My IELTS Classroom Podcast

IELTS Line Graphs Made Easy

October 06, 2020 Shelly Cornick and Nick Lone
My IELTS Classroom Podcast
IELTS Line Graphs Made Easy
Show Notes Chapter Markers

How can you make sure that your reports for IELTS line graphs always compare and summarise? You can follow the simple strategies that we are going to give you today! 

This is an interactive lesson, so make sure you have this webpage open as you listen so you can see the charts and follow the class! http://blog.myieltsclassroom.com/ielts-line-graphs/ ‎
Episode Notes

The reason we have chosen to look at  line graphs is that these are the charts that cause students the most problems. Line graphs give students the opportunity to use some unique lexis that cannot be used to describe other types of chart. For example, you can use "increase" and "decrease" to describe changes on a line graph, bar chart, pie charts, and even a table. However, expressions like hit a peak, hit a trough, overtake, fluctuate and  stabilise can only be used in a line graph.

On the one hand, this is good as it gives students the chance to show off their vocabulary. However, usually what happens is that students want to use ALL of this lexis in their report - this is a mistake. When students focus on showing off their lexis, they usually only describe the micro-trends (i.e. every up, down and peak) instead of making comparisons.

Today we will show you how to make sure you make effective comparisons every time you write an IELTS line graph report. PLUS, I'll be introducing you to the latest IELTS key feature for line graphs. Amazing!

In this episode, you will learn:

  1. the basic facts about IELTS Academic Writing Task One
  2. the similarities between General Training and Academic Task One (yes, there are some!)
  3. how to analyse charts to find good key features for your line graph overview
  4. the order in which you should present the information in the line graph to ensure your report is east to read AND makes comparisons

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Introduction
Academic IELTS Task One: The Basic Facts  
The similarities between Academic and General Training Task One
The unique problems of IELTS line graphs
Analysing three line graphs to understand how to find  key features and organise your specific details