IELTS Writing task 1 - Bar chart - Information about high school graduation in 3 countries.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.

The bar graph shows the percentage of high school graduates over the period from 2005 to 2011. Overall, it is clear that the Portuguese graduation rate increased the most considerably. Meanwhile, despite consistently having the lowest rate among the three countries, Mexico showed a moderate growth of graduated students every year. In contrast, the percentage of high school graduates in Luxembourg declined moderately over the period reported.

Looking at the graph more closely, one can see that Portugal's graduation rate had increased significantly from 54% in 2005 to reach its highest point over the period in 2009, which is approximately 95%, before a 10% drop in 2011. As for Mexico, the proportion of high school graduated students grew at a consistent rate (roughly 10%) every year, though it still lagged behind the others and having the lowest rate among three nations. It experienced a slow growth from 20% in 2005 to over 50% in 2011. Luxembourg, on the other hand, demonstrated a downward trend of graduation rate from 80% to 60% over the 7-year period, losing the lead to Portugal from the year 2009 until the end of the period in question.

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This is a 3 paragraph report. It is missing another paragraph to complete the analysis aspect. A problem that arose because of the lack of proper comparison considerations in the report. The writer knew exactly what information should comprise the analysis but did not know how to correctly utilize the data for maximum effect. He kept compressing data into single sentences where multiple sentence usage would have helped create 3 well developed paragraphs. Save for data reporting, no actual analysis is reflected in the presentation. There are also sentences where references are exaggerated, leading to redundant references. The writer must understand that by knowing how to divide the report into relevant sections, he can successfully meet the paragraph, reporting, and analysis requirements.