Writing Task 1: Process Diagram: Question 3
Syllabus W.task1
The diagram below shows the process of how paper is recycled. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features. Write at least 150 words.
The process is linear, running through six stages from the collection of used paper to the production of new reels, with no stage repeated.
Stage 1: Used paper is collected from homes, offices, schools and public recycling bins and is transported by truck to a recycling plant. Stage 2: At the plant, the paper is sorted by type and quality, and non-paper contaminants such as plastic wrapping and metal clips are removed. Stage 3: The sorted paper is loaded into a large tank called a pulper, where it is mixed with water and chemicals and broken down into a soft pulp. Stage 4: The pulp is passed through screens and cleaning equipment, and a de-inking process removes remaining ink particles and other small impurities. Stage 5: The cleaned pulp is sprayed thinly onto a moving mesh conveyor belt, where most of the water drains away and the remainder is squeezed out by a series of rollers. Stage 6: The resulting damp sheet is dried by passing it over heated rollers and is then wound onto large reels of new, ready-to-use recycled paper.
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Worked solution
Examiner notes: why this is a band 9 response
Task Achievement
The overview identifies both the starting point (collected waste paper) and end point (finished reels) of the process and correctly labels it as linear, and the body then reports all six stages in the diagram’s order, including the two distinct water-removal stages (pressing and drying), without adding unstated claims about environmental benefits.
Coherence & Cohesion
The response is organised into a clear chronological chain using varied linking language (“First”, “On arrival”, “then”, “After this”, “Next”, “Finally”), and the final sentence draws the six stages together around a single unifying idea, the progressive removal of water, which gives the answer a strong sense of overall coherence rather than a simple list.
Lexical Resource
Precise recycling vocabulary is used accurately (“pulper”, “de-inking”, “mesh conveyor”, “impurities”) alongside natural collocations such as “breaks down into a soft pulp” and “ready for use”, with no repetition of a single generic verb like “process” or “make” across the response.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
The passive voice is used consistently and correctly wherever no specific agent is described (“is collected”, “is sorted”, “is loaded”, “is dried”), and this is combined with accurate relative clauses (“which remove remaining impurities”) and a present-participle clause (“allowing most of the water to drain away”) to add sentence variety without any grammatical errors.
Common pitfalls specific to this task
See commonMistakes above: the most damaging is reversing the order of pulping and de-inking, since ink can only be removed once the paper has already been broken down into pulp, so describing it the other way round is a clear factual inaccuracy.