Describing Line Graphs

Line graphs are the most common visual type in IELTS Academic Writing Task 1. They show how data changes over time, and your job is to describe the trends, compare different lines, and highlight key features. This lesson provides the vocabulary, structures, and strategies you need to describe line graphs at Band 7+ level.

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What Line Graphs Show

Line graphs typically display:

• Time on the horizontal axis (x-axis) — years, months, decades
• Quantity on the vertical axis (y-axis) — numbers, percentages, amounts
• Multiple lines representing different categories (countries, age groups, products)

Your description should focus on:

1. Overall trends (increasing, decreasing, stable, fluctuating)
2. Starting and ending points
3. Significant changes (sharp increases, sudden drops, peaks, troughs)
4. Comparisons between lines (which was highest, when lines intersected)

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Essential Vocabulary for Trends

Upward Trends

Verb                    Adverb              Noun
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increase                sharply             an increase
rise                    dramatically        a rise
grow                    significantly       growth
climb                   steadily            a climb
go up                   gradually           an upward trend
soar                    slightly            a surge
surge                   rapidly
rocket                  moderately

Downward Trends