IELTS Task 1 With Two Charts: One Overview, Two Body Paragraphs

Some IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 questions give you two visuals at once. A bar chart and a table. A pie chart and a line graph. Two charts of the same type showing different years or different countries.

Most candidates then write two small reports and staple them together. Two introductions, two overviews, no connection between them. The English can be good and the score still sits at 6, because Task Achievement asks for one response to one question.

This post gives you the paragraph plan, the one sentence that joins the two halves, and a full sample answer at the end.

Why two visuals are one task

Task 1 Academic is marked on four public band descriptors: Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Task Achievement is the one that two visuals put at risk.

Task Achievement asks you to select the main features and report them clearly. When a question shows two visuals, the main features include the relationship between them. A report that describes each visual separately has reported half of what the question shows.

Coherence and Cohesion is the second risk. Two overviews in one answer is not an organised response. It reads as two answers to a reader who is looking for one.

The paragraph plan

Four paragraphs. This is the same shape as a single visual task, with the body split by visual instead of by trend.

Task 1 asks for at least 150 words. Writing under that length limits Task Achievement, because a report that stops early has left main features out. Aim for 170 to 190 words. Two visuals do not mean twice the words.

The introduction: one sentence covering both

Do not write a sentence for each visual. Name both in one sentence.

Too slow, two sentences:

The bar chart shows the number of visitors to four museums in 2019. The table shows how much each museum charged for entry.

One sentence:

The bar chart shows visitor numbers at four museums in 2019, while the table gives the entry price at each one.

The word while is doing real work there. It tells the reader these two visuals belong to one subject. Other words that join two visuals in an introduction: alongside, together with, and the accompanying table.

The overview: one paragraph, both visuals, no figures

This is where most answers lose the mark. The overview is a summary of the main features, and at band 7 the public descriptors ask for a clear overview. Two separate summaries are not one clear overview.

Write two sentences in one paragraph. Sentence one takes the first visual. Sentence two takes the second and, where possible, connects it to the first.

Overall, the two largest museums received far more visitors than the other two. Entry prices did not follow the same pattern, as the most visited museum was also one of the cheapest.

Notice that the second sentence says did not follow the same pattern. That is the relationship between the two visuals, stated in plain words and with no figures. An overview with no numbers in it is correct. The numbers belong in the body.

The linking sentence at the start of Body 2

Body 1 ends. Body 2 begins. Without a link, the reader meets a new report with no warning.

Open Body 2 with a sentence that refers to Body 1. Three patterns that work:

• Contrast: The pricing data tells a different story.
• Addition: The second chart shows the same four museums by age group.
• Cause or consequence: Prices offer one explanation for these visitor numbers.

One sentence is enough. Do not write a paragraph of transition; that is words spent on no new information.

Grouping when the two visuals share categories

Sometimes the two visuals cover the same categories, for example the same five countries or the same four years. Then you have a choice.

Split by visual. Body 1 is the chart, Body 2 is the table. Safer and easier to control. Use this when the two visuals measure different things.

Split by category. Body 1 takes the two highest countries across both visuals, Body 2 takes the rest. Harder, and it scores well when it works, because every sentence compares. Use this only when the two visuals measure the same unit.

If you are unsure, split by visual. A clear answer in a simple shape scores better than a confused answer in a clever one.

Full sample answer

The bar chart shows the number of visitors to four city museums in 2019, and the table shows the adult entry price at each museum. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Imagine the chart shows the Riverside Museum at 820,000 visitors, the City Gallery at 640,000, the Maritime Museum at 210,000 and the Transport Museum at 150,000. The table gives entry prices of 5 pounds, 12 pounds, 9 pounds and 4 pounds in the same order.

The bar chart shows how many people visited four city museums in 2019, while the table gives the adult entry price at each one. Overall, two museums attracted far larger audiences than the other two. Price did not explain this pattern, because the busiest museum was among the cheapest and the quietest was the cheapest of all. The Riverside Museum was the most popular, with 820,000 visitors in 2019. The City Gallery followed at 640,000. The Maritime Museum and the Transport Museum were much quieter, receiving 210,000 and 150,000 visitors respectively, which is less than a third of the Riverside figure. Prices show no matching order. The City Gallery was the most expensive at 12 pounds, despite being only the second busiest, and the Maritime Museum charged 9 pounds for the third largest audience. The Riverside Museum cost 5 pounds and the Transport Museum just 4 pounds, so the two cheapest museums sat at opposite ends of the visitor figures.

That answer is 176 words. Four paragraphs, one overview, and a link at the start of the final paragraph.

What each paragraph was doing

• Introduction. One sentence, both visuals, while as the join. No figures, no opinion.
• Overview. The main feature of each visual, and the relationship between them. The phrase did not explain this pattern is the comparison the question asked for.
• Body 1. Figures in order, highest to lowest. One comparison at the end, less than a third, instead of a fifth number.
• Body 2. Opens with Prices show no matching order, which points back at Body 1. Then figures, each tied to a visitor rank, so the two visuals stay connected to the last sentence.

Three mistakes to check for in your own answer

1. Two overviews. Search your answer for the word overall. If it appears twice, you have written two reports.
2. No figures in the body, or figures in the overview. They belong the other way round.
3. Different units treated as the same. One visual may be in percentages and the other in thousands of people. A sentence that adds them together is a factual error, and factual errors limit Task Achievement.

What to do today

Take one mixed Task 1 question. Write only the introduction and the overview, three sentences in total, and stop. Check that the introduction names both visuals in one sentence and that the overview contains no numbers.

Three sentences take five minutes, and they are the two paragraphs that decide whether the answer reads as one report or two. When you write the full response, you can paste it into Bandly for an estimated band on each of the four criteria and a list of the sentences holding the score down.