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Line graph: Employees working mainly from home

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.

WRITING TASK 1

Line graph

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The graph below shows the percentage of employees working mainly from home in four sectors between 2015 and 2023.

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

Write at least 150 words.

Employees working mainly from home
Line graph: Employees working mainly from home (%). The values are in the data table below.0%20%40%60%80%201520172019202020212023
  • IT and finance
  • Education
  • Retail
  • Construction
Show data table
Employees working mainly from home
CategoryIT and financeEducationRetailConstruction
201510%5%2%1%
201712%6%2%1%
201915%6%3%1%
202070%40%10%4%
202160%30%8%3%
202345%12%5%2%

GoPrep wrote this practice question in the style of the exam. It is not an official IELTS question.

What your overview should say

An overview names the main trends or differences in one or two sentences, without numbers. These are the features a strong answer picks out:

  1. 1Overall, home working spiked in 2020 in every sector, then fell back, but remained above its pre-pandemic level in all four.
  2. 2The IT and finance sector showed the biggest change, rising from 15% in 2019 to 70% in 2020 and settling at 45% in 2023.
  3. 3Education followed the same pattern on a smaller scale, whereas retail and construction barely changed, never exceeding 10%.

Write it on the clock

Spend the first few minutes planning, then write.

20:00

0 words of 150 minimum

Your answer stays on this page only. Copy it before you leave.

Band-8 model answer

Write your own answer first, then compare: how it answers the exact question, what each paragraph does, and which phrases you could borrow.

Show model answer (198 words)

The line graph shows the percentage of employees who worked mainly from home in four sectors between 2015 and 2023.

Overall, home working was rare before 2020 in all sectors, then surged sharply in 2020 before falling back, though it never returned to its earlier levels in the IT and finance and education sectors. IT and finance remained the most home-based sector throughout.

In IT and finance, the figure rose gently from 10% in 2015 to 15% in 2019, then leapt to a peak of 70% in 2020. It subsequently fell to 60% in 2021 and 45% in 2023, which was still three times the 2019 level. Education followed a similar but lower pattern, with 5% in 2015 and 6% in 2019, a peak of 40% in 2020 and 30% in 2021, and a more marked decline to 12% in 2023.

Retail and construction recorded far lower figures. Retail home working rose from 2% in 2015 to 3% in 2019 and a high of 10% in 2020, before falling to 8% and then 5% in 2023. Construction was the lowest sector throughout, at only 1% until 2019, peaking at 4% in 2020 and finishing at 2% in 2023.

Useful vocabulary

PhraseMeaning
work from homedo one's job at home rather than an office
spikerise suddenly to a high level
pre-pandemic levelthe figure before 2020
fall backdecrease after a rise
remain negligiblestay extremely small
sectora branch of the economy

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