Describing a Line Graph [Pop Parade vs Music Choice]

Today, I’m going to give you a sample answer for a line graph. This post accompanies a YouTube video I just uploaded, and which I will embed below. I hope that you find it helpful in your IELTS preparation. Remember that sample essays are a great way to learn about writing! You can post your own answers below or ask questions over at my YouTube channel.

Question

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The graph below compares the number of visits to two new music sites on the web.

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information shown below.

You should write at least 150 words.

Video

Sample Answer

The line graph shows the number of visitors to two new websites over a period of fifteen days. Both websites end the period with a higher number of visitors than at the beginning, but there are some extreme fluctuations in between.

At both the beginning and end of the fifteen day period, Pop Parade had a higher number of visitors than Music Choice. It started with almost 120,000 visits, but fell at varying rates until the ninth day, after which it rose sharply for two days, nearly quadrupling, before falling by almost half by day twelve. It ended the period with another steep rise, more than doubling from eight thousand to more than one hundred and sixty thousand.

Music Choice fluctuated at lower levels than Pop Parade for most of the period, although on day three it experienced a sudden jump in number of visitors, before falling back to previous levels. On day eleven, however, the number of visitors soared from around 25,000 to 120,000 in a single day, which was higher than the daily visitors for Pop Parade. It remained higher than Pop Parade for two days before falling back to lower levels, ending its fifteen day period at about 70,000 visitors, a little less than double its first day.

Notes

In the above video, I explain the choices I made and language I used while writing this essay. Pay attention to words like “quadruple” and “double” as well as phrase such as “falling by” and “falling back to”. These are important elements in adequately describing a line graph for IELTS writing task  1.