Writing Task 1: Pie Chart & Table: Question 10
Syllabus W.task1
The pie chart below shows the breakdown of total water consumption by sector in the country of Vaymouth in 2024.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
| Sector | Share of total water use |
|---|---|
| Agriculture | 47% |
| Industry | 29% |
| Domestic/household | 18% |
| Commercial | 4% |
| Other | 2% |
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Worked solution
Task type notes
This is a single pie chart Task 1 with five categories of clearly unequal size. The reportable structure is a two-tier split (two dominant sectors (agriculture, industry) versus three minor ones) which the model answer states explicitly in the overview rather than treating all five slices as equally significant.
Why the model answer scores Band 9
Task Achievement. The overview identifies both the largest sector (agriculture) and the general two-tier shape of the data (two large sectors versus three small ones) before any individual figures are given. All five percentages are reported accurately, and the answer adds a calculated combined figure (76% for agriculture and industry together, “more than three times” the remaining share) that demonstrates genuine data interpretation rather than transcription. No opinion on water policy is included.
Coherence and Cohesion. The two body paragraphs are organised by tier (the two largest sectors, then the three smallest), mirroring the overview’s structure, with linking phrases (“meaning that together,” “while the remaining”) that make the grouping explicit rather than implicit.
Lexical Resource. Proportion language is varied and precise: “close to half,” “considerably more than,” “around three-fifths of,” “nearly two-fifths of,” “a little over a tenth of.” The five percentages are never simply repeated without an accompanying comparison.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Accurate passive voice for describing consumption (“was distributed,” “was responsible for”), correctly formed fraction phrases, and an appropriately placed em dash for the final emphatic comparison, all without grammatical error.
Common pitfalls specific to this task
- Giving equal descriptive weight to all five sectors rather than foregrounding the two that dominate the chart.
- Failing to convert the raw percentages into a comparative statement (e.g. how many times larger agriculture is than commercial use), which limits the range of language and analysis shown.