Hi
Yesterday, I posted a link to an IELTS Academic Writing task 1 graph and asked you to think about what information you would include in a summary of the information it illustrates.
I also said I’d post an example answer today, and so here it is.
As you read my summary, think about whether you would have included similar information and whether you would have organised it in a similar way.
The graph shows that the world consumption of oil, coal, gas, nuclear energy and hydropower increased from 1965 to 2005, and that oil remained the primary source of energy throughout this period.
The largest increases were seen in the consumption of fossil fuels. The world’s use of oil and gas increased from a figure of around 2 terawatts in 1965 to over 5 terawatts for oil and nearly 4 terawatts for coal in 2005. The amount of gas the world consumed rose from less than 1 terawatt to over 3 during the same period.
Increases were also seen in the world consumption of nuclear power and hydropower, but the amounts consumed remained just a fraction of the figures for oil, coal and gas.
Within this general trend of rising consumption, there were periods when the consumption of one or more of these sources of energy decreased, the most notable one being from 1980 to 1985 when the consumption of oil fell by approximately 0.5 terawatts.
Word count: 165
As you can see, I’ve included an overview of the information in the graph, the main features, and some details to illustrate the main features.
If you don’t include some of this information or you just describe everything you see, your IELTS score may be affected. To see how, check out the IELTS band descriptors in my post ‘Oh my gosh I was so shocked that Task 1 was wasn’t a graph!‘.
Pete
See our IELTS tutoring options to find out more about how we can help you improve your English for the IELTS test.
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