose to comment were either very satisfied (35%) or satisfied (40%) with the completed renovations and fewer reported dissatisfaction as only 15% were dissatisfied and 5% were very unhappy. |
Organization Insights
Each paragraph has a purpose starting with an opening introduction to the information followed by an overview that lays out the key findings. Then, the supporting details are summarized – a paragraph for each graphic.
I hope this formula helps you do your best on the exam. Good luck and have fun with it.