Pick out the main features of this line graph for your overview, write your report on a 20-minute timer, then compare it with a band-8 model answer.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The graph below shows the number of daily newspaper copies sold and online news subscriptions in one country from 2000 to 2020.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | Printed newspapers | Online subscriptions |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 24 | 0 |
| 2004 | 22 | 1 |
| 2008 | 19 | 3 |
| 2012 | 14 | 7 |
| 2016 | 9 | 12 |
| 2020 | 5 | 18 |
GoPrep wrote this practice question in the style of the exam. It is not an official IELTS question.
An overview names the main trends or differences in one or two sentences, without numbers. These are the features a strong answer picks out:
Spend the first few minutes planning, then write.
0 words of 150 minimum
Your answer stays on this page only. Copy it before you leave.
Write your own answer first, then compare: how it answers the exact question, what each paragraph does, and which phrases you could borrow.
The line graph illustrates the number of printed daily newspapers sold and the number of online news subscriptions in one country between 2000 and 2020, in millions.
Overall, print sales fell steadily while online subscriptions rose at a similar pace, so that online news replaced print as the more popular format. The changeover occurred between 2012 and 2016.
Printed newspaper sales stood at 24 million in 2000 and declined gradually to 22 million in 2004 and 19 million in 2008. The fall then became much steeper, with sales dropping to 14 million in 2012 and 9 million in 2016, and by 2020 they had reached just 5 million, a fifth of the original figure.
Online news started from nothing in 2000. There was then only 1 million subscription in 2004, but the number rose to 3 million in 2008 and 7 million in 2012, at which point print was still twice as popular. By 2016 online subscriptions had overtaken print sales, with 12 million against 9 million. The upward trend continued, and subscriptions reached 18 million in 2020, more than three times the number of printed copies sold at that point.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| print circulation | the number of printed copies sold |
| online subscriptions | paid digital memberships |
| decline steadily | fall in an even way |
| rise from zero | begin at nothing and grow |
| cross over | the lines meet and reverse position |
| nearly 80% | almost four-fifths |
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