Watch me write another IELTS Writing Task 1 report, on screen, about a bar graph. You will see and hear my thought process as I write. I talk about the bar graph, and then I plan the essay, thinking out-loud the essay structure and language I should use. Then watch and listen as I write the essay!
I hope you find the video useful. If you think other people will like the video, please share it. And if you have any questions or comments – or suggestions for making my report even better – please add them below in the comments section at the bottom.
Below the video you can see the task details, and further down the page you can see my finished report.
The Task
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The chart shows the percentage of male and female teachers in six different types of educational setting in the UK in 2010.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
The Finished Report
The bar chart compares the proportion of male and female teachers in a range of educational institutions in the UK in 2010.
Overall, significant differences in employment patterns between men and women across the education sector are apparent.
Women predominated in schools for children up to the age 11. This was especially true in teaching institutions for very young children. About 95% of nursery school teachers, for instance, were female. There was a similar situation in primary schools, where over 90% of teachers were women.
There was more of a gender balance in teaching institutions which catered for older students and young adults. For example, college lecturers were equally divided between men and women.
Male lecturers were significantly in the majority in universities, where 70% of teaching staff were male; this was more than twice the number of female lecturers.
Overall, women were more likely to be found in educational settings were there were young children whereas male teachers predominated in the higher status teaching role of a university lecturer.
170 words
Thank you!
It is complicated to be sure of which percentages we need to talk about because there is always the risk that when they are going to give us the score, they might think we left something without being mentioned. Is there a rule to make sure “we give them what they want” in this task? Specially when the graph shows data of many things to compare. It’s confusing..
What they want is a clear overview of the graph/chart/diagram/etc, then go into more detail in the following paragraphs, using numbers/percentages/etc to support these details. In other words, only select the data as an example of what you’re saying. Do not mention every piece of data – a lot of candidates make this mistake, and just describe all the numbers.
The best way to structure your report is to break the chart into chunks and describe each chunk, adding an example with 1 or 2 items of data.
I have a question. Is it not always necessary to give the percentage in all the paragraphs? For some reason i have a huge problem with this task because i get stuck on writting the proportions for both of the comparisons..and if it is not absolutely necessary, i would feel a relief, since it is way easier just to compare.
Thanks for your question. It’s a very good question too!
Don’t mention percentages in the overview, but mention a few actual percentages when you write the detailed paragraphs – not all the percentages, just a couple in each paragraph as examples to support your comparison.
I hope this helps!