The Method Behind Every Task 1 Report
Task 1 rewards a method, not memorised vocabulary. Almost every figure you'll ever see belongs to one of four families below — work out which one you're looking at, follow its playbook, and the report writes itself.
Dynamic Charts — Line Graphs, and Time-Based Bar Charts or Tables
Line graphs, and bar charts or tables with a time axis, describe change — the data moves, so the report is about movement.
1. Overview first, always: one or two sentences naming the overall direction and the most striking movement, before any numbers.
2. Select, don't transcribe. Pick the key features — the largest rise, the clearest reversal, a crossover point — and let the rest go unreported.
3. Vary the language of change: rose, climbed, more than doubled, fell back — and pair each trend verb with a degree word (sharply, steadily, marginally).
4. Anchor the story with start and end figures, and quote data to support each feature you name.
5. Group series that behave alike into one sentence instead of narrating each line separately.
6. No opinions, no explanations of why. Task 1 reports what the figure shows, nothing more.
Static Comparison — Bar Charts, Pie Charts or Tables at a Single Point in Time
When there's no time axis, the report is about ranking and contrast, not change.
1. The overview names the biggest contrast: what dominates, what barely registers.
2. Organise by size or by grouping similar categories — never by walking the chart left to right.
3. Let comparative structures carry the report: twice as high as, the second-largest share, roughly equal to.
4. Cite figures selectively to back each comparison. A report that quotes every number has selected nothing.
5. Resist explaining the differences. Why one category is larger than another is speculation, and speculation costs Task Achievement.
Maps — Two or More Plans of the Same Place at Different Times
A map task is about transformation — what a place became, not whether that was a good idea.
1. The overview states the scale and character of the change: how much was transformed, and into what (for example, farmland into a residential estate).
2. Structure by area or by change type, moving systematically — never by darting around the map.
3. Passive voice is the natural register: a hotel was constructed, the forest was cleared, the road was extended.
4. Locate everything precisely: in the north-east, adjacent to the river, on the site of the former farmland.
5. Report what changed and what survived unchanged — the untouched features are part of the comparison too.
6. No judgement about whether the development was good. That's a Task 2 reflex in the wrong task.
Process Diagrams — A Man-Made Process or a Natural Cycle in Stages
A process task is about sequence and purpose, not change over calendar time.
1. The overview counts and frames: how many stages, where the process begins and ends — or that it's a cycle with no end.
2. Walk the stages strictly in order, glued together with sequencers: first, once this is complete, at the following stage, finally.
3. Passive voice again: the mixture is heated, the bottles are transported. Processes rarely have a named actor.
4. Say what each stage is for, not just what it is — one short purpose clause per stage shows you understood the diagram.
5. Paraphrase the diagram's labels rather than copying them wholesale. Lifted labels earn no Lexical Resource credit.