ËaÛj`ů6…Øù¥Ö€ AÞpÚBQäëd05‘œ

The … gives information about … 
The … compare(s) … 
The … makes a comparison between … and … 
The … shows changes in … 
The … illustrates …. 
The … shows data about … 

---

IELTS
 JOURNAL 
 
26 
Writing the General Overview Paragraph 
In your task 1 essay, you need to write a general summary of the information. Examiners call this 
the 'general overview' or ‘overall trend’. The summary paragraph can be written straight after the 
introduction, but you can also put it at the end of the essay. One way to summarize graphs is to 
look for the overall change for example from the first year to the last year shown. You can also 
look for the main trends or the highest and lowest numbers.
 
 
 
 
 
As can be seen from the chart the biggest area of the total health spending, which is 31%, went 
into hospital care, while a sum of 23% belong to 'other spending'. Surprisingly, nearly the same 
amount, which is 22%, is spent on doctors and clinical services. (47 words) 
7% 
10% 
7% 
22%
31% 
23% 
Total health spending 
Nursing home
Prescription
drugs
Administartion
Doctors and
clinical services
Hospital care
Other spending
It is clear that the total number of marriages per year fell between 1951 and 2009 in 
the UK. While the number of first marriages fell dramatically from the end of the 
1960s, the figure for remarriages remained stable. (36 words) 

---

IELTS