1 In Task I you have to think about both the meaning of the data in the task and the language you need to describe it.
Read the Writing task below and look at the bar chart. Answer these questions.
1 What information does the horizontal axis show? How many sectors are there? What does each bar represent?
2 What information does the vertical axis show?
3 Does the diagram show changes or differences?
4 Can you use language like increase and decrease when reporting the data?
5 What are the main similarities and differences between the countries?
6 What grammatical structures do you need to use in your description
2 Use the information in the Writing task to fill the gaps with words from the box. Use each expression once only.
as as many fewer largest highest a larger percentage
lowest proportion majority more developed
most more
3. In Writing Task 1, you need to take special care to avoid repetition of words and phrases.
the majority of the same number of the largest percentage of
the fewest the lowest percentage of the workforce the working population
4. If you simply copy your introduction directly from the Writing task on the question paper, this will not be considered as part of your writing. Instead, you need to reword — or paraphrase — the information. This is an important academic skill.
Highlight the most appropriate words/phrases to rewrite the introduction from the task.
Which of the two conclusions below is a better ending for the description in Exercise 5?
A Overall, the data indicates that countries with more developed economies have a higher proportion of workers in the industrial and service sectors than in the agricultural sector.
B In conclusion, we can see that Japan and Brazil have more workers in the industrial and service sectors. This is because they have more industrialised economies and so the workers have more disposable incomes and require more services, which makes the service sector grow. In contrast, agriculture in these countries is more mechanised so that fewer workers are needed.