Section Two - Describing and Comparing Data
Section 2 / Lesson 4 - Planning
In this lesson, now that we have all the interesting language we need, we will look at how to plan an answer for describing static time graphs.
Additional planning is usually the easiest way to improve your mark. The 2nd column of the IELTS writing marking rubric is ‘coherence’, and this is worth 25% of your grade. The order and way in which you explain the data is just as important as the language you use to do it.
We’ll first look at questions which require you to describe a single graph or chart and then look at how we need to adapt when given two or more illustrations. We will use the same example question throughout this lesson.
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Single graph or chart
We typically want to order our essay by order of significance. This means start with the largest number and work your way to the smallest. This is because the biggest numbers are typically of biggest interest to your reader. This should be your general aim, but we need to make as many useful comparisons between the data with as little repetition as possible.
To do this, we want to group the data, typically by similar numbers. In our example pie chart, I would split the data into three groups:
1. ‘parks + open spaces’ and ‘residential’ - as each account for around a quarter of the total, so together make up more than half of the total.
2. ‘institutional’ and ‘transportation’ - as each are around one sixth of the total.
3. ‘commerce’, ‘industry’ and ‘vacant’ – as each use 4% of the total land.
Once you have your groups, use comparisons to describe the data in that group. You should use pronouns to reduce repetition as much as possible.
e.g. Just over a quarter of land in San Diego is allocated for common recreation space. Slightly less of this land is utilized for housing at 24%. These are the most common usages of land in this city.
Once you have fully described one group, you can move onto the next. It can be useful to compare between whole groups if a specific comparison isn’t useful.
e.g. Land used for business and mobility are the next two most typical uses of San Diego’s land each using around a sixth of the total at 17% and 14% respectively.
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Here I compare the two next uses of land to the previous two, show they are both similar at around a sixth of the total, and give the exact percentage of each. Using these techniques, we can achieve this using only 30 words. If your essay is too long, you can cut these final percentages as this is additional detail.
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A few things to be careful with:
1. You must treat ‘other’ differently as it’s a combination of lots of smaller elements which are considered insignificant. For instance, in our example ‘other’ is 5%, but you cannot compare this to ‘vacant’, ‘commercial’ or ‘industrial’. While they are only 4% each, they are more significant than each of the parts of ‘other’. Typically, we’ll mention this last.
2. Remember to look for whether there are any similarities in the data categories given. For instance, if there was multi-occupancy and single-occupancy residential use this this graph, these should usually be grouped together, or at least compared. Always compare what will be interesting for a human reader of your essay.
More than one graph or chart
If you have multiple graphs, you have two choices. You can either describe each graph individually, or you can combine data from each graph. While the first might be attractive as it reduces planning, it can introduce a lot of repetition into your answer.
First, look for similarities between the graphs. In our example, there are the same uses of land in each and if you describe each graph separately, you will lose opportunities for making important comparisons.
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For instance if we write two sentences describing the parkland in two separate paragraph, we need to use 29 words.
Just over a quarter of land in San Diego is allocated for common recreation space.
Just under a seventh of land in Philadelphia is allocated for common recreation space.
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However, if we combine them, we not only have a useful comparison, we only use 27 words.
Just over a quarter of land in San Diego is allocated for common recreation space but far less land is used for this in Philadelphia at 13%.
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This will dramatically help your score, but it increases the difficultly of grouping and planning. In our example, if we are only describing San Diego like in the first part of this lesson, the two largest land uses are clearly parks + residential. However, in Philadelphia the two largest uses are transportation and residential. Secondly, while ‘commerce’, ‘industry’ and ‘vacant’ are clearly a group if only looking at San Diego, use for industry changes dramatically between the two cities. What is the best way to logically order all of this data ?
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There is no easy way to do this, but working with the principal of 'order of significance', try to split the data into two or three grounds. For instance with this question:
1. parks, residential and transportation - These three are the most significant across the two graphs.
2. Institutional and industrial - These are the second most significant across the two graphs.
3. Commercial and Vacant land - These are the least significant. As always, We'll add 'other' last.
Once you have your groups, pick the biggest number in this group and describe it. Following this, see if you can compare back to the previous group (unless this is your first body paragraph). If this isn't possible or necessary, see if there is an obvious comparison in the same group which needs to be made. Finally, if neither of these is right, compare it to the next largest number in the group.
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1. Describe the biggest number
2. Try to compare it to the previous group
3. Try to compare it to another piece of data in the same group
4. Compare it to the next biggest number in the group.
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Using this technique, I would describe our example question's data in the following way:
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Paragraph one
I would start with the largest number, which is 'residential use in Philadelphia' and then compare it to 'residential use in San Diego'. I'd then link this (24%) to transport use in Philadelphia as it's the same percentage (24%). Following this, I'd link in 'transportation use in San Diego' as it's a good opportunity to reduce repetition. This percentage (14%) would compare well to 'parks in Philadelphia' (13%) as they are similar. I'd make the comparison back to San Diego and then finish with a superlative to show that this biggest use of land there.
Paragraph two
For this second group, as always I would start with the largest (17% on transportation in San Diego) and compare back to the previous paragraph but showing that this is larger use of land than park in Philadelphia. I'd compare this with the other city before moving onto the next most significant piece of data, in this case 'industry'. Start with the largest (13% in Philadelphia) and compare back to 'transportation use in San Diego'.
Paragraph Three
This will be a much shorter paragraph with Commercial use, vacant land and lastly, other.
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The following lesson will turn this into a full answer, using and analysing all of the techniques I have introduced on this website so far.
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Practice planning an answer here: