Onterra TutorBar chart: household waste by treatment method, 2000 and 2020
A real-format chart task with a band 8 report written from its data, the plan behind it, and the phrases worth keeping. Aim for 150 to 190 words in 20 minutes.
The task
| Share of household waste by treatment method (%) | Landfill | Recycling | Composting | Incineration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 62 | 18 | 5 | 15 |
| 2020 | 24 | 42 | 16 | 18 |
Band 8 model answer
169 words. The minimum is 150, and anything under it is penalised on Task Achievement; a strong answer sits between 150 and 190, which leaves time to check the figures.
Why this answer earns band 8
- "Landfill went from being the dominant method to a minority option" tells the whole story of the largest category in one sentence with no figure, which is the overview Task Achievement needs.
- "more than the other three methods combined" turns a ranking into a comparison against a total, and the claim is true (62 against 38), which is how a report earns Task Achievement on a share chart.
- "Twenty years later" opens the final paragraph with a time marker that ties it to the first, the Coherence and Cohesion device that spares the writer a list of years.
- "Composting showed the fastest proportional growth" uses a precise, uncommon collocation instead of repeating the word increased, which is the Lexical Resource range the band descriptor asks for.
- "while recycling had more than doubled to 42 percent, overtaking it to become the leading method" combines a past perfect and a participle clause, the Grammatical Range and Accuracy of a sentence with two time layers.
The plan, reusable on any chart of this kind
- Introduction (1 sentence, 15-25 words): the measure, the four methods, the country and the two years.
- Overview (2 sentences, 30-40 words): the shift away from the largest method and the one that replaced it. No numbers.
- Body 1 (40-50 words): the first year, largest to smallest, with one comparison against the rest.
- Body 2 (65-75 words): the second year, the biggest fall and rise first, ending on the method that barely moved.
Phrases worth learning
| moved away from | to open an overview about a shift from one option to others |
| more than the other three methods combined | to show that one category outweighs all the rest together |
| overtaking it to become the leading method | for a category that passes the leader and takes its place |
| more than tripling | for a rise to over three times the earlier figure |
| change little | for the category that stays close to its starting value |
A share chart such as this one always adds up to 100 in each year, so use that as a check: if your figures for one year do not total 100, you have misread a bar. Every claim here, from the combined 38 to the tripling of composting, was checked against the chart before it was written.
Questions about this answer
What band is this model answer?
It is written to band 8, and the notes under it quote the answer's own words to show why.
How long should a Task 1 answer be?
Aim for 150 to 190 words in 20 minutes. This model answer is 169 words, and anything under 150 is penalised on Task Achievement.
What is the most common mistake on Task 1?
Writing under the 150 word minimum, which is penalised on Task Achievement, or running out of time to check the figures.