IELTS Task 1 - Sales in a college bookshop

Number of buyers of fiction, non-fiction, and magazines in a college bookshop

The provided table shows the sales numbers in a college bookshop during February 2000. The figures cover three types publications: fiction, non-fiction, and magazines. Sales data were obtained from two groups of customers, non-book club members and book club members.

Among the three types of publications, magazines took up the most number of sales (1,696 out of 3,134). The second best-selling publication was non-fiction with 1,287 copies sold. The least popular one was fiction, which barely went over 150.

In terms of the type of customers, non-book club members won over the book club members, taking up more than half of the total sales. The non-book club members are divided into three sub-groups: college staff, college students, and members of public. The highest number of sales among the three sub-groups was 1,474 by the college students. The type of publication preffered by most students was magazines (1,249 out of 1,474) while the least was fiction (31).

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I am aware that this essay does not fulfill the required minimum of 150 words and that there are misspells (preffered) and incorrect use of English.

Would it have been better if I had written it by focusing on just one, types of publications or types of customers? For example:
- Paragraph one: introduction
- Paragraph two: magazines
- Paragraph three: non-fiction
- Paragraph four: fiction

Thank you for your help.

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Katya, generally, this type of essay requires you to describe the entire information in the table during which you make comparisons where necessary. You are not expected to focus or create a paragraph or sub-head for each content as you implied. The format for proper response to the this type of essay is that you must first paraphrase the topic question of the essay (the prompt). This action shows that you have a perfect understanding of the idea in the chart or table at a glance. The next is to give a general overview of the content of the table which is usually obvious when one observes the chart or table as in this case. Thereafter, you have to look at the table critically and tell the examiner what the table entailed and be specific. Make comparisons if need be. By the time you properly interpret every significant observation in the table, you shall have written at least 150 words. I recommend that you check other reviews on IELTS Writing Task 1 as many have been reviewed here in this forum.

Dear, @kacanakya


This can be simplified to one sentence.
The table figure covers sales report on three publications, fiction, non-fiction, and magazines, from separating members and non-members in a college bookshop during February 2000.