IELTS Writing Task 1: introduction and overview

Today I'm going to write the first two paragraphs (introduction and overview) of an essay describing the graph below. I'll finish the essay by describing specific details next week.

The graph below shows trends in US meat and poultry consumption.

Introduction and overview:

The line graph shows changes in the per capita consumption of beef, pork, broilers and turkey in the United States between 1955 and 2012.

It is noticeable that beef was by far the most popular of the four types of meat for the majority of the 57-year period. However, a considerable rise can be seen in the consumption of broilers, with figures eventually surpassing those for beef.

Comments

[Khan]

Good morning,
Simon,thank you for today's lesson.I really found it hard to describe.I will wait to see its full description next week.The work you are doing for the IELTS students ,is just GREAT!

[Sean]

Hi Simon
Per capita seems so Latino, is that to say we can use some of the frequent Latin words such as post hoc, et al, etc?

thanks

[william]

I love your article so much and really enjoy reading it, just perpect !!

[Mujtaba]

Hi I love your article that is so much interestin

[soraya]

Hi sir,can we write the overview after rating the bar graph?

[sugat]

hello,
damn it , i could not practice for 5 days
now i m not able to write properly like i use to :'(

[surat]

that's interested idea.

[Aria]

Hi Simon
It seems that the graph is describing the pattern up to 2007 and after that is just forecast or prediction. Doesn't it?

[Luca]

Hello Simon,

My name is Luca, from Romania and first of all thank you for you INCREDIBLE effort made with your blog and second I need your advise regarding my need to get 4x7 on General Training exam.

I prepared a lot for the test but it seems that, for me at least, this test is hard to pass.

My latest results are as follows:

27 June - L6; R7.5; W7; S7.5

17 Sept - L8; R6.5; W7.5; S7

12 Oct - L7.5; R7.5; W7; S6.5

I am very frustrated I don't know what to do next. I already requested the clerical staff to re-mark my last Speaking test and I am waiting their decision sometime at the middle of December, because the staff from British Council Romania told me that the re-marking is made in UK.

Now the question: Should I try my luck again by taking the next test at the beginning of December or should I wait for the result?

Thank you very much for your time!

[NARXOZ]

Dear Simon,

thansk a lot! Your tips&cues helped me during the exam, especially in the writing and speaking part... MANY THANKS!!!
May God bless you!

[Zack]

What speaking topic did you get?

[Ahmed]

For people who already did the speaking section of the IELTS academic module of November 21 2013, could you please please help with telling me what was the speaking topic about? Thank you very much

[Luca]

At Zack (if you asked me about the speaking topic).

I had to speak mostly about politeness and internet. Task 2 - had to talk about a webpage, why and when I am using it.

Simon, thank you again for your effort.

[Simon]

FROM SIMON:

Aria pointed out that the graph shows predictions for the years 2007 to 2012. In the IELTS test, they won't confuse you by showing a graph with predictions about past years (if they show predictions, it will be for future years like 2030 or 2050) - for this reason, I'm ignoring the predictions in the graph above, and I'm just treating it as a normal graph showing figures from past years.

[hellcha]

Hi Simon,

Can you check this for me?

The line graph indicates the information pertaining to how much meat and poultry was consumed for a person from 1955 to 2012 in America. Overall, Beef consumption witnessed a decrease after a considerable rise and the figure for Pork fluctuated whereas there was an increase in the consumption of Broilers and Turkey.

As can be seen, in 1955, a person used nearly 60 pounds of Beef, making it the most consumed meat. The figure then rocketed to a peak of exactly 90 pounds in 1976. After that, there was a steady decline and it is expected to stand at 50 pounds in 2012. Regarding Pork, it began the period with 50 pounds in consumption. It then fluctuated and reached two peaks of more than 50 pounds in 1970 and 1982 before stabilizing for the rest of the period and will see a fall to just above 40 pounds in 2012.

By contrast, Broilers and Turkey was not consumed until 1961. Afterwards, Broilers’ consumption underwent a steady rise from approximately 15 pounds to a peak of 60 pounds in 2006. Following that, it decreased slightly and is forecast to end the period with about 55 pounds in 2012. As regards Turkey, its consumption was about 5 pounds in 1961 and maintained the lowest consumption throughout the whole period after a slight growth and will reach 10 pounds in 2012.

thanks.

[Peter]

Hi Simon and everybody,

Here is my work, my target is band 7, could you please give comments on this?

The line chart compares the consumption per head of boneless meat and poultry including beef, pork, broilers and turkey in U.S. between 1955 and 2012.

We can see that except for broiler, of which the consumption per capital increased tremendously in general, there is no obvious difference in meat and poultry consumption per head comparing 2012 to 1955.

Citizens of U.S. consumed increasingly more in broiler and beef from 1955 to 1976. This trend continued for the consumption per capital of broilers from 1976 onward with the figure of 50 pounds at the end of 2012 (expected), whereas that of beef experienced a period of decrease from the peak of 90 pounds to 50 pounds at the end of 2012 (expected).

There was slightly increase in preference for turkey with the consumption per capital raised from 5 pounds to above 10 pounds in 2009 and at the end of 2012 (expected).

Consumption of pork, although experienced a period of fluctuation, reminds stable throughout the period with around 50 pounds consumed by U.S. people in average.

[goodp]

Hi Simon,

I found your website recently and it is a wonderful site, thank you!

I have a short question. Is there any extra time for reading questions in writing task 1 and 2 or break time between the 2 writing tasks?

[Aria]

Hi and Thank you Simon
Your reply shows your commitment for running this blog.

[letronglinh]

It is noticeable that the beef was by far the most popular of the four types of meat during the 57 - year period. However, a considerable rise can be seen in the consumption of broilers, with figures eventually surpassing those for beef.
More specific, staring with a number of about 58 pounds in 1955, the number of bear increased to reach a peak of 90 pounds in the year of 1976, followed by a signigicant decrease in the last of the period, ending with figure about 50 pounds. While the number of consumption of broilers withnessed a quick increase from about 15 pounds to 60 pounds between 1960 and 2006 before going down slightly.
On the other hand, after a dramatical fluctuation in the first 30 years with the figure around under 50 pounds, the number of pork was stable in the next 15 years, ending the period with a slight drop. Meanwhiles, the turkey which experienced an gradual increase from nearly 5 pounds in 1961 to around 14 pounds in 1991 then gone down slowly to above 10 pounds in 2012.
It is interesting that only in about 2010 the consumption of beef and broilers was the same after that the latter was surpassing the former .
-------please give comments on mines

[naz]

Hi Simon
thank you for useful site
my teacher says we can use present tense to explain Graf , how ever you used past tense !can I use present tense?
I have an exam Jan 21th

[MD]

Hi Simon,
For the first task, would the marker be less impressed to read an over simplified intro? such as: "the graph shows how often xxx does xxx in xxx country"? would a more complicated opening lead to a higher mark?

Also, how much could an essay be marked down for poor legibility? I recently finished my masters in Aus and almost all my essays received really high marks (often higher than most native speakers). But I haven't been able to get higher than 6.5 in IELTS.

I've been a silent follower of your blog, and I felt that my last attempt, task 2 especially, was not much worse of some of your band 9 examples. I could have lost some points in coherence for task 1 and some minor grammar mistakes. Other than that, the only problem I could think of would be that I left a LOT of editing marks. (my hand writing is actually quite easy to read)

Thanks very much for your sharing - I never thought I would feel so thankful to a MU supporter before I read this blog (even though it haven't been able to help me to improve my mark yet). Hope you had a great Christmas and happy 2014!
MD

[MD]

Additional information to my last comment: the highest marks I received for listening, reading and speaking were: 9, 9 and 8.5
MD

[phuongnguyen]

Hi Letronglinh, we can help each other in preparing for Ielts. Contact me if u interested: [email protected]. Thanks

[arzu]

The lıne graphs gıven details beef,pork,broilers,turkey consumptionin US betwwenen 1955 and 2012
The beef has more consuptioned the other meat. Iht has rised peak up in 1977Beef most popular food every year.
turkey has decreased the other meatBroilers has rised sharply for 1961 to 2012

[Dragon]

The line graph illustrates changes in consuming beef, pork, broilers and turkey in the United States between 1955 and 2012.

As seen from the graph, beef was the most popular food during nearly 57 years. Noticeably, broilers rose considerably until they kept up with the most enjoyed food in 2009.

[Oanh]

Hi everyone,
Could any one explain for me why in the last sentence "However, a considerable rise can be seen in the consumption of broilers, with the figure eventually surpassing those for beef", Simon used "surpassing" but not "surpassed"

Many thanks

[Mahsa/ leeds]

Hi Onah

The use of ing is because of the word "with".

If you are interested in learning this structure go to the " mistakes / grammar" section in this site, and you can find this structure on Sunday, October 13,2013.

Hope it helps.

[simi]

my exam writing exam finished on 23.07.2015
I am from india
subject
in many countries some people prefer live alone,
It is a positive development or negative development