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IELTS Academic writing task 1 requires test takers to present data that is presented to
the test taker in visual format, such as a graph, table, flow-chart etc. A common
mistake that many test takers make in is to try and provide a justification for the
figures presented. For example, if a graph shows the following:
| City |
Nr. of people regularly visiting parks (1990) |
Nr. of people regularly visiting parks (2005) |
| Toronto |
260.000 |
320.000 |
| New York |
310.000 |
450.000 |
| Amsterdam |
170.000 |
150.000 |
A candidate might write the following as part of their response:
“The graph tells us more people visited parks in 2005 than in 1990 in both Toronto and
New York. In Amsterdam, by contrast, fewer people visited parks in 2005 than 15 years
prior. This could either reflect a decreasing population trend or perhaps a change in
local working conditions leaving people with less free time.”
While plausible, the inclusion of possible causes (in italic) of the trend identified is
beyond the scope of the task. It is therefore dismissed as irrelevant detail by the
examiner, resulting in a lower score for task achievement. Especially in cases where the
writing is of an otherwise high standard, a low task achievement score can lead to an
unfortunate reduction of the overall writing score.
While seemingly harsh, a reason for the above is that, if examiners were to consider any
explanations offered in their assessment of task achievement, they would be grading a
test taker on their ability to apply data to real life, which not only would be
irrelevant to writing skill, but would also give an unfair advantage to test takers who
are more educated and/or possess more world knowledge.
The answer to this month’s question therefore is: “No, test takers should not explain
data presented in writing task 1”. In fact, it is of the utmost importance that test
takers are aware that they are meant merely to report the data presented in the task and
refrain from attempting to offer justifications or explanations whatsoever.
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