IELTS Academic Task 1 line graph: how to describe trends

A line graph shows change over time, so your answer should be about movement: what went up, what went down, what overtook what. You do not need to mention every point on the graph. Pick the two or three biggest trends for the overview, then support them with a handful of figures in two detail paragraphs.

This guide shows how to read a line graph before you write, how to group the lines, the language for trends, and an original sample answer with comments. For the general rules of Task 1 (all visual types), see our Academic Writing Task 1 guide.

What does the task ask you to do?

The official instructions are the same for every visual: summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. As of October 2026, IELTS says you should spend no more than 20 minutes on Task 1 and write at least 150 words. Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1 towards your Writing score, so Task 1 is one third of it.

"Selecting" is the key word. A graph with four lines and six years has 24 data points. If you describe all 24, your answer turns into a list, and the examiner cannot see that you understood which changes matter.

How to read the graph in two minutes

Before you write anything, look at the graph and answer these questions. Write the answers as short notes on the question paper.

1. What are the units? Percentages, millions, hours per week, tonnes. Using the wrong unit is a common and avoidable error.
2. What is the time period, and is any of it a projection? If the graph runs to 2040, part of it is a forecast and needs future language.
3. What is the overall direction of each line? Up, down, flat, or up then down.
4. Where are the extremes? The highest point, the lowest point, and which line was highest at the start and at the end.
5. Do any lines cross? A crossover, where one item overtakes another, is almost always worth reporting.

These five notes give you your overview and your two detail paragraphs. You have now planned the answer.

How do you write the overview?

The overview is the paragraph that matters most for Task Achievement. The public band descriptors say a band 7 answer "presents a clear overview of main trends, differences or stages". If it's missing or unclear, your Task Achievement score is held down regardless of how good the rest is.

For a line graph, a good overview usually combines two things:

• the general direction of the lines (which rose, which fell), and
• one standout feature (the biggest change, the highest line throughout, or a crossover).

Keep numbers out of the overview. Numbers belong in the detail paragraphs.

Here is the difference in practice, using the sample task below.

The weak version repeats figures and says nothing about the relationship between the lines. The better version tells the reader the big picture in one sentence.

How should you group the lines?

With two lines, you can often give each one its own paragraph. With three or four lines, group them by what they have in common:

• Rising lines vs falling lines. The simplest and often the clearest choice.
• The lines that cross vs the lines that don't. Useful when the crossover is the main story.
• First half of the period vs second half. Useful when every line changes direction at the same point.

Whichever you choose, compare inside each paragraph. "Streaming rose from 1 to 15 hours, overtaking TV" is a comparison. "Streaming rose. TV fell." is two separate facts.

Trend language that sounds natural

You need two kinds of structure, and you should mix them.

Verb + adverb: Viewing fell steadily. The figure rose sharply. Use: rose, increased, climbed, grew, fell, dropped, declined, fluctuated, levelled off, remained stable.

Adjective + noun: There was a steady fall in viewing. The period saw a sharp rise. Use: a rise, an increase, a fall, a decline, a drop, a peak, a low point.

For degree, choose the word that matches the size of the change:

Do not call a change from 5 to 6 "dramatic". Examiners check whether your words fit the data, and this counts towards Lexical Resource as well as Task Achievement.

Prepositions cause more errors than vocabulary:

• rose to 15 hours (the end point)
• rose by 14 hours (the size of the change)
• rose from 1 to 15 hours
• a rise of 14 hours / a rise in streaming
• peaked at 9 hours in 2020

Tenses: past data needs the past simple ("fell"). For a change up to a point in the past, use the past perfect: "By 2020, streaming had overtaken TV." For projections, use "is expected to", "is predicted to" or "will". Don't use the present simple for 2005 data.

A sample answer

Task: The line graph below shows the average number of hours per week that people aged 16 to 24 in one country spent watching broadcast TV, watching streaming video and playing video games between 2005 and 2025.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

(The data is shown as a table here so you can check the figures. In the test, you would see three lines.)

The line graph compares how many hours a week young people aged 16 to 24 in one country spent on three screen activities, broadcast TV, streaming video and video games, over the twenty years from 2005.

Overall, broadcast TV lost much of its audience, while streaming grew dramatically and replaced it as the most time-consuming activity. Time spent on video games changed far less than the other two.

In 2005, young people watched broadcast TV for 18 hours a week on average, compared with just one hour of streaming. Over the following two decades, TV viewing fell steadily to only 6 hours. Streaming, in contrast, rose slowly at first and then much faster, overtaking TV at some point between 2015 and 2020, before levelling off at 15 hours a week in 2025.

Gaming showed a much flatter pattern. It stayed at around 5 to 6 hours until 2015, then rose to a peak of 9 hours in 2020 before falling slightly to 8 hours in 2025. Even so, by the end of the period young people spent more time gaming than watching broadcast TV.

(178 words)

Why it works:

• The introduction paraphrases the task ("how many hours a week", "screen activities", "over the twenty years from 2005") instead of copying it.
• The overview has two features and no numbers.
• Paragraph 3 groups the two lines that cross. Paragraph 4 handles the line that behaves differently and links it back to TV in the last sentence.
• The answer says "at some point between 2015 and 2020" because the graph does not show exactly when the lines crossed. Don't invent a year.
• It gives no reasons. Nothing about phones, internet speed or changing habits.

Common mistakes

• Describing every year. "In 2010 it was 16, in 2015 it was 12, in 2020 it was 8" is a list. Say "fell steadily from 18 to 6" and move on.
• Missing the crossover. If one line overtakes another, the examiner expects you to notice.
• Wrong word for the size of the change. "Rocketed" for a one-hour rise is inaccurate.
• Mixing up "by" and "to". "Rose by 15 hours" and "rose to 15 hours" mean different things, and only one will be correct.
• Explaining causes. "Because of the internet" is speculation. The task is to report the graph.
• Writing too much. About 160 to 190 words is plenty. Every extra minute here is a minute taken from Task 2, which is worth twice as much.

The Writing band descriptors guide explains what examiners look for under each of the four criteria.

Practice: write an overview

Here are the figures for a second graph: average daily water temperature at a beach in one Australian city, by month.

Write a two-sentence overview in under three minutes, without numbers. Then check it against this list:

• Does it say both temperatures were lowest in winter and highest in summer?
• Does it say the surface was usually warmer, but that the gap almost disappeared in the cooler months?
• Does it avoid mentioning any figures?

A possible answer: "Overall, water at both depths was warmest in the summer months and coolest in winter. The surface was generally warmer than the water at ten metres, although the two were very similar from May to September."

When you are ready for a timed attempt, the free Writing section in our practice test includes a Task 1 graph, marked on the four criteria with an estimated score. For your Task 2 essays, our free essay checker gives a score and corrections in about 30 seconds.