Writing Task 1: Line Graph: Question 2
Syllabus W.task1
The line graph below shows the percentage of total retail sales made through online and in-store channels in the country of Verrentia between 2015 and 2025. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
| Year | Online sales (% of total retail) | In-store sales (% of total retail) |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 18 | 82 |
| 2017 | 24 | 76 |
| 2019 | 33 | 67 |
| 2021 | 47 | 53 |
| 2023 | 58 | 42 |
| 2025 | 66 | 34 |
The graph plots percentage share of total retail sales value on the vertical axis against six two-yearly points from 2015 to 2025 on the horizontal axis, with one line for online sales and one for in-store sales; the in-store line starts far above the online line but the two lines cross somewhere between 2021 and 2023, after which the online line remains higher for the rest of the period shown.
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Worked solution
Examiner notes: why this is a band 9 response
Task Achievement
The overview identifies the single most important feature of the data (a complete reversal in market share between the two channels, with a crossover between 2021 and 2023) before any individual figures are reported. Specific data points are then selected to trace the story (2015 start, 2019 midpoint, the crossover window, 2025 end) rather than reciting all twelve percentages, and the closing comparison (“roughly the reverse of the position… in 2015”) ties the whole report together.
Coherence & Cohesion
The report moves chronologically in clearly signposted stages (“In 2015…”, “by 2019…”, “The most significant shift occurred between…”), and cohesive devices such as “this gap”, “the same period” and “the same direction” link sentences without relying on a formulaic list of connectors.
Lexical Resource
Precise, non-repetitive language describes the trend from multiple angles (“dominated the market”, “narrowed steadily”, “climbed”, “overtaking”, “held the… advantage”), and collocations such as “market share” and “total retail sales” are used accurately.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
A range of tense and structure is used with control, including past perfect for comparison within a past timeframe (“in-store sales had fallen… while online sales had almost doubled”), and numerical/percentage expressions are formed correctly throughout with no article or agreement errors.
Common pitfalls specific to this task
See commonMistakes above: the most damaging is over-claiming precision about the exact crossover year. The table only supports “between 2021 and 2023”, and a band 9 response is careful to state a range rather than inventing a single year the data does not show.