IELTSAcademic Writingtask1lesson7tablespart2

Hello! Welcome to lesson 7 in our IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 series. In this lesson, we are going to look at how to analyse and write about tables with dates.

In lesson 6, you learnt how to group table information into categories. In this lesson, you will do the same, but this time you’ll be dealing with dates. The difference is how you group the data. There are two ways to group dates: either by individual date or by date range.

Let’s see how to do that!

The table below shows the proportion of people in England who agreed with same-sex marriage from 1989 to 2013. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

Percentage of people agreeing with same-sex marriage by religious denomination (%)

Step 1: Analyse the table and plan how to group the information

The first thing you need to do is group the information into two parts.

Between 1989 and 2007, the percentage of people agreeing with same-sex marriage increased gradually for all religions. However, between 2007 and 2013, the data show a sharp increase. Therefore, you can group the data as follows:

Notice there is a lot of data in the table. It is important to be selective. You can choose what you think is important, but generally you should select the highest and lowest numbers.

Do you notice any other data we can add to your report?

Another key point you can add to your report is that the percentage of people agreeing with same-sex marriage increased markedly in each period.

Step 2: Write an essay using the recommended essay structure

Now that you’ve analysed the task and figured out how to group the information, let’s write the essay. We recommend you stop here and write an essay using the language we’ve taught in previous lessons! Come back to this lesson to check the model essay and analysis.

Model Essay

The table below shows the proportion of people in England who agreed with same-sex marriage from 1989 to 2013. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

Percentage of people agreeing with same-sex marriage by religious denomination (%)

Important functional words are highlighted in red

Useful vocabulary and phrases are highlighted in green

Synonyms and topic vocabulary are highlighted in blue

Introduction

The table provides data on the percentage of people from five different belief systems who agreed with same-sex marriage in England across five time intervals.

Overview

Overall, support for same-sex marriage increased more than five-fold between 1989 and 2013, especially over the final five years. Those reporting no religion were the most supportive throughout, while those of non-Christian faiths remained the least supportive.

Body paragraph 1

Between 1989 and 2007, support for same-sex marriage increased almost fourfold across all belief systems, with the highest support among those reporting no religion and Non-Christians showing the lowest at just under one in five in 2007. Interestingly, the gap in support for same-sex marriage between groups also widened over this period, with some groups two to three times more likely to support it than Non-Christians in 2007.

Body paragraph 2

By 2013, support among all groups had increased most rapidly over the shortest period. The proportion of Christians in agreement almost doubled to between 50% and 60%, whereas the figures for Non-Christians and those without a religion rose to around a third and three quarters respectively. The gap between groups had widened further by that time.