Every Task 1 — line graph, bar chart, table, pie chart, map, process — is the same task wearing different clothes: turn visual information into organised written comparison. One method handles all of them: select the significant features, group them, compare within the groups. This lesson walks the method through a line graph and a process diagram, and shows you the single sentence worth more than any other in your answer.
The method in three moves
Select. You cannot and must not describe everything. A chart with 20 data points needs 5–7 of them: the highest, the lowest, the biggest change, the crossover, the exception. Everything else is noise the examiner does not want.
Group. Never describe lines or categories one by one in the order they appear — that is a list, and Coherence & Cohesion punishes lists. Put features that behave similarly into one group: the rising things vs the falling things; the young age groups vs the old; before vs after.
Compare. Task 1 explicitly instructs you to "make comparisons where relevant." Inside each group, compare: which rose faster, which was highest, how the gap changed. A sentence with a comparison in it is worth two sentences of isolated numbers.
The overview: the highest-value sentence you will write
Task Achievement band 7 requires a clear overview — one or two sentences stating the main trends without any numbers. No overview caps you at band 5 for this criterion regardless of how good the rest is. No other single sentence in either writing task carries that much weight.
Write it as the second paragraph, right after your one-sentence paraphrase of the title. Formula: the big pattern + the big exception (if there is one).
Walkthrough 1: a line graph
Imagine a line graph: the number of public transport journeys in three cities from 2010 to 2020. City A climbs steadily from 40 to 70 million. City B rises slowly from 30 to 38 million. City C falls from 55 to 35 million, dipping below City B in 2019.
Select: start and end points, City C's decline, the 2019 crossover. Group: the two risers (A and B) vs the one faller (C). Compare: A rose far faster than B; C's fall reversed its ranking.
Overview: Overall, public transport use grew in two of the three cities over the decade, with City A showing by far the strongest growth, while City C was the clear exception, declining steadily to finish below both others.
Then two detail paragraphs — one per group:
Paragraph 1 (the risers): A's figures with its steep growth; B's slower rise; the widening gap between them. Paragraph 2 (the exception): C's starting position as the leader, its steady fall, and the 2019 moment it was overtaken.
Four paragraphs, about 170–190 words, every sentence either a grouped trend or a comparison. That is the whole essay.
Walkthrough 2: a process diagram
Processes frighten candidates because there are no trends. But the method holds — the groups are simply stages.
Imagine a diagram of glass recycling: collection from bottle banks → transport to plant → sorting by colour → crushing into fragments → melting in a furnace → moulding into new bottles → delivery to shops.
Select: the number of stages, the start and end points, any inputs (heat) or transformations (whole bottles become molten glass). Group: early stages (gathering the raw material) vs later stages (transformation into a new product). Compare: in a process, comparison becomes sequence and transformation — what enters each stage and how it leaves changed.
Overview: Overall, the recycling of glass is a seven-stage man-made process in which used bottles are collected and sorted, then physically transformed by crushing and melting before being reshaped into new containers and returned to retailers.
The grammar that carries a process is the present passive (the bottles are collected, the fragments are melted) plus sequencers (once, after which, at the final stage). Two detail paragraphs: one for each group of stages. You are done.
What goes wrong
- Describing in given order instead of grouping — reads as a list, CC drops.
- No overview, or an overview containing numbers — Task Achievement capped.
- Copying the title word-for-word — copied words are not counted; paraphrase it once.
- Opinions or explanations (this is because people prefer cars) — Task 1 reports, never explains.
- Writing 220 words — past about 190, you are adding error risk, and stealing time from Task 2, which is worth twice as much.
Your drill (20 minutes)
- Open this season's reported writing questions and pick one real recalled Task 1 — recent sittings have reported bar charts comparing percentages across groups and years, which suit this method perfectly.
- Spend 4 minutes on paper, no sentences: select 5–7 features, draw your two groups, note one comparison per group.
- Write only the overview sentence. Check: main pattern, main exception, zero numbers.
- Then write the two detail paragraphs, 20 minutes total from start. Compare your grouping against the recall wall version of the task — did you group, or did you list?