The easy way to ielts writing academic Module

A contrast between X and Y
There was a stark contrast between the two teams.
In contrast to somebody/something
In contrast to the UK , Germany had the highest number of medals
in 2010.
53% of the population in Korea was 50+ years old, in contrast to
23% of the teenage population.

---

On the other hand
Brazil had a slight reduction in the production of energy. On the
other hand , the figure for Russia went up drastically.
However
Korea had an enormous rise in the number of post-graduate
students; however , Japan experienced a slight reduction of 5% in
this regard.
While/whereas
The figure rose to 43% in 2005 while it went down noticeably to
32% two years later.
At the beginning of the period, the trend had fluctuations, whereas it
stabilized later on.
Unlike
Unlike the trend for Brazil , the trend for Portugal had an
unexpected fall.
Note that the phrase “
On the contrary
” does not have
extensive usage in writing task 1 as it is useful while
expressing opposite opinions. Therefore, it does not describe
numbers as they cannot be the opposite, even if they are quite
different.
For example
she loves sweet snacks like ice cream. On the contrary , her friend
prefers 
savory 
snacks 
like 
potato 
chips. 
(different
opinions/preferences)
the annual gross income for Switzerland accounted for 853$
million. In contrast , this figure for Italy had a dramatic decline to

---

11$ million in 2008. (markedly different numbers, but not opposite)
Tenses in task 1
In writing task 1, it is quite common to use the 
simple past
tense; however,
using the tenses depends on the given periods. When trends are generally or
annually shown, 
present simple
tense is best to use. In contrast, simple past
tense should be the dominant tense if the period is related to the past.
Sometimes, a graph shows a projection of the 
future,
and in this case, it is
better to use 
neutral future tenses
as we are just referring to predictions
based on statistics. In other words, it is better to avoid depending heavily on
“will ’, which accounts for around 70% chance of happening or “going to ,”
which implies the probability of around 90%. In writing task 1, we may
need to point at predictions, which do not stand at higher than 50% chance
of happening, so it is better to use future passive structures, such as “It is
likely to ,” “It is predicted to ,” “It is expected to ,” “It is projected to ,” etc.
instead of “will ” or “going to ” in these cases. 
Present perfect
or 
past
perfect
tenses are also occasionally useful in describing trends.