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Vocabulary to Compare, Contrast and Clarify



The most common types of IELTS Writing Task 1 are graphs, charts and tables.

Welcome to the part three in our three part series on Vocabulary for Graphs, Charts and Tables! In this article, we will cover words to compare, contrast and clarify the data in your chart, graph or table.

Let’s look at some examples using the following chart!


COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Compare:



Contrast:



INTENSIFIERS

Intensify:



Weaken:


PREPOSITIONS



Sample Answer

Note: This sample is to show how the words and phrases can be used to describe the graph. This is not an IELTS answer, but a learning tool.


This chart shows the beverage sales in 2017 for five products.

March saw the highest number of total sales with $6,240. Sales were steady for the rest of the year, ranging from approximately $2,000 to $3,000 in July and September. January and October had the lowest total sales with $1,560 in January and $1,800 in October. Cucumber Wonder had the most fluctuation in sales, jumping from less than $500 in February to almost $2,000 in March. Sales significantly dropped in April back to around $500, where it remained for the rest of the year. Raspberry Scary also had strong sales throughout the year, but saw a drop in sales in August, October and November.

Overall, sales were strong at the beginning of the year, with March as a peak month for sales. After March, sales leveled off through September with a drop in sales from October through the end of the year.

Want more IELTS Tips?

Want to learn more tips on IELTS Writing Task 1? Check out the first course on writing about Graphs in our series “Unlocking IELTS: Academic Writing”.


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