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IELTS Writing Task 1: 'fast food' bar chart
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The chart below shows how frequently people in
IELTS General Writing the USA ate in fast food restaurants between 2003
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Before you write anything, think about the overall trend

that the chart shows us. For example, how often did
most people in the USA eat in a fast food restaurant,
and did habits change over the 10-year period?

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The bar chart compare the six categories of American

people who have meals in fast food restaurants
between 2003and 2013.
It is clear that the frequecies for "once a week" and
"once or twice a month"are the major chices for
Americans who have meals out of home. The
percentages for "eating outside everday"and "never did
so" remained stable over the ten years for concerned.
In 2003,17% of American people chose to visit fast food
restaurant several times a week,which was just half as
much as the figures for their counterparts who did so
once a week and once or twice a month(31% and 30%
respectively).
2006 saw an increase in the percentages of several
times a week (nearly 5%)and once a week in
restaurants (reaching its peak at 33%), but witnessed a
drop of almost 8% in the number of once or twice a
month . In 2013, Americans' most frequent pattern to
restaurant was once or twice a month at about 33%
while the figures for several times a week and once a
week were reduced by nearly 5%.
With regard to other three frequencies,the perentagesof
"Never" and "Every Day"were all less than 5% during
the whole ten years. As for the figure of "a few times a
year",it was about 13% at first in 2003 and remained
stable at 15 % in the rest period.
Posted by: Claire | August 23, 2018 at 10:33

Overall trend in the bar chart provides information about

that the majority of Americans (95%) eating outside and
this trend is unchanged over 10 years. (Between 2013-
2013)
Posted by: bahman | August 23, 2018 at 11:17

The overall trend ends with a shift toward eating fast

food less frequently. The incidence of the median
cohort has halved.
Posted by: zsófi | August 23, 2018 at 12:10

The bar chart illustrates the figure of the frequency of

US people choosing eat out from 2003 to 2013.
It is noticeable that the frequent patterns of once a
week and once or twice a month were the major habit
over the period of time. Besides, the percentage of US
population who refer to visit restaurant once or twice a
month decreased in 2006, while this figure increased
significantly in 2013.
Posted by: South | August 23, 2018 at 15:13

Claire
1) The bar chart compares
2) "the six categories": which categories? None have
been mentioned so far, so no article.
-> The chart shows .... , divided into six categories
(according to frequency).
3) There is a shift in frequencies over the period: the
top frequency moves to once or twice per month. This
trend needs to be mentioned in the overview.
4) The other overview item is that the results very
roughly correspond to a bell-shaped curve, with the
median around the two middle categories.
5) Once you have established the two main features in
the overview, it pays to group the detail into two
corresponding supporting paragraphs. Otherwise the
detail tends to wander on and seem like a (Band 5)
mechanically produced list with no focus. I would
suggest reorganizing your final paragraph along these
lines, so that the data is links back to the ideas in the
overview.
Posted by: Kata | August 23, 2018 at 20:26

The bar chart compares the frequency of Americans

eating in fast food restaurants in 2003,2006,2013.
It is clear that American people ate outside once a
week and once or twice a month mainly. by 2013, the
major frequency of eating fast food was once or twice a
month.
I think maybe my overviwe paragraph has some
grammar problems, anyone so kind to give me advice?
thanks a lot.
Posted by: hanna | August 24, 2018 at 01:54

Dear Kata
Thanks for your advice. The fourth item you mentioned
was to describe the changes in several times a week at
overview patr, am I right?
Posted by: Claire | August 24, 2018 at 04:28

@Claire
The overview needs to answer Simon's two questions:
A:(3) the overall trend was to eat at fast food restaurant
less frequently
B:(4) around 60% of Americans ate out at fast food
restaurants throughout the period at least once a month
but not more than once a week.
We can then follow with a paragraph each giving
supporting details.
Posted by: Kata | August 24, 2018 at 05:40

My introduce for this table

(1) The table demonstrates the frequencies of/how
often American people eating at fast food restaurants
from 2003 to 2013.
(2) The table illustrates the percentage of Americans
eating at fast food restaurants, divided into six
categories according to a frequency between 2003 and
2013.
I think we should not use "eat out" instead of "eat at fast
food restaurants", because "eat out" does not express
very specifically what the table mentioned.
Posted by: Chloe | August 24, 2018 at 09:19

The chart above gives us information about frequency

of eating at fast food restaurants among people living in
the USA. It seems like people who eat at a fast food
restaurant everyday has the lowest frequency from
2003 to 2013. It was followed by people who eat
several times a week with 17% in 2003. This had
dropped to 16% in 2013 so it’s obvious that the
percentage did not change too much. The percentage
of people eating at a fast food restaurant once a week
reached peak at 30% in 2003 but it had dropped to
27% in 2013. So it appears that people were not likely
to eat at fast food restaurants anymore. People eating
once or twice a month is at 30% in 2003 but it has
increased slightly by 2013 with 32%. since than there
has been a dramatic decrease such that people eating
at fast food restaurants a few times a year is at 14% in
2003 and 15% in 2013. The percentage of people
never eat at a fast food restaurant is at between 4%-5%
in all years.
Posted by: gk | August 24, 2018 at 09:56

@gk
Band 5: "recounts detail mechanically with no clear
overview"
Posted by: Kata | August 24, 2018 at 11:43

The bar chart gives information on how frequent people

in the USA go to fast food restaurants between 2003
and 2013.
Generally, people eat at fast food restaurants more or
less once a week over the period shown, and the
percentage of people eating fast food on a daily basis is
as much as those who never consume it.
In 2003, approximately 32% and 30% of Americans
respectively ate fast food once a week and once or
twice a month. This is about a quarter of a difference
from those who consumed it daily and from those who
did not. A similar trend can be seen in 2006 wherein
there was an increase of about 3-5% on those who
frequented fast food restaurants once a week and
several times a week. Daily consumption and those
who do not go to fast food restaurants remained the
lowest, at less than 5 percent.
Over the next ten years, in 2013, people in the US had
notably lessened going to fast food restaurants. With
the same percentage of people going once a week in
2006, it had gone less frequent by just once or twice a
month in 2013 (around 33%). The percentage of US
people going to fast food restaurants every day, several
times a week and those who refrain from it had been
consistently low at 15 percent and below.
Posted by: timothy | August 25, 2018 at 05:05

@timothy
1) If the graph or chart is about the past, then the past
simple would normally be the tense to use. See
Simon's comments here:
http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-
pr/2017/06/ielts-writing-task-1-verb-tenses.html
->The bar chart shows how frequently people in the
USA went to ...
->Generally, people ate
->those who did not
-> was consistently low
2) Band 7 specifies "presents a clear overview of main
trends, differences or stages", so we need to point out
the overall trends in the overview.
3) "Generally, people eat at fast food restaurants more
or less once a week ": not true. Less than thirty percent
did that in 2013.
4) In my view the key features to mention in the
overview are:
a) The frequencies show a "normal distribution" evenly
centered around the middle two cohorts. That is, nearly
sixty percent of Americans fell into the once-a-week or
once-to-twice-per-month categories.
b) There was a trend for frequencies to drop by the end
of the period, and the distribution is skewed right.
http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/data-collection-
analysis-tools/overview/histogram2.html
Posted by: Kata | August 25, 2018 at 12:10

A glance at the bar chart reveals the different changes

in habit of using fast food among American people over
the period of 10 years from 2003 to 2013. In addition,
the frequency of using fast food is compared in 6
different levels ranging from never to everyday.
It is apparent from the information supplied that there is
a vast amount of American people using fast food once
a week in 2003 and 2006. This figure increased slightly
from over 30% to approximately 34% in the three years
later. The percentage of people in this category,
however, fall down to the vicinity of 27% in 2013. The
largest portion in this year, meanwhile, was taken by
the rate of people using fast food once or twice a week.
In stark contrast, the rate of people who use fast food
every day is the lowest figure in all 3 years according to
this diagram. Obviously, a decade from 2003 to 2013
saw a sharply decrease from roundly 4% to a mere of
3% of American using fast food every day.
Posted by: JAMESMT | August 26, 2018 at 05:19

JAMESMT
1) "A glance at the bar chart": see below:
http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-
pr/2018/08/ielts-writing-task-1-students-
questions.html#comments
2) "Incidence" is a useful word for Task 1, and has a
more objective nuance than "habit".
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/incidence
-> The bar chart shows the incidence of eating out in
fast food restaurants ...
3) https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?
content=over+the+10-
year+period%2Cover+the+ten+year+period%2Cover+the+decade+ending%
4) "In addition,... everyday." -> , divided into six
categories/cohorts/groups
5) -> there were a vast number of American people
https://www.google.com/search?
tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=%22there+are+a+vast+number+of+people%22&num=1
6) Where is the overview?? No clear overview = Band 5
for Task Achievement
7) "in the three years later." -> in the three years that
followed/ in the following three years
Posted by: gigi | August 26, 2018 at 07:23

JAMESMT
8) "fall down to the vicinity of ...."
-> dropped to somewhere in the vicinity of
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/in-the-vicinity-
of-ps3-million-1-500-2-billion-years-etc
9) "people using fast food": people use drugs, but eat
food.
10) roundly -> approximately
Posted by: gigi | August 26, 2018 at 07:30

The bar chart compares the incidence of Americans

eating at fast food restaurant in 2003, 2006 and 2013
by 6 levels from "Every day" to "Never" according to
frequency.
It presents a general normal distribution. Most people
(approximately 60%) in the USA chose to eat fast food
"once a week" or "once or twice a month" among this
period, the percentage of which droped dramaticly with
both increasing and decreasing of the frequency and
was down to less than 5% when it was done on a daily
basis or not at all.
In 2003, less than one out of five people ate junk food
several times a week whereas the figure rose to 20%
by 2006 and droped to 16% by 2010. Similarly, a slight
increase (about 2%) has been seen in the percentage
of people eating fast food once a week from 2003 to
2006 and a considerable (about 5 points) decrease
from 2006 to 2013. In converse, at level "once/twice a
month", it showes a U-shape, with 5 point dereases in
the first 3 years and 8 point increases in the last 7
years. No significant changes were seen in category of
"Every day", "A few times a year" and "Never".
In conclusion, the majority of people in the USA who ate
at fast food restaurant did it once a week or once/twice
a month from 2003 to 2013 and there reveals a
lessened trend by the end of the period.
Posted by: whaly | August 27, 2018 at 09:02

@ Whaly
1) If we are talking about a normal distribution or bell-
shaped curve, the extremes at each side of the bell are
referred to as "tails". The tails may be fat or thin, and
the bell wide or skinny.
BTW, these statistical concepts are used when doing
surveys to get the accuracy or confidence level (usually
expressed as 'plus or minus x%'): see here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/68%E2%80%9395%E2%80%9399.7_rule
This means that we could write something like: both
tails (of the distribution), that is, eating on a daily basis
or not at all, were under 5% throughout the period.
2)Spelling:
dramatically : applies to adjectives ending in -ic
dropped : applies to many single syllable (older English)
verbs which double the final consonant to indicate that
the vowel remains short.
EG:
Plan -> planning (making plans)
Plane -> planing (a process to flatten wood)
drop -> dropping
droop -> drooping (a long vowel)
Some verbs have alternates:
travelled (British spelling)
traveled (American spelling)
focussed or focused: either seems okay
3) As far as the trend is concerned, try drawing a line
connecting the points for 2003: it should look like a
sand dune in section.
Then draw the line for 2006. The sand dune has moved
left, so the trend up to this point is for people to eat out
in fast-food places more often.
Finally, draw the sand dune for 2013. It has moved to
the right, so the incidence is down across the board,
below the opening level.
This is the trend that needs to be stated: more frequent
(peaking) in 2006, and then tailing off in 2013. Then
group the detail to support this view.
4) My overview would state that (a) sixty percent of
Americans ate out in fast-food establishments
throughout the period and (b) the chart shows a lower
incidence at the end of the period surveyed.
"there reveals a lessened trend": not found on Google
books. Use either:
c) The chart shows a downward trend, OR
d) There was a downward trend
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?
content=*_ADJ+trend%2C+*+a+downward+trend&year_start=1900&year_

Posted by: Beyonce | August 27, 2018 at 11:36

@ Beyonce
Thank you so much for your advice. It helps a lot!
Posted by: Whaly | August 27, 2018 at 15:43

"Median" and "mode" are other useful terms for dealing

with graphs or charts and enable us to focus on the
"middle" value, particularly in a case such as this where
we do not know the average or mean.
Thus, for example, something like:
At the start of the period, the mode (or commonest)
frequency was weekly, applying to over thirty percent of
Americans in 2003, and rising a couple of points by
2006.
By the end of the period, the mode, while still
representing around a third of all Americans, had
shifted to fortnightly/monthly, which betokens a
significant fall-off in patronage.*
In terms of a bell-shaped curve, in 2006 the bell was
fatter and the tails thinner, and by 2013 the reported
customer count (distribution) was skewed toward the
lower frequencies.
*Patronage = customer count
Posted by: Beyonce | August 27, 2018 at 21:18

This chart showed the frequencies of eating fast food

restaurant among people in the USA from 2003 to 2013
in six categories.
The percentage of people who ate out every day and”
never” did it was below 5%. In terms of “ several times
a week”, 20 % of people spent money on the restaurant
in 2006 and slightly down in 2013, while “a few times a
year” kept stably around 15% from 2003 to 2013. The
highest percentage was “ Once a week”, especially in
2006 was more than 30%. A different picture happened
while a significant number of people decided to cut
down on fast food eating habit from once a week to
once a month, making the monthly rate peak at 33%
compared 28 % weekly rate.
Posted by: Phuong | August 28, 2018 at 09:53

@phuong
Your grammar is so bad.
Posted by: SunP | August 28, 2018 at 10:35

@Phuong
Simon usually works through Task 1 step by step, and
this process takes a few weeks. First, identify the main
features. Then how to write the overview, and finally,
writing the detail paragraphs. In the meantime it would
be a good idea to look back through previous Task 1
questions and Simon's model answers and see how
these steps play out. Click on the left-hand sidebar. The
whole thing is very much about having a good
approach, which will automatically improve your score.
Posted by: Beyonce | August 28, 2018 at 11:07

SunP: I'm on the way to learn better. Thank you for your
comment.
Beyonce: I will do as your advice and guidance. Thank
you
Posted by: Phuong | August 29, 2018 at 02:28

Good job, Phuong!

Posted by: Duc | August 29, 2018 at 04:42

The bar graph compares the percentage of

consumption at fast food restaurants in six different
frequency in the years 2003, 2006 and 2013.
It is noticeable that most American people consumed
fast food weekly and monthly. However, American
people reduced the intake of junk food over the period.
In 2003, the highest percentage of consuming fast food
in the USA was once a week at approximately 32%,
and the second was once or twice a month at 30%.
However, there was a slight increase between 2003 to
2006 in the weekly consumption of fast food.
Surprisingly, around 3% of the American population ate
junk food every day, whereas less than 5% of people
had never had fast food over the 10-year period.
The percentage of American people who ate junk food
several times a week increased from 17% in 2003 to
20% in 2006, however, the figure was dropped by
nearly 5% in 2013. In 2013, the weekly consumption of
fast food decreased at about 27%, whereas there was
a significant increase in monthly consumption of fast
food at approximately 33%. Only about 15% of people
ate junk food a few times a year over the period.
Posted by: Tae | August 29, 2018 at 12:20

@Tae
1) "incidence" might be better than "percentage" here.
2) -> six different (frequency) groupings.
3) "most American people" (sounds like 80%) -> a
majority of American people (sounds more like over
half: "the majority" would suggest something like 80%)
4) "weekly and monthly": what about once a fortnight? -
> at least once a month (and cover the detail later)
5) "the highest percentage of consuming fast food" ->
the highest incidence of eating out at fast food
establishments.
This is a long phrase and to avoid repeating it several
times we could switch the sentences around and refer
back to this phrase with "it", or "this":
First, set up the topic with a short general sentence:
a) The incidence of eating out at fast food
establishments shows some variation over the years.
Then refer back using "It":
b) It was 32% in 2003 for the weekly category, and 30%
for the once-or-twice-a-month category. OR The highest
incidence was ....
Another approach is to set up the topic as people:
c) There are significant changes in the way Americans
ate out at fast food restaurants over the period under
review.
d) The highest incidence in 2003 was once a week at
32% .... In 2006 the incidence rose ...