In this lesson we'll look at IELTS pie charts for IELTS writing academic task one
In this type of task you will be given two three or four pie charts and you have to compare them
It's called a pie charts because it's shaped like a pie which has been cut into segments in this particular example
There are two pie charts
You'll usually be given a key
To tell you what each segment represents
Or it may be written on the actual pie chart itself and
Each segment has a value which will be given in percentages
Let's look at analyzing this particular IELTS pie charts
Before you start writing your IELTS task 1 you should make sure that you spend a few minutes
Analysing what you're looking at and deciding how you will organise your answer
Remember you have 20 minutes
To answer the question which isn't much time and you must write at least
150 words
The task will tell you what the pie chart is about in this case is comparing immigration and immigration
Immigration is entering a foreign country to live while emigrating is the act of leaving a country to live in another country
Let's look at some of the key things that you should do to answer this question
firstly you will note that it has a year, which is
2007
That means that the tense you have to use to describe the IELTS pie chart is the past simple
Secondly regarding the language as this is one fixed year. You cannot talk about changes such as increases and decreases
Sometimes you may get to IELTS IELTS pie charts each with a different year so you can do that
In the case of this IELTS pie chart. It's comparing two activities rather than two years
So you can only use the language of comparison in contrast such is the most more than whereas however, etc
With pie charts. We also use the worst percentage or proportion of to talk about the figures
So to give you an example of the language
You can say the people
That you can say the proportion of people
Migrating to the UK was 30 percent
whereas the proportion of people emigrating
Or slightly lower at 29%
Thirdly what you should do when you're analyzing this chart this type of chart is to identify identify a key point that stands out
From the IELTS pie chart you can use for an overview
After you have introduced what the IELTS pie chart shows you should have an overview with this key point in
To do this is sometimes a good idea to look for things that are larger
As that's often the most important
in this case
Of this is pie chart. You can see that moving for a definite job
Is the most popular reason in both charts
also
Looking for work is a popular reason as well if you add these together
So if you want to group these together you can group them as
Employment
So these make up the bulk of the IATA pie chart so you could use that as your main point
Once you know what the chart is about and the key point you need to think about how you will organize it
This is one one of the most important things you'll do
If the examiner struggles to follow what you have written and gets confused as they read it you could get a low score
for coherence and cohesion
One common mistake with IELTS pie charts is to think that the best way to describe them is one by one
So describe the first one
About immigration and then describe the second one about immigration
this isn't usually a good choice because then let's say I'm interested to know the difference between
studying
in terms of immigration and immigration
The differences will be in different paragraphs so it can be confusing
So it's better to describe the char's item by item
It's also a good idea to start with the largest first
Because this is usually the most important thing and you should also group similar things if you can
So first you could describe items connected to employment
So in the first body paragraph
You would describe moving for a definite job and then looking for work
In the next paragraph
You could then describe
moving for study and to join the family
In the last paragraph you could group together no reason and other a
Very important tip
Is also that you should discuss all the reasons
If you miss any you are in danger according to the scoring are being limited to a band 4 for task response
That doesn't mean you have to go into great details as you are selecting the important information
But you must mention at some point every item listed on the chart. For
The IELTS pie chart introduction
You should paraphrase the title of the graph don't copy it as it won't get counted
Using some of the same words or phrases. Okay, but it should not be too similar to the original you
May be able to think of some synonyms synonyms
You can see here an example
Of a possible
introduction
Then for the overview remember we picked out employment as the most important thing on the aisles by a pie chart so
Mention this as your overview
Remember that you don't need a conclusion for an IELTS writing task 1
Some people do place this overview at the end as a conclusion
That's fine if you wish but if you place it at the start, you don't need to say it again
here is an example of an overview as
You can see the main factor influencing the decision to move was employment
Now take a look at the first body paragraph a definite job is described first
In relation to employment
Having a definite job
accounted for 30% of immigration to the UK and this figure was very similar to
immigration at 29%
but notice how the language of comparison is used was very similar to
Then looking for a job is discussed a
Large percentage of people
22% also emigrated because they were looking for a job
Though the proportion of people entering the UK for this purpose was noticeably lower a lesson of faith
So notice again how the language of comparison and contrast is used though and
Was noticeably lower
Also notice how the language is being varied as well rather than just talking about percentages
Fractions are also used as you can see here. We have 12%
in the graph
It here we have less than 1/5
So it's very important to vary your language if you want to get a good score in IELTS
Before we move on to look at the rest of the IELTS pie charts, we'll have a look at this language use a bit further
Because it's very important if you want a high score to be able to vary your language
So in IELTS pie charts you mainly use
Percentages to talk about them, but you also want to learn how these can translate into fractions
for example 75 percent you can also say
3/4
Fifty percent you could say a half
25 percent is a quarter
Sixty five percent it's about two thirds
But also you can use qualifiers to be a bit more accurate with these so for example seventy seven percent that
Is slightly actually more than three-quarters so you can say just over three-quarters
Another example if you forty nine percent, well, it's not quite 50
So you could say just under a half
Or thirty two percent is almost a third
So as things like this will really help you to get a better score as it shows the examiner
you have a good range of vocabulary and
language use. I
also mentioned that IELTS pie charts are given in percentages however again to vary your language there's different things you can use
proportion amount
majority
minority minority
You have to be careful actually with this one. This is here. We have to be careful
Because you don't know the numbers involved
So for example, if you've got five percent here, we've got a very small number
However, if you're talking about millions of people five percent could still be it'll be a large large number so you have to be careful
With that one and if you don't know the numbers, you might be better off avoiding that one
But other ones here 75 to 85 percent
Because I have a very large majority we know that's the majority because out of the hundred percent that's most of them a
Significant proportion here. We got lower ones that could be called a minority
So you need to look at this kind of language variations that could be good to get it to get a high score
For an IELTS pie chart or any kind of chart. The examiner will be looking that you have a good range of vocabulary and language
In the second body paragraph study is discussed first
Another major factor
Inferencing a move to the UK or for formal study over a quarter of people immigrating for this reason
However, interestingly only a small minority
4% left for this
So however is used to make the comparison
this reason to move
This is definitely a change or a difference that you should not miss when you write your graph
Because obviously there's a very big difference between this one and this one
So the examiner would definitely expect you to pick up on that
So you should write about it in your IELTS pie chart for sure
You can see they've picked it up here that is interesting about this this difference
Next to be discuss is accompanying or joining family.
The proportions of those moving to join a family member were nearly the same for immigration and immigration
At fifteen thirteen percent respectively
So you can see the comparison here
Were nearly the same
It's worth just mentioning
respectively
Because it's an important word and it does sometimes get people confused about how to use it
It means in the same order as the previous items mentioned
so as immigration is first and
Emigration
is
second
respectively
Tells us that these words are in the same order as these numbers
So 15 refers to immigration and 13 refers to
immigration
In the final body paragraph no reason stated and
other
have been discussed
Although just under a third of migrants gave other reasons or did not give a reason why they emigrated this accounted for only
17% with regards to immigration
What you'll sees been done here actually is these figures have been joined together?
This is comes to 32%
Which is just under a third
So they've just been linked in as one group
So just under a third of migrants gave other reasons or did not give a reason why they emigrated
Her however this only accounted
17% with regards to immigration
Here's a final IELTS pie chart full sample answer. You can see that the pie charts is introduced here
Next is the overview then you have your three body paragraphs
And
If we look at this final answer we can also see some of the mix of language that's used in this
I mean you have percentages throughout it
you've got your
Language of comparison a
large percentage of
Though
Was noticeably lower less than a fifth
a small minority
Were nearly the same
Just under a third
That's just an example of some of the things in there but you can see overall there's quite a mix of language
So you do have to try and vary your language as you write your pie chart
The examiner will be looking for this
It's important to say that there's not one fixed way to answer an IELTS writing task one
I've shown you one way you could do it but there are other possible ways and
Of course, if you do it another way you might end up with a different
Number of paragraphs as well depending on what you decide what the similarities and differences are
The important thing is that it's logically organized and easy to read you've drawn out the key points
That there's a mix and variation in language and that you've made comparisons between the data
