Writing Practice for IELTS Task 1
In the academic writing test, you are asked to describe some form of visual information, usually presented in a graph, chart, diagram, table, or other form.
When you write your response to the IELTS writing test Task 1 on test day, remember the four official IELTS marking criteria used by the examiner:
- Task Achievement
- Lexical Resource
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy
- Cohesion and coherence
These marking criteria apply to both writing tasks (Task 1 and Task 2) in the Academic test.
This writing practice for IELTS academic Task 1 uses an example from Cambridge 8 authentic practice tests.
IELTS Writing Task 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The pie chart below shows the main reasons why agricultural land becomes less productive. The table shows how these causes affected three regions of the world during the 1990s.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words
| Region | % land degraded by … | Total land degraded | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| deforestation | over-cultivation | over-grazing | ||
| North America | 0.2 | 3.3 | 1.5 | 5% |
| Europe | 9.8 | 7.7 | 5.5 | 23% |
| Oceania* | 1.7 | 0 | 11.3 | 13% |
* A large group of islands in the South Pacific including Australia & New Zealand
Writing sample Answer IELTS Task 1
The four sectors of the pie chart depict the primary sources which contribute to the degradation of land throughout the world, and the table provides data regarding the contributing cause and percentage of such degraded land in three distinct geographic areas: North America, Europe and Oceania in the 1990s.
It can be seen that the predominant cause of degradation to land is that of excessive grazing. Europe suffered the most from this particular cause of land degradation during the period in question. In contrast, North America had the least area of land affected by this problem.
As shown in the pie chart, additional significant contributing factors to land degradation include deforestation and excessive cultivation practices. It is notable that the land degradation suffered in Europe is caused by three primary problems, those of over-cultivation, over-grazing and deforestation meanwhile in North America over cultivation was significantly more of a problem than other causes, and in Oceania, over-grazing was by far the largest source of such problems, and interestingly, suffered no adverse effects from over-cultivation.
Overall, North America suffered the least amount of land degraded, while Europe suffered the most; more than four times the amount of land was affected compared to that in North America.
Key features of a good IELTS Task 1 answer
✓ This answer summarises, compares and contrasts the data provide in the question✓ It does not speculate about reasons for the problem
✓ It does not attempt to suggest solutions
✓ It highlights only the main/significant/principal data points
✓ It does not attempt to explain every piece of information provided in the chart and table
Best Writing Practice for IELTS Tips
- Do not simply repeat the words used in the question. Try to rephrase the statement using your own words.
- You have one hour to complete two tasks. Allow 20 mins for Task 1 and 40 mins for Task 2.
- Try to vary your grammar structures and vocabulary to get a higher IELTS band score.
- In Task 1, do not give an opinion about why something might have happened. Follow the instructions: summarise, report, and compare.
- Study different model answers to get ideas for how to tackle different Task 1 questions.
- Do not worry if you run out of space on your answer sheet. Ask the invigilator for another.