WRITING ABOUT GRAPHS

Before you Begin

 Underline key words. Write related words - turn nouns into verbs, verbs into nouns, adjectives
into adverbs, etc. Write opposite words, similar words, synonyms, etc.
 Circle and highlight the graph. Use arrows. Make notes. Circle the biggest, the smallest. stable or
unchanging parts, sudden increases, etc.
Identify trends. A trend is the overall idea of the graph

 what is happening/what happened;

 the main change over time;
 the most noticeable thing about the graph;
 the pattern over time;
 the pattern for different places or groups or people.
Most IELTS graphs will have two trends, or there will be two graphs with a trend in each. You could
write about the two trends in two separate paragraphs. Make sure you have identified the trends in the
graph. If you don't, you can't get IELTS Band 6.
While you Write: Layout
Introduction
First sentence: Describe the graph. You can use some slightly different words or word forms from those
on the question paper, but be careful to give the full information. Start "The graph shows"
Second sentence: This gives the trend or trends. You can put two trends in this sentence or only one - you
could keep the other one for the conclusion. Start "Overall, ..."
Paragraph 1: Trend 1
Start with a sentence with no number. “City size increased sharply over the period.” “The most obvious
trend in the graph is that women are having fewer babies.” “Oil production has increased slightly in all
the countries in the graph”
Follow this sentence with an example (sentence with number) and perhaps another example (another
sentence with number). Keep alternating.
Paragraph 2: Trend 2
Start with a sentence with no number. “City size increased sharply over the period.”
Give an example (sentence with number) and perhaps another example (Sentence with number)
Conclusion
Finish by repeating the main trends, or identify a second trend. Use different vocabulary.
Don't have any numbers in the conclusion (you could use words like "most", "the majority" "a minority",
"a small number"). Don’t give an opinion.
 While You Write: Some Don’ts

 Don’t describe the X and Y axis. Give the information.

 Don’t write about everything on the graph. Pick the biggest, the smallest, the main points, the
main trends. Group similar things together
 Don’t write about the line or the bar: “The line went up,” “The bar went down.” Instead, write
about the idea. “The number of people going to work by train increased gradually.” “Oil
production shot up in 1965”
 Make sure you write about the idea. Don’t use shorthand: “Men went up.” “Women went down.”
Instead, write about the real data: “The number of men at university fell dramatically,” “The
percentage of female students getting a degree rose suddenly.”
 Don’t use “I feel”, “as I have written,” “as you can see,” etc. Keep it academic.
 Don’t start sentences with But, So, Also, And, For, Since, Because, Although
Word Length
Make sure you have 150 words. You should have some short sentences (about 6-10 words) and some long
ones (12-18) words, but your average should be about 12 or 13 words per sentence.
A sentence without a number will usually be short. Use a mix - a sentence without a number followed by
a sentence or two with a number.

English Перевод на русский

Some remarks Некоторые замечания
It is worth mentioning that the majority of Стоит отметить, что большинство английских
the given verbs have a noun form: глаголов имеют свою форму существительного:
Unemployment levels fell; or Unemployment levels fell; or
There was a fall in unemployment levels; There was a fall in unemployment levels;
Besides that, the preposition "by" is used Кроме того, предлог "by" употребляется с
with the verbs, and "of" – with the nouns: глаголами, а "of" – с существительными:
It increased by 20%; It increased by 20%;
There was an increase of 5%; There was an increase of 5%;
You should  not forget the difference in use Не следует забывать о разнице в использовании
of the verbs: глаголов:
To rise (without object) To rise (без дополнения, прямого объекта, на
Gas prices rose in June; которое направленно действие)
Others include: went down / fell / decline; Gas prices rose in June;
To raise (with an object) Другие в это категории: went down / fell / decline;
The oil industry raised the prices in May; To raise (с дополнением)
Others include: cut / lowered / reduced; The oil industry raised the prices in May;
Some words (increase, decrease) may be Другие в это категории: cut / lowered / reduced;
used with or without an object. Некоторые глаголы (например, increase, decrease)
могут быть использрованны, как с, так и без
дополнения.

The Microsoft share price began 2000 at just over $110. Over the next three months it fluctuated
dramatically, falling as low as $90 before returning to original level. However, in March 2000 it suddenly
plummeted, loosing over $40 by April. Although the speed of the fall slowed slightly, it continued down
to $60 by May. A brief recovery took the prices back to $80, where it remained stable until July. It then
started to decline steadily over the next three months falling as low as $50 by November. The year 2000
ended more encouragingly for Microsoft with shares back at the $70. However, 2001 started badly with
shares dropping to a two-year low of $43 by the end of January. A reasonably quick recovery took shares
back above $60 in February and further steady progress saw them back above $70 by May.
Unfortunately, prices fell sharply again, back down to almost $50 by October. The shares recovered well
over the last two months to finish at the $70 mark.
 Vocabulary for WRITING TASK (description of graph)
Adjective+fall
Dramatic fall a quick and large drop.
Rapid fall  a quick and large drop.
Gradual fall a slow decrease over a long period.
Moderate fall  a small or slight drop; not a bad fall.
Marked fall a significant decrease; a larger and more important drop when compared to a previous fall
Significant fall a large and important drop. A fall that shows that there is reason for concern.
Slight fall a small or moderate drop; not a bad fall.
Sharp fall a quick and sudden drop.
Sudden fall a quick and unexpected drop, especially after long period of increase.
Adjective+Increase
Gradual increase  a small, constant increase over a long period.
Marked increase a stronger and more important increase, especially when compared to the previous
increases.
Moderate increase a small increase or rise.
Sharp increase a quick and steep increase or rise.
Significant increase a stronger and more important rise, especially when compared to the previous
increases.
Slight increase  a small increase or rise.
Steady increase a consistent increase over a long period.
Steep increase  a quick and sharp increase or rise.
Describing position
Highest level  the top position; the highest point.
Lowest level the bottom position; the lowest point.
Peak reach the highest position.
Reach a peak  achieve the highest position.
Stand at the position something is at a certain time.
Nouns of movement
Decline  a down movement, a decrease or fall.
Decrease a down movement, a drop or a fall.
Drop a down movement, a decrease or fall.
Fall a down movement, a decrease or drop.
Fluctuation a repeated up and down movement over a period of time.
Improvement a recovery; the state of getting better.
Increase a higher movement.
To go up a higher movement; an increase.
Plateau  the state of staying at the same level over a period of time, especially after a period
of increase.
Recovery an improvement; the state of getting better.
Reduction  a down movement, a decrease or fall.
Rise  a higher movement; an increase.
Recover+adverb
Recover slightly  to improve a small amount
Recover strongly to improve by a large amount after having fallen previously.
Increase
To grow возрастать
To climb вскарабкиваться
To boom быстро расти
To jump подпрыгнуть
To rocket резко взлететь
To surge вздыматься, взмыть
To shoot up взлетать, выстрелить
To soar подниматься ввысь
To expand увеличиваться в объеме
To take off взлететь
To rally оживать, восстанавливаться
To creep up подкрадываться, подползать
To put up повышаться
To strengthen усиливаться
To bounce back    отскочить назад, оправиться, восстанавливаться
To double удвоиться
To pick up подняться, подниматься
To recover восстанавливаться
To improve улучшиться
Decrease
To go down идти на убыль, идти вниз
To slump плюхнуться, резко упасть, рухнуть
To fall упасть
To decrease снижаться, уменьшать
To decline сократиться, уменьшиться
To dip окунуться, искупаться
To drop упасть, падать
To halve сократиться вдвое
To deteriorate ухудшаться
To crash разбиться, рухнуть
To reduce сокращать
To lower снижать
To slip back вернуться, скатиться назад
To cut урезать
To shrink сократить
To bottom out упасть до нижнего предела
To show / see a показывать / наблюдать нисходящий тренд
downward trend
To weaken ослабевать
To slide скользить
To hit a low достичь дна
To plunge окунуться, погрузиться
To plummet стремительно падать
To collapse рухнуть, развалиться, обрушиться
Generalization
a great deal more than во много раз больше, чем
a way over на много больше
about около
almost почти
approximately   приблизительно
around около
far less than на много меньше, чем
well under заметней менее, чем
well over заметней более, чем
somewhere in the region of где-то в районе
slightly more than немного больше, чем
roughly приблизительно
just over немногим больше (чем)
just short of чуть меньше (чем)
just under немногим меньше (чем)
nearly почти
nowhere near далеко до
nothing like as much as ничего подобного по количеству
not quite не совсем так
Other useful phrases Другие полезные фразы
The number of X remains stable количество X остается стабильным
The X is twice as big as the Y. X в два раза больше, чем Y.
The X has the largest number of ... X имеет наибольшее число ...
The Y has the second largest number Y имеет второе место по количеству ...
of ...
As can be seen from the chart, last как это видно из диаграммы, прошлый год начался на
year started on a positive note ... позитивной ноте ...
Initially изначально
At the beginning в начале
There was a sharp fall during March было резкое падение в марте
Over the summer … was flat в течение лета ... оставался стабильным
In mid April the prices started to rally В середине апреля цены начали сильно подниматься
strongly
This was followed by за этим последовало ...
In March the consumer spending was в марте потребительские расходы увеличились и стали близки к
up and was close to reaching a high достижению пика снова
again
Over the last few months the market За последние несколько месяцев рынок продвинулся вперед
has advanced again снова
In autumn the market remained more Осенью рынок оставался более или менее таким же, не сумев
or less unchanged, failing to break пробить весенний максимум
through the spring’s highs
There was a ... был ...
It then fluctuated around this level Затем он колебался в пределах этого уровня
Despite an overall increase, the … Несмотря на общий рост, показатели ... характеризовались
figures were characterized by a рядом взлетов и падений на протяжении ... лет
number of peaks and troughs over the
… years
It continued an upward trend with Тренд продолжил расти по восходящей с некоторыми
some fluctuations колебаниями
Over the period from … to … За период с ... по ...
Recovered slightly Немного восстановился
Diverged significantly Значительно отличались друг от друга
Changed very little Незначительно изменились
Show an upward trend Показывает восходящий тренд
Trends
Downward trend  the overall up and down movement of something over a long period of time in a
down direction.
Upward trend  the overall up and down movement of something over a long period of time in an up
direction.
To show / see an показывать / наблюдать положительную динамику
upward trend
Verbs of movement
Bottom out  to remain at the lowest level for a period of time.
Double to  to increase by two times over a period.
Fluctuate to move up and down repeatedly over a period of time.
Level off   to stay the same over a time, especially after a period of increase.
Plateau  to stay at the same level over a period of time, especially after increasing
significantly.
Plummet  to fall a long way in a short time.
Plunge to fall a long way in a short time.
Soar  to increase to a high level in a very short time
 Other words and word combinations
The chart is about ... данная диаграмма о ...
The bar chart deals with ... гистограмма имеет дело с ...
The line graph clearly shows ... линия графика ясно показывает ...

The pie chart compares the ... круговая диаграмма сравнивает ...
The chart is divided into ... parts. диаграмма разбита на ... частей.
According to the graph ... согласно графика ...
As it may be seen from the как это видно из диаграммы ...
chart ...
As the chart illustrates... как диаграмма иллюстрирует ...
The graph presents data на графике представлены данные, показывающие ...
showing...
The chart plainly indicates that... диаграмма ясно указывает, что ...
As it is evident from the graph ... как видно из графика ...
It may be concluded from the можно сделать вывод из диаграммы, что ...
chart that ...
The graph provides strong график предоставляет убедительные доказательства того, что ...
evidence that ...
The chart neither proves nor диаграмма, как не доказывает, так и не опровергает утверждения
refutes the contention that... того, что ...
The curve X is significantly / кривая X значительно / немного / намного больше / меньше / выше /
slightly / much larger / smaller / ниже, чем ...
higher / lower than ...
There is a strong correlation существует сильная корреляция между X и Y.
between the X and the Y.
The X and Y seem to be inversely X и Y кажутся обратно пропорциональными.
correlated.