Useful language for Academic IELTS Writing Task 1.

Today's best IELTS tip is about useful language for describing graphs in IELTS Academic Writing Task 1

I always tell students that it's important to use a variety of language in their writing and give them the following lists for IELTS Academic Writing Task 1:

Verbs meaning 'to go up'

• rise - rose - risen
• increase
• grow - grew - grown

Verbs meaning 'to go down'

• fall - fell - fallen
• drop
• decrease
• decline

It is also important to use the correct verb tense.  Here are some examples:

• From 2001 to 2006, sales went up - past simple for a trend in the past.
• Sales are going up now - present continuous for a trend happening now.
• This month, sales have gone down - present perfect simple for a trend up to now.
• The number of sales will go up next year - future with 'will' for a predictive trend.
• By the end of this year, sales will have tripled - future perfect for a trend happening before a future date.

There are also certain time expressions which are common with each tense:

past simple

• last July
• before 2005
• over the previous decade
• during the summer of 2003

present continuous

• at present
• at the moment
• currently
• nowadays

present perfect simple

• since 1996 
• up to now
• so far this century
• for the last eight months

future with 'will'

• in the year after next
• in five years' time
• between 2020 and 2025

• is likely to
• is forecast to
• is set to
• is expected to
• is predicted to

future perfect

• by 2035
  

 

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Alanna