IELTS Writing - Academic Task 1 -

Vocabulary

The following words and phrases will help you describe trends:

a rise
an increase
a surge
a growth
a peak

a fluctuation
a variation
Nouns
a period of stability
a plateau

a fall
a decrease
a decline
a dip
to rise
to increase
to surge
to grow
to peak
to skyrocket

to fluctuate
Verbs
to vary

to fall
to decrease
to decline
to dip
to dive
to plunge
Phrases to show an upward trend
to show a downward trend
to hit the highest point
to hit the lowest point
to reach a peak
to show some fluctuation
to fluctuate wildly
to remain stable
 to remain static
to remain unchanged
to stay constant
to reach a plateau
to level off
to flatten out
the highest
the lowest
the second highest
the third highest

compared to
compared with
relative to

Sample sentences

 There was a substantial increase in the value of stocks on March 15th.

 House prices rose dramatically in July.

 The number of tourists visiting New York fell sharply in October.

 The percentage of students walking to school continued to rise gradually over the ten year
period from 2000-2010.
 There was a sharp increase in employee turnover after the strike.

 Interest in environmental issues has risen steadily over the last 10 years.

More useful words and phrases

1. Percent – the word percent comes after a number

Examples:
More than 25% of the students are from Brazil.
More than 25 percent of the students come from Brazil.
2. Percentage - The word percentage comes after words like the, a, this and that. Often, it is
preceded by an adjective.
Examples:
A small percentage of residents have lived in the building for more than 20 years.
The percentage of students who live on campus has fallen sharply since the fire.
3. For numbers up to ten, write the numbers in words. For numbers over 10, you can write
the numbers in numbers.
Examples:
Five percent of the employees were late this month.
 More than 50 percent of the students handed in their assignments late after the long
weekend.
4. If the sentence starts with a number, always write it in words.
Examples: Wrong: 25 students were from China.
Right: Twenty-five students were from China.

Grammar

Take note of the following prepositions which you will need to describe dates, numbers and
comparisons:

Dates
In December,
In 2005,
From 2001-2010,
By 1998,
Between 1965-1969

Numbers
Increase of 25%
Decreased by 10%
Fell from 200 in July to 150 in August

Comparison
Compared to
Compared with
Relative to

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Vocabulary For Academic IELTS Writing Task 1 (part 1)

inShare1

The IELTS Academic writing task 1 requires several vocabularies to present the data given in a
pie/ bar/ line graph or to describe a process. Being able to use correct vocabulary and to present
the logical flow of the summary ensures a high band score in Academic IELTS writing task 1.
This vocabulary section aims to help you gathering and learning all the vocabulary, phrases and
words you need to know and use in your Academic writing task 1 to achieve a great score.
The general format for writing academic writing task 1 is as following:

Introduction + Basic/ General Trends + Details Description +

Conclusion.

Each part has a specific format and therefore being equipped with the necessary vocabulary will
help you to write the task 1 efficiently and will save a great deal of time.

Vocabulary for the Introduction Part:

Starting Presentation Type Verb Description

diagram / table / figure / The comparison of ….

shows / represents /
illustration / graph / The differences ….
The given / The depicts / illustrates /
figure / chart / flow The number of ….
supplied / The presents/ gives /
chart / picture/ Information on ….
presented / The provides / describes /
presentation/ pie chart / Data on ….
showed / The compares/ shows /
bar graph/ line graph / The proportion of….
provided figures / gives data on /
table data/ data / The amount of ….
gives information on
information Information on....

Example :

1. The provided diagram shows data on employment categories in energy

producing sectors in Europe starting from 1925 to 1985.
2. The given pie chart represent the proportion of male and female employee in
6 broad categories, divided into manual and non-manual occupations.

3. The chart gives information on expenditures of 4 European countries on six

consumer products namely Germany, Italy, Britain and France.

Vocabulary for the General trends Part:

In general, In common, As is presented, Generally speaking, As is observed.

Example:

1. In general the employment opportunities has increased till 1970 and has
dropped down afterward.
2. As is observed , the figures for imprisonment in the five mentioned countries
no overall pattern of increase or decrease rather shows the considerable
fluctuation from country to country.

3. Generally speaking, USA had far more standard life than all the other 4
mentioned countries.
Vocabulary to show the changes:

Trends Verb form Noun Form

rise / increase / go up / uplift / rocketed / a rise / an increase / an upward trend /

Increase
climb / upsurge / soar. a growth

fall / decrease / decline / plummet / a rise / an increase / an upward trend /

Decrease
plunge / drop / reduce a growth

unchanged / level out / remain constant / a fall / a decrease / a reduction / a

Steadiness remain steady / plateau / remain the downward trends /a downward
same / remain stable / remain static tendency / a decline/ a drop

an upward trend / an upward

Gradual Increase
------ tendency / a ceiling trend

a down ward trend / a down ward

Gradual decrease
------ tendency / a descending trend

leveled off / remained constant /

remained unchanged / remained stable /
Standability prevailed consistency / plateaued /
--------
reached a plateau / stayed uniform
/immutable / leveled out

Examples:

1. The overall sale of the Company has increased by 20% at the end of the year.
2. The expenditure of the office remained constant for the last 6 months but the
profit rose by almost 25%.

3. There was a 15% drop in the student enrollment of the University.

4. The population of the country remained almost the same as it was 2 years
ago.
Vocabulary to represent changes in graphs:

Type of
Adverb form Adjective form
Change

dramatically / rapidly /
dramatic / rapid / sharp / quick
Rapid change sharply / quickly /
/ hurried / speedy / swift
hurriedly / speedily / swiftly

moderately / gradually /
Moderate moderate / gradual /
progressively / sequentially
change progressive / sequential

slightly / slowly / mildly /

Slight change slight / slow / mild / tedious
tediously

Example:

1. The economic inflation of the country increased sharply by 20% in 2006.

2. There was a sharp drop in the industrial production in the year 2005.

3. The demand for new houses dramatically increased in 2004.

Vocabulary to represent frequent changes in graphs:

Type of Change Verb form Noun form

waves / fluctuations /
Rapid ups and wave / fluctuate / oscillate /
oscillations / vacillations /
downs vacillate / palpitate
palpitations

Example:

1. The price of the raw materials fluctuated for the first three months.
2. The graph shows the oscillations of the price of fuel from 1998 to 2002.