For: Independent learners who can describe individual figures but need help selecting main features and making useful comparisons.
Test type: Academic Writing Task 1 only. General Training Task 1 requires a letter; use our request-letter lesson for that task.
Study time: 40 minutes, plus an optional 20-minute complete writing attempt.
Your learning goals
- Identify two main features for an overview.
- Make accurate comparisons using percentages and percentage points.
- Plan and review a complete response of at least 150 words without inventing explanations.
What the task requires
Academic Task 1 asks you to describe visual information, such as a table, using the supplied data. Write at least 150 words and allow about 20 minutes. Select the important features and give an overview, using a suitable neutral or academic style. See the official Academic Writing format.
Review task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammatical range and accuracy. Here, accurate data selection matters alongside clear organisation and language. See official scoring guidance.
Strategy: read the frame before the figures
- Identify the population, measure, units and dates. Percentages are not headcounts.
- Find the biggest and smallest categories, overall changes and any unchanged figures.
- Write an overview of the main pattern. Avoid copying every number into it.
- Group related details: for example, a falling category versus rising categories.
- Check every figure and comparison. Do not add causes or opinions that the visual does not provide.
Worked example: percentage points
A category rises from 20% to 30%. The increase is 10 percentage points. Saying “10%” is ambiguous: the relative increase is actually 50% of the original value. In this lesson, use percentage points when subtracting one percentage share from another.
Original practice task
The table shows the main way employees travelled to work in the fictional town of Lenton in 2010 and 2020. Each employee is counted under one main method. Figures are percentages.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. For a complete response, write at least 150 words and allow about 20 minutes.
| Method | 2010 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Car | 55% | 40% |
| Bus | 25% | 30% |
| Bicycle | 10% | 20% |
| Walking | 10% | 10% |
These figures are invented for language practice, not research about a real town. Each year’s column totals 100%.
Annotated plan
- Introduction: paraphrase what the table measures, including both years and the location.
- Overview: car remains the largest category but its share falls; bus and bicycle gain share while walking is unchanged.
- Details 1: compare car and bus, including the narrowing gap.
- Details 2: compare bicycle and walking; distinguish a doubled share from an unchanged one.
This is one useful organisation, not a compulsory paragraph formula.
Complete model response
The table compares the percentages of employees in Lenton who used four main methods of travelling to work in 2010 and 2020.
Overall, the car remained the most common method in both years, although its share declined. Bus travel and cycling became more common as main commuting methods, while the proportion walking did not change.
In 2010, 55% of employees travelled mainly by car, compared with 25% who used the bus. By 2020, the car figure had fallen by 15 percentage points to 40%, whereas the bus share had risen to 30%. As a result, the gap between these two categories narrowed from 30 to 10 percentage points. Cars accounted for a majority of employees’ main journeys in the first year, but not in the second.
Cycling and walking each represented 10% in 2010. The bicycle share then doubled to 20%, making it twice the walking figure in 2020. Walking remained at 10% and was the smallest category in that year. Taken together, the two active travel methods increased their combined share from 20% to 30%.
Why these comparisons work
The overview identifies patterns without listing all eight values. The detail paragraphs support it with accurate figures. “Doubled” describes the bicycle share, not a proven doubling of the number of cyclists: the total number of employees is not supplied. The response gives no unsupported explanation for the changes. It is an original teaching model, not an assessed band-score example.
Vocabulary in context
- Share/proportion: the part of the whole represented by a category.
- Commuting: travelling regularly between home and work.
- Narrowed: became smaller; here, the difference between two shares decreased.
- Majority: more than half, not simply the largest category.
Independent practice
The following original data show the percentage of electricity generated from three sources in a fictional region in 2015 and 2025.
- Gas: 60% in 2015; 45% in 2025.
- Wind: 15% in 2015; 30% in 2025.
- Other sources: 25% in both years.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. First write a two-sentence overview and two comparison sentences. For full practice, start a fresh 20-minute session and write at least 150 words, including planning and checking time.
Review guide
A useful overview notes that gas remains the largest source despite falling, wind gains share and other sources remain unchanged. Gas falls and wind rises by 15 percentage points each. Wind’s share doubles. The figures do not tell you whether total electricity output increased or why these changes happened. Different wording is acceptable when accurate.
Common mistakes and corrections
- “Car use fell to 15%”: it fell by 15 percentage points, to 40%.
- “Most employees used cars in 2020”: 40% is the largest share but not a majority. Say “Cars were the most common main method.”
- “People cycled more because fuel became expensive”: the table does not provide causes. Report the change without explaining it.
- Listing numbers without an overview: add the broad pattern before developing the details.
Self-review checklist
- I identified the measure, units, dates and population accurately.
- I included an overview with the main patterns.
- I grouped details and made relevant comparisons.
- I checked each figure and distinguished shares from numbers of people.
- I used “by”, “to” and “percentage points” accurately.
- I avoided invented reasons, opinions and unsupported trends between the two dates.
- My full response has at least 150 words in connected prose.
Support and your next step
Review ESS Past Simple Tense for completed changes. Next, write the independent response and check every statement against its data. Later, choose an official table task from the Academic samples.
Original independent ESS practice with fictional data. No official affiliation or score guarantee. References and support links checked on 30 October 2026.