Writing Task 1: Bar Chart: Question 9
Syllabus W.task1
The bar chart below shows average weekly household consumption, in kilograms, of four food types in Denmark, Vietnam and Kenya, based on national household-expenditure surveys. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Each food type has three bars, one for each country, showing kilograms consumed per household per week.
| Food type | Denmark (kg/week) | Vietnam (kg/week) | Kenya (kg/week) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meat | 2.8 | 1.6 | 0.9 |
| Vegetables | 3.5 | 5.2 | 4.1 |
| Grains | 2.1 | 6.8 | 5.5 |
| Dairy | 4.6 | 0.7 | 1.2 |
Write at least 150 words.
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Worked solution
Task overview
This chart pairs four food categories with three countries, so the organising choice is between working food-type by food-type or country by country; the model answer works food-type by food-type, which naturally produces the two clearest contrasts (Denmark’s lead in dairy and meat, Vietnam’s lead in grains and vegetables) as the overview.
Why this model answer scores Band 9
- Task Achievement: The overview names the two dominant contrasts (Denmark ahead in dairy/meat, Vietnam ahead in grains/vegetables) before any detail is given, and all twelve figures in the table (4.6, 0.7, 1.2, 2.8, 1.6, 0.9, 6.8, 5.5, 2.1, 5.2, 4.1, 3.5) are reported accurately.
- Coherence & Cohesion: Paragraphs are grouped by food type rather than by country, with “also recorded”, “showed the opposite pattern”, and “followed a similar order” linking each new comparison back to the pattern just established.
- Lexical Resource: Multiplicative comparison language (“more than three times”, “almost four times”) and ranking language (“the lowest single figure on the whole chart”) is used precisely, avoiding repetition of “more” and “less”.
- Grammatical Range & Accuracy: Complex sentences with multiple embedded comparisons (“ahead of Kenya at 5.5 kg, while Denmark consumed far less, at only 2.1 kg”) are constructed accurately, with consistent past-tense reporting throughout.
Common pitfalls specific to this task
- Writing “Denmark eats the most food overall”, which cannot be concluded because the chart gives four separate categories, not a single total.
- Confusing the direction of the grain comparison and stating Kenya consumed more grains than Vietnam, when 5.5 kg is less than Vietnam’s 6.8 kg.
- Omitting units and simply writing “Denmark had 4.6 dairy”, instead of the clearer “4.6 kg of dairy per week”.