How to Analyze IELTS Tables for Task 1 Writing

Similar to what we cover in our English classes, below are steps and techniques for how to analyze IELTS Tables for Task 1 Writing questions for the Academic IELTS test. Also, you will learn how to use your analysis of tables to write an effective Task 1 Writing response.

Creating an IELTS Writing Task 1 response analyzing Tables

Remember, for the IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 question, you need to analyze a chart, table, diagram, map, or graph (or a combination of these). The Academic Writing Task 1 assignment is always the same: “Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.”

Let’s use the following sample question to see how we can analyze IELTS Task 1 tables to build an effective Task 1 response.

Before we begin writing your IELTS Task 1 response, we need to spend a few minutes analyzing the table and planning what we will write. During this analysis we want to ask a few questions:

What seems most important to know about each health issue?

Are there some type of injuries which show similar frequencies?

Which types of injuries show extremely different frequencies?

Is there one or two ideas that summarize most or all of the table, even if it is in a vague way?

NOTE: In the above questions, the word ‘frequency‘ means “how often something happens“.

Step 1: Analyzing each Health Issue for a Main Feature

First, when you analyze IELTS tables you need to look at each health issue, one by one, and notice how the data is different in various parts of the table. We focus on the differences between how many injuries men and women experiences for each health issue, paying attention to how ‘minor’ injuries are different than those which ‘required hospitalization’ (major injuries).

For each health issue, did men and women experience similar numbers of injuries?

Were dramatic differences in the frequency of health issues between ‘minor’ and ‘major’ injuries?

For example, when analyzing this table, you might notice the following about incidents of minor health issues:

Men had a lot of minor foot injuries while women had nearly none.
For minor hearing problems, ingested chemicals, and foreign body in eye incidents, men had around double the number of these issues compared to women.

Regarding ‘major’ health issues that required hospitalization, we can see the following:

For foot injuries, men had a couple but women had none.
Only one man had an arm/hand injury, but it required hospitalization.
The number of hospitalizations for ingested chemical are nearly similar for men and women.
For hearing problems, no one ever required hospitalization.
There were more than triple the number of injuries due to foreign body in eye that requiring hospitalization for men compared to women.

That is a lot to think about! We should now be able to use these pieces of information as Main Features for each of the purchase methods.

Step 2: Comparing Main Features to each other

Next, however, we need to compare these health issues to each other. These comparisons will help us to create a plan for our body paragraphs.

Are there two or three health issues that show similar frequencies? If so, is there anything that makes them different from each other?

Are there two or three health issues whose frequencies are dramatically different?

Is there a health issue that displays frequencies unlike any other issue?

For example, when analyzing this table, you may notice the following:

Men had much higher instances of minor injuries in every category of minor injuries except for arm/hand injuries.

These types of injuries could form the basic focus of one body paragraph.

For the remaining hospitalizations, you may notice the following:

In every category of hospitalizations except for ‘foreign body in eye’ there is not a dramatic difference in hospitalizations between men and women.

So, we could compare hospitalization frequencies in another body paragraph.

We can now use these groupings to build an outline for our body paragraphs (paragraphs #2 and #3). Because this table is simple, we only need to write a three-paragraph response.

Step 3: Choosing information for the Overview statement

Now we have to think about what information should go in our Overview statement. Remember, an ‘Overview Statement’ states what we think is most important to know about the table.

How do heath issues for men and women compare to each other?

For example, when we analyze IELTS tables here, a few things seem clear:

When all health incidents are added up, men experienced much more of them than women.
Both men and women saw high amounts of incidents in similar categories of health issues.

Both of pieces of information would be good to include in our Overview when we analyze IELTS tables.

NOTE: In Overview Statements for graphs, charts, or tables, it can often be useful to focus on the the ‘rankings’ (highest, lowest, etc.) of different parts of a graph, chart, or table. This is especially true when you are having a hard time deciding what information feels ‘most important’!

Step 4: Writing the Overview Paragraph

Now we need to start writing our response. First, we need to write the first paragraph: the ‘Overview Paragraph’. In this paragraph we only need to include two items: 1) paraphrase of the Description Sentence and 2) an Overview Statement.

Paraphrasing the Description Sentence

The Description Sentence is the one-sentence description given to you above the table: “The table gives information on the types and frequency of health issues at Todai Electronics in 2010.” We need to rephrase this using as much of our own grammar and vocabulary as possible, as well as get a little more specific about what kind of information is in the table.

For example, this might be a good paraphrase of the Description Sentence:

The table outlines how many medical issues Todai employees suffered from in 2010, divided by gender, frequency, and type of injury.

Notice that our paraphrase gets a little more specific about what information is in the table. Our paraphrase mentions that the table gives data about “gender“, which was not in the original Description Sentence.

Creating the Overview Sentence

Then, we will write our Overview Statement. For all your Overview Statements, we recommend you always start with “Overall, it is notable that…”.

For example, this might be a good paraphrase of the Description Sentence:

Overall, it is notable that men required vastly more medical assistance than female employees—more than double in several cases—and that both genders generally saw the highest number of cases with similar types of health issues.

In this sentence, we have included two pieces of information in a complex sentence with a lot of high-level grammatical structures and a few high-level vocabulary words.

So, with those two sentences, I have now completed my Overview Paragraph. This paragraph is 48 words long!

The table outlines how many medical issues Todai employees suffered from in 2010, divided by gender, frequency, and type of injury. Overall, it is notable that men required vastly more medical assistance than female employees—more than double in several cases—and that both genders generally saw the highest number of cases with similar types of health issues.

Step 5: Writing Paragraphs #2 and #3 (and possibly #4)

Now I need to write two body paragraphs where I describe the Main Features I came up with earlier. Also, I will need to add some statistics (i.e., numbers) that ‘support’ some of these Main Features. Typically, I will add statistics to most, but not all, of the sentences in my body paragraphs.

In my analysis, I already grouped some of the different purchasing methods, which I will use to build my body paragraphs:

- I’ll focus on comparing the frequency of minor health issues in Paragraph #2.
- I’ll focus on comparing the frequency of incidents requiring hospitalization in Paragraph #3.

Using words and phrases to introduce, connect, and contrast

When writing my body paragraphs, it is very important to use words and phrases that introduce, connect, and contrast these different purchase methods. Words and phrases like “according to…”, “however”, “similarly”, and “regarding” are very useful to do this.

Adding statistics to provide “evidence” for Main Features

The last thing I need to think about with what statistics (i.e., numbers) I will add to my response. For the most effective, high-level responses, we need to provide ‘evidence’ that various purchase methods are increasing or decreasing. So, in most of the sentences in paragraph #2 and #3, I will add short prepositional phrases in various ways. Sometimes I will add them to the end of a sentence and sometimes I will add them somewhere in the middle.

See how I use various words and phrases to introduce, connect, and contrast the different pieces of information in these following paragraphs. Also, notice also how I add statistics to support most of the Main Features in each sentence.

According to the table, compared to women, men experienced significantly higher levels of minor cases in all categories save arm/hand injuries, where neither males nor female had any minor injuries of that type. While men suffered twice as many minor mishaps as women with ingested chemicals (42 versus 24), hearing problems (31 to 13), and foreign objects in eyes (54 to 24), when it came to foot injuries, the most dramatic difference can be seen—with this health issue, men had 23 minor cases whereas women only suffered 2 incidents.

Regarding hospitalizations, a wide, across the board, gender discrepancy is not seen when comparing incidents of these kinds. Here, only when examining ‘foreign body in eye’ do we see much difference between men and women (with 10 cases for the former and only 3 for the latter). Interestingly, the only place where women experienced more work injuries was with ingested chemicals, but even here the difference was slight.

You can find more information about how to use transition words and statistics in our Top 5 IELTS Academic Task One Writing Tips blog post! Also, study the sample responses found on our Sample IELTS Writing Task 1 Charts & Responses blog post!

Complete Response for IELTS Writing Task 1 Tables

And that’s it! For IELTS Writing Task 1, we do NOT need a conclusion paragraph. Again, some IELTS Writing Task 1 responses may require a fourth paragraph because you are analyzing

See the complete responses for this IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 Table Question

Summary

So, you need to practice how to analyze IELTS tables and see what parts of the sample response above you can use for other Task 1 responses. Many parts of the above response could be used for Task 1 questions focused on graphs, pie charts, bar charts, maps, and diagrams, too! The more you practice writing Academic IELTS Task 1 responses, the more you will see your IELTS Writing score improve!

More IELTS Writing Tips!

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Watch Lesson 1, Module 1 for IELTS Writing Task One for FREE!

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