IELTSAcademic Writingtask1lesson2howtowriteaboutpercentages

Hello! Welcome to lesson 2 in our IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 series. In this lesson, we are going to look at how to write about percentages that you’ll find in Task 1 questions.

In the IELTS Academic Writing Task 1, you are asked to write a report about a bar chart, line graph, pie chart, or table. Very often, the units are given in percentages, especially in a pie chart. So, in this lesson, we will look at various ways to write about percentages. We will go over:

1. How to use the words “percent” and “percentage” correctly
2. What verbs to use when describing percentages
3. How to paraphrase percentages

At the end of the lesson, you’ll have a chance to practice with a couple of exercises. Let’s get started!

Some students confuse the word “percentage” with “percent.” Look at the following incorrect sentences:

• Energy produced by gas and nuclear accounted for 52 percentage of the total energy in 2014.
• Food accounted for a small percent of the budget.
• The percent of women completing high school was 85%.

The correct sentences should be:

• Energy produced by gas and nuclear accounted for 52 percent / 52% of the total energy in 2014.
• Food accounted for a small percentage of the budget.
• The percentage of women completing high school was 85%.

A “percent” means “a hundredth part of something.” This is why the word “percent” is always preceded by a number. For example:

• The population figures for India rose by 12 percent over two decades.
• The figure for unemployment dropped to 5 percent in 2015.

You can also use the number with the percent sign, like “10%.” For instance:

• 64% of the population of North America was urban in 1950.
• In Japan, consumers spent 20% of their total expenditures on food in 2009.
• Canada had the lowest housing share, at 21%.

The word “percentage” means “a number that represents a portion of a whole divided into 100 parts.”

When it refers to a numerical proportion, use “the percentage of.” For instance:

• The percentage of advertising online was 43% in 2012.
• The chart illustrates the percentage of male and female teachers in six types of educational settings in the UK in 2010.

When it refers to “a part of a whole,” use phrases like “a large/small percentage of.” For example:

• Digital media expenditure accounted for a large percentage of advertising spending in 2008.
• Food accounted for a small percentage of the budget.

Besides using “a large/small percentage of,” there are other useful expressions to describe a part of a whole, such as:

• Digital media expenditure accounted for a large proportion of advertising spending in 2008.
• Digital media expenditure accounted for a large segment of advertising spending in 2008.
• Digital media expenditure accounted for a large fraction of advertising spending in 2008.

These phrases are extremely useful when describing information in a pie chart. Also, be very careful about subject-verb agreement when using them. Consider this sentence:

A large percentage of advertising spending was spent on digital media.

Here, because “advertising spending” is an uncountable noun, the singular verb was is used. However, if the noun is countable and plural, use the plural verb, as in the following sentence:

A small percentage of consumers prefer to take the bus.

When you are given a pie chart or bar graph, there are a few useful words and phrases you can use to describe or report percentages. They are:

• account for
• make up
• constitute
• comprise

Let’s look at how to use them!

Consider the following sentences:

• 6% of energy production in France in 2010 was hydro power.
• 24% of energy production in France in 2010 was nuclear power.

Let’s paraphrase them using “account for,” “make up,” “constitute,” and “comprise.”

The following sentences are all correct:

• Energy production in France comprised 6% hydro power and 24% nuclear power in 2010.
• In 2010, hydro power and nuclear power accounted for 6% and 24% of energy production in France, respectively.
• In 2010, hydro power and nuclear power made up 6% and 24% of energy production in France, respectively.
• In 2010, hydro power and nuclear power constituted 6% and 24% of energy production in France, respectively.
• In 2010, hydro power and nuclear power comprised 6% and 24% of energy production in France, respectively.

Notice that the verb “comprise” can mean either “to make up” or “to be made up of,” depending on sentence structure.

Alright! Now let’s take a look at how to paraphrase the word “percentage” to help you achieve a higher vocabulary band score!

One challenge in IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 is how to report all the data shown in a chart or graph. Something that can help improve your vocabulary band score is paraphrasing the word percentage.

In this section, we’ll cover how to paraphrase percentages using different vocabulary and the language of approximation. It takes a bit of practice to use these naturally in your report, but doing so accurately can help you achieve a Band 7 or higher.

First, let’s look at how to paraphrase percentages using different vocabulary. Sometimes, data in IELTS Writing Task 1 are expressed in percentages. To avoid repetition, percentages can be replaced by fractions. For example:

If the percentage is not an exact round number (for example, 51% or 23%), we can use approximations. For example:

Let’s look at some examples of paraphrasing percentages:

1. 40% of people stated that comfort was a factor in driving to work.

= Two fifths of the people polled stated that comfort was a factor in driving to work.

2. The proportion of people stating that they cycled to work to reduce pollution stood at 30%.

= The proportion of people stating that they cycled to work to reduce pollution stood at just under a third.

3. 11% of people said that driving to work was safer than cycling.

= Slightly more than one in ten people said that driving to work was safer than cycling.

4. 15% of people stated that they cycled to work because they did not have to worry about parking.

= Less than a fifth of people stated that they cycled to work because they did not have to worry about parking.

5. Subway ridership dropped by 50% between 1999 and 2004.

= Subway ridership was halved between 1999 and 2004.