Full IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 SAMPLE ESSAY Band 9 | Bar Chart + Pie Graph

Hi there! It's Asia and today I've prepared for you a full IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 essay. You'll see the full sample answer and I'll tell you how this essay meets requirements that IELTS examiners use to mark your essays. For this video I've selected a task with two charts of different types which was reported on one of the recent exams and it is a common type of task today. While you're watching this video think if you'd like to learn how to write essays like this yourself and I'll tell you how you can do it. I've also prepared a pdf file with the sample answer for you to download and I have a similar video with the full task 2 sample. I'm gonna give you the link. One more thing I want to say before we start. I want to be honest with you. It took me more than 20 minutes to write this essay, perfect the language, polish it, have it proofread like oh yes I have a professional proofreader, a native speaker checking all my essays, all my slides because I want to be sure there are no mistakes, no typos and you can trust my materials. Yeah so this essay fulfills all the requirements for a band 9 score so it's an inspiration, a sample. Essays I write in 20 minutes are simpler but I use exactly the same technique. I must say I put all my efforts into making of this video and I really hope you're gonna like it. If you do, please put a like and now let's get started. Here is our task. The bar chart below shows U.S. seafood imports in 1986, 96 and 2016 and the forecast for 2026. The pie chart shows the geographical structure of these imports in 2016. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words and we have two charts. In the past most tasks contained only one chart but today it's super common to get two or even three charts. The bar chart shows seafood imports in three time periods in the past and a forecast. When you see a date in the future it's always a forecast. The pie chart shows which countries import seafood in the USA in 2016. What you can see now is our essay structure. That's a classic task one structure and the first paragraph is your introduction. That's where you need to write one or two sentences introducing the task. Basically, you need to tell the reader what information you have in your charts. Quite often we simply paraphrase the task and here is my introduction. The graphs provide information on the volume of seafood imports in the United States. Between the years 1986 and 2016 with the prediction for 2026 and illustrate from which countries the seafood was imported in 2016. Let's compare it with the task. The task has two simple sentences. I've written one long sentence but I've described information on both charts. Instead of saying the bar chart shows or the pie chart shows, I used the graphs provide information on. Instead of saying U.S. seafood imports, I said the volume of seafood imports in the United States. I repeated the words seafood imports and I'm gonna use them throughout my essay. That's what this task is about and it's okay to repeat those words. Don't force paraphrasing. Instead of 1986, 1996 and 2016 and the forecast for 2026, I wrote between the years 1986 and 2016 with a prediction for 2026. That was the description of the first chart. Let's compare the description of the second chart. The task reads the pie chart shows the geographical structure of these imports in 2016. I wrote illustrate from which countries the seafood was imported in 2016. I used the passive voice here. If you use different verb tenses and different grammar structures, you're gonna get a higher score for your grammar. I also have a separate video with more examples of how to write an introduction and I'm gonna link it in the description box below. The second paragraph is an overview. Write one or two sentences summarizing what you've learned. What is the most important thing you've learned? What are the main trends? Concentrate on the big picture and don't give any details here. Quite often there are no figures in an overview either. Here is mine. Overall, seafood imports tripled over the 20-year period with the top three countries controlling more than two-thirds of the market in the United States. In the future, however, import levels are focused to shrink. If you read the overview only, you already know what's going on, right? That's the aim of writing an overview. Let me show you how I've done it. So always start with the word overall to show the examiner that's my overview. Next, seafood imports tripled over that 20-year period. If you look at the first chart, you see that imports increased a lot between 1986 and 2016 from around 6 to 20 billion. So I've calculated that it tripled. You can make simple calculations. It's a good way to illustrate your point. I've mentioned years in the introduction, so I'm not going to repeat them here. I just say that 20-year period. Here is my overview of the second chart with the top three countries controlling more than two-thirds of the market in the United States. I will name those countries in my body paragraphs. What I want to say here is the top three countries import most of the seafood. And again, I've calculated it's two-thirds. And the last bit. In the future, however, import levels are focused to shrink. This is a reference to the forecast on the first chart. And again, I will give the exact number in the body paragraphs. Here I want to say the imports will go down. And instead of using the word imports, I used import levels. It adds variety to the vocabulary. Have a look at the overview paragraph again. I've summarized all the information on both charts. That's important. Where should you write your overview? After the introduction, like me, or at the end of the essay after your body paragraphs? It's entirely up to you. Both are fine. Just remember, the overview is the most important paragraph of your essay. You are going to lose a lot of points if your essay has no overview. That's why I suggest writing your overview after the introduction when you still have time. Ultimately, it's up to you. What do you prefer? After the introduction or at the end? Tell me in comments. Let's move on to the body paragraphs. Write two body paragraphs. Occasionally, you may have three, but in most cases, two. Never write only one body paragraph. To get band seven, you must logically organize information. It means you need to find a logical way to split information into your body paragraphs. In this task, it's easy. I describe the first chart in body paragraph one and the second chart in body paragraph two. And my body paragraph one is the U.S. seafood imports increased from about $6 billion in 1986 to over $10 billion in 1996. Over the following 10 years, that amount doubled and crossed the $20 billion mark in 2016. Despite the past growth, it's predicted that the trend will change. And in 2026, the United States will receive approximately $2 billion for U.S. seafood products from abroad than it did in 2016. Here, I've described the first chart. To get band seven, try to show a wide range of vocabulary, various sentence structures, and avoid repeating words where possible. For example, I named years in the first sentence in 1986 and in 1996. In the next sentence, I simply wrote over the following 10 years. I've already mentioned that it's okay to repeat words seafood imports in an essay about seafood imports, but you should still use alternatives when you can. For example, in this paragraph, I've written that amount doubled instead of saying seafood imports doubled or the trend will change instead of saying the imports will decrease. In general, use words like an amount, a number, a level, a trend to avoid repeating words like seafood imports in your essay. I also used a linking phrase despite the past growth to refer to the previous sentence and tell the examiner that something different is coming next. I often get a question how to use linking words naturally and that's a perfect example of how to do it. Here is my body paragraph two. In regard to the geographical split of imports, the three countries that dominated the market in 2016 were China, Thailand, and Canada, which respectively imported 28 percent, 23 percent, and 16 percent of the seafood. The imports from other countries, including Indonesia, Vietnam, and Ecuador, constituted one-third of the total annual seafood imports. Here I started with the linker in regard to. In regard to the geographical split, it shows what this paragraph is about and it helps to smoothly transition between paragraphs. That's important. Then I talk about the three largest importers. That's what's important, to describe the biggest changes, the highest numbers. But in our case, we only have six countries on the chart, so I named the smaller three importers later in this paragraph. But sometimes you may get a chart with 10 countries. You're not going to name all 10 countries in your essay. You shouldn't. Only select the largest. In our case, the largest importers. I've heard that some people say you should select three largest importers and three smallest importers. But whoever talks about the smallest importers or the smallest producers only talk about the biggest, most important figures. What about a conclusion? There must be no conclusion in your task one essay. You may write your overview after the body paragraphs if you wish, but there must be no conclusion. This essay is 192 words long. A bit on the long side, aim to write 170-180 words in your essay and definitely not more than 200. But actually, what do you find more challenging? Are your essays too long or too short? Tell me in comments. I've also prepared for you the PDF with the sample answer, which you can download. And I have a similar video for the task two essay. I'm going to give you links in just a second. In this video, I showed you the sample answer and mentioned some of the important things in this essay. I also have an online course in which you can learn how to write band seven essays yourself for each type of task. You will learn how to select information for your body paragraphs, what to write about in your body paragraphs. That's something we haven't touched on today. How to paraphrase, how to get a higher score for your vocabulary, what verb tenses to use in your essays or how to use the passive voice in your task one essay. You'll also get a sample answer for each type of task with a detailed description of how each essay was written. It's a paid course and I'm going to link it in the corner and in the video description box below. Please go and check it out. I think it will be really useful for you. Basically, all the resources I've mentioned in this video are going to be linked in the video description box below. Don't forget to download the PDF with a sample essay and watch the video about a sample task two essay. One last question. Did you like this video? If yes, please hit that like button and thank you for watching me. Good luck. Bye!