IELTS Writing Task 1 Bar Graph (Major Trend & Main Features)

Today, we are going to learn how to describe a bar graph in IELTS Writing Task 1. Bar graph is a little bit easier to explain for various reasons, but the main reason why it is so easy to explain is because the general pattern is more obvious. To demostrate how it's done, we are going to use a sample bar graph below:

You may wonder why it is important for us to notice the major trend of a data. There are several reasons, some of them being:

(1) Understanding the major trend helps us find the most interesting features in the graph. We are not supposed to include all information in the graph because that will make our writing extremely tedious and boring. Take twitter's data as an example. We don't have to explain the figure year by year but instead, try to focus on the slope and the peak of the data and simply write: people spend more time on twitter or the time spent on twitter constantly increases as the number witnesses a fairly constant increase throughout the period. 

(2) It also helps us arrange our ideas better. Don't jump from one piece of information to another piece of information. Ideas have to be well-organized and written in a logical order.

Let's say we start writing paragraph 2 by explaining how people spent less time on facebook and how the amount of time spent on instagram fluctuated. After that, we proceed to describe how twitter witnessed a significant growth in terms of daily time spent by its users. We continue writing paragraph 3 by giving some other pieces of information, putting them randomly across paragraph three. That way, the reader will be confused pretty easily. 

Instead of doing that, we should organize our ideas based on trends, and put them in two different paragraphs. Because both facebook and twittter exhibit a constant trend (either constantly decreases or constantly increases), I'll put them in one paragraph, let's say paragraph 2. So, I don't want to include snapchat and instagram in paragraph 2 because they have different trend. I want the reader to focus on how facebook experienced a constant decline in terms of the time spent by its users and how twitter shows an opposite trend. So, it will look pretty much like this:

In 2016, people on twitter spent around 20 minutes a day using the app. Every year, the duration slightly increased by 5 minutes until it reached its peak at the end of the period, in which users nearly spent 45 minutes a day. As for facebook, it used to be a social media platform with the longest duration spent by its users. But, the number witnessed a sharp decrease in 2017, and kept experiencing a slight decline from that point on.

The same thing goes for paragraph 3. Here, I want to focus on instagram and snapchat as they exhibit a fairly similar trend throughout the period. In this paragraph, do not mention anything about facebook and twitter. Not only is it going to be confusing, doing that will also make your writing become repetitive. What's the point of repeating the exact same point in different paragraphs, anyway? With that being said, paragraph should look like this:

Moving to snapchat, the duration spent on this platform used to be the shortest among other apps, just a little below 15 minutes a day. However, people spent more time using the app and by the year 2019, as they used it for nearly 45 minutes a day. Instagram had the second longest duration of roughly 20 minutes a day in 2016. A year later, its users spent more than forty minutes daily. In the next two years, the duration spent on instagram decreased to half an hour and 20 minutes respectively. At the end of the period, people spent nearly forty minutes using instagram.

To better understand what I mean by trend, take a look at an illustration below.

To better understand some of the most interesting features of the graph, take a look at an illustration below:

sorry if it looks a little messy

Here is how I explain the bar graph above:

The bar graph compares the amount of time that people spent on facebook, twitter, instagram and snapchat in a five-year period staring in 2016. The data indicates that people were spending more time on twitter, while facebook users spent less and less time  over the period. In general, the total duration spent on using snapchat steadily increased, while the total duration on instagram considerably varied.

In 2016, people on twitter spent around 20 minutes a day using the app. Every year, the duration slightly increased by 5 minutes until it reached its peak at the end of the period, in which users nearly spent 45 minutes a day. As for facebook, it used to be a social media platform with the longest duration spent by its users. But, the number witnessed a sharp decrease in 2017, and kept experiencing a slight decline from that point on.

Moving to snapchat, the duration spent on this platform used to be the shortest among other apps, just a little below 15 minutes a day. However, people spent more time using the app and by the year 2019, as they used it for nearly 45 minutes a day. Instagram had the second longest duration of roughly 20 minutes a day in 2016. A year later, its users spent more than forty minutes daily. In the next two years, the duration spent on instagram decreased to half an hour and 20 minutes respectively. At the end of the period, people spent nearly forty minutes using instagram.

That's all for now, see ya