IELTS Academic Writing Task 1/ Graph Writing – Bar Chart/ Column Graph:
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The graph below shows the different home activities among young children in four different countries.
Write a report for a university lecturer and report the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
You should write at least 150 words.
Home activities among young children
Model Answer 1:
The bar chart compares the percentages of young children in Malaysia, China, Nigeria and Sudan who engage in four types of home activities, namely, playing computer games, watching TV, playing board games and reading books.
Generally speaking, playing computer games is the most popular indoor pastime among children in all four countries, while reading books is the least preferred activity by them. Moreover, ‘watching TV’ as a home activity for children shows uniform popularity across these nations and was the second most popular indoor leisure activity.
To begin with, computer games are a dominant indoor leisure activity, with around 60% of Nigerian children taking part, followed by 50% in both Malaysia and Sudan. In China, this figure is lower but still substantial at roughly 40%, making it the most favoured home activity among Chinese youngsters as well. Watching TV programmes is the second most preferred activity in every country, with 30% of children in each nation reporting that they watch television at home.
Moreover, board games attract a smaller share of participation: about 30% in Sudan, 25% in both Malaysia and China, and only 10% in Nigeria, indicating that children in Nigeria are far less likely to play board games compared with their peers elsewhere. Reading books is the least popular activity overall, with 20% of Malaysian children reading at home, 15% in China and just 10% in both Nigeria and Sudan.
Model Answer 2:
The bar chart shows data on young children’s indoor activities in Malaysia, China, Nigeria and Sudan.
As is obvious from the data, playing computer games is the most popular leisure activity among children in these countries, and reading books is less common among Nigerian and Sudanese children. Interestingly, watching TV is the second most popular pastime and equally preferred by children in all four of these countries.
As the diagram suggests, computer games are highly popular among children in these countries, and half of the children in Malaysia and Sudan play them at home. This ratio in Nigeria is even higher (60%), while slightly lower (40%) in China. Watching TV is another popular home activity among youngsters, and exactly 30% of children in these countries watch TV when they are home. Board games are picked up by almost a quarter of the boys and girls in Malaysia and China, while they are even more popular in Sudan, with 30% active young participants. Finally, reading is not as common as other indoor activities, and the highest ratio of child readers resides in Malaysia, 20%. Only 10% Nigerian and Sudanese children read books at home. This ratio is 15% in China, which means 15 percent young Chinese children like to read books at home in their free time.
Sample Answer 3:
The bar chart illustrates how youngsters in four countries (namely Malaysia, China, Nigeria and Sudan) participate in four different indoor activities.
Overall, playing computer games is the most popular activity among those youngsters, while reading books is the least preferred. Besides, watching different TV programmes is equally liked by the youth in these countries.
To begin with, precisely half of all Malaysian and Sudanese children like to spend their leisure time playing computer games. At the same time, an even higher proportion of Nigerian boys and girls (60 per cent to be exact) prefer this activity. Finally, four out of ten adolescents in Sudan engage in this pastime activity. Watching TV is the second most common pastime, and interestingly, it attracts exactly 30% of youngsters from all four countries. Regarding board games, a quarter of youngsters in Malaysia and China take part in them, while it is 30% in Sudan and 10% fewer in Nigeria.
Finally, 20% Malaysian and 15% Chinese children like to read books in their free time. For Nigeria and Sudan, their figures both stand at ten per cent. It is worth noticing that the popularity of computer games can be up to 6 times as much as that of reading books.
[Written by – Nguyen Thuong Vu]