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Task 1: Process Diagrams

The question

The diagram below shows the process by which glass bottles are recycled. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

1Bottles collected2Transported toplant3Washed and labelsremoved4Sorted by colour5Crushed into cullet6Melted in a furnace7Moulded into newbottles8Returned to shops
The recycling of glass bottles

A different task in three ways

Everything you learned about figures and trends is set aside here.

There are no numbers. Nothing to compare, no percentages, no trends. What is being assessed is whether you can sequence a process clearly and use the grammar that goes with it.

The tense is present simple. A process is timeless - it is what happens, not what happened. The bottles are collected, not were collected, even though no dates are given.

The voice is passive. This is the one Task 1 question where the passive is not a stylistic choice but the natural form, because the agent is either obvious or irrelevant. Nobody cares who washes the bottles.

Why the passive is unavoidable here

Compare two ways of writing stage three:

Active: Workers wash the bottles and remove the labels. The diagram never mentions workers. You have invented them.

Passive: The bottles are washed and the labels removed. Nothing invented, and the focus stays on the material moving through the process - which is what the diagram shows.

If your passive forms are shaky, this is the lesson to fix first, because a process diagram cannot be written well without them. The free lesson on the passive voice covers the forms.

What goes in the overview

A process overview answers three questions, and none of them needs a figure.

  1. How many stages? Count them. The process consists of eight stages. This is the single easiest mark in the whole of Task 1 and candidates leave it on the table constantly.
  2. Where does it begin and end? beginning with the collection of used bottles and ending with their return to shops.
  3. Is it linear or cyclical? Does the output feed back into the input? Here it does - bottles returned to shops will eventually be collected again - which makes this a cycle rather than a line. Saying so is a genuine band 8 observation.

Sequencing language

  • Opening: At the first stage, To begin with, The process begins when, Initially
  • Middle: Next, After that, Subsequently, Once this is complete, At this point, The following stage
  • Simultaneous or combined: At the same time, During this stage, while, along with
  • Purpose: in order to, so that, so as to - useful because many stages exist for a reason the diagram implies (crushed in order to speed up melting would be invention; crushed into small pieces called cullet is description)
  • Closing: Finally, In the final stage, At which point the cycle begins again
  • Avoid: firstly, secondly, thirdly, fourthly... A numbered list is not cohesion, and it runs out of words by stage five.

The same diagram at band 6, 7 and 8

These are our own model answers, written to illustrate each band. They are not real candidate scripts, and the bands are our assessment rather than an official score.

Band 6The stages are all there, but in active voice and joined by then

The diagram shows how people recycle glass bottles.

First they collect the bottles. Then a lorry takes them to the plant. Then they wash the bottles and take off the labels. Then they sort them by colour, which can be clear, green or brown.

After that they crush the bottles into small pieces. Then they melt the pieces in a furnace. Then they make new bottles from the melted glass. Finally the new bottles go back to the shops.

There are eight stages in this process.

Task AchievementEvery stage is covered in the right order, but the overview is one sentence at the end, and the number of stages is the only thing it says.
Coherence and CohesionThen appears five times. The stages are sequenced, but by the weakest available device.
Lexical ResourceSimple and repetitive. Take off rather than remove, make rather than mould.
GrammarAccurate, but active throughout with an invented they. The diagram shows no people, so they has no referent.

What would lift this: Convert to the passive - the bottles are collected, are washed, are crushed - which removes the invented they and immediately raises the register. Then replace most instances of then with varied sequencers, and move the overview to the top with the start and end points added.

Band 7Passive throughout, varied sequencers, overview in the right place

The diagram illustrates the stages involved in recycling glass bottles.

Overall, the process consists of eight stages, beginning with the collection of used bottles from households and ending with new bottles being returned to shops for sale. It is a manufacturing process requiring both cleaning and high-temperature treatment.

At the first stage, used bottles are collected and then transported by lorry to a processing plant. On arrival they are washed so that labels and any remaining residue are removed, after which they are sorted according to colour into clear, green and brown glass.

The cleaned bottles are then crushed into small fragments known as cullet. This material is melted in a furnace, and the molten glass is subsequently moulded into new bottles. In the final stage, these are filled, labelled and returned to shops, where they are sold to consumers once again.

Task AchievementAll eight stages covered, with an overview that gives the number of stages and both endpoints. Nothing is invented.
Coherence and CohesionSequencers are varied and well spaced - at the first stage, on arrival, after which, subsequently, in the final stage. The two body paragraphs split the process sensibly at the crushing stage.
Lexical ResourceAppropriate technical register: residue, fragments, cullet, molten, moulded.
GrammarPassive handled consistently, with a so that purpose clause and an after which relative.

What would lift this: Notice that the process is a cycle, not a line - bottles returned to shops re-enter at stage one. Saying so in the overview would sharpen it considerably. Also, grouping the stages into named phases (collection, preparation, manufacture) would give the paragraphing a stated logic rather than an implied one.

Band 8The cycle is named, and the stages are grouped into phases

The diagram illustrates the process by which used glass bottles are recycled and returned to sale.

Overall, the process comprises eight stages and is cyclical rather than linear: the bottles that reach shops at the final stage re-enter the sequence when they are next collected. The stages fall into three broad phases - collection, preparation, and manufacture.

In the collection phase, used bottles are gathered from households and bottle banks before being transported by lorry to a processing plant. Preparation follows on arrival: the bottles are washed so that labels and residue are removed, and are then sorted by colour into clear, green and brown glass.

Manufacture begins once the sorted glass has been crushed into small fragments known as cullet. This cullet is melted in a furnace, and the resulting molten glass is moulded into new bottles. These are finally filled, labelled and distributed to shops, at which point the cycle can begin again.

Task AchievementThe overview does two things a lower answer does not: it identifies the process as cyclical, and it imposes a structure of three phases which the body then follows exactly.
Coherence and CohesionEach paragraph opens by naming its phase, so the reader always knows which part of the process they are in. The closing clause returns to the cycle stated in the overview.
Lexical ResourcePrecise and unforced: comprises, gathered, residue, fragments, molten, distributed. No padding and no invented agents.
GrammarSustained passive control, with a before being participle, a once perfect passive, and an at which point relative.

What would lift this: Very little. Bottle banks is drawn from the diagram, which is fine, but be careful not to add detail the diagram does not show - that is the one way a process answer loses accuracy marks.

Process diagram mistakes specifically

  • Inventing people. Workers wash the bottles - the diagram shows no workers. Use the passive and the problem disappears.
  • Using past tense. A process is what happens, not what happened. Present simple throughout.
  • Then, then, then. Sequencing is marked under Coherence. Five uses of then is the easiest way to cap that criterion.
  • Adding explanations. Why glass is melted at high temperature is chemistry, not the diagram. Describing what you see is the whole task.
  • Missing the stage count. One clause in the overview - the process consists of eight stages - and most candidates omit it.
  • Missing a cycle. If the last stage feeds the first, it is a cycle. Say so.

Now you try

The diagram below shows how chocolate is produced. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words in 20 minutes.

1Cocoa podsharvested2Beans removed andfermented3Dried in the sun4Roasted and shelled5Ground into liquor6Mixed with sugarand milk7Moulded and cooled
The production of chocolate

Before you check your answer

  • Does your overview state the number of stages, and where the process starts and ends?
  • Is this process linear or cyclical? Unlike glass recycling, this one does not loop - saying it is linear is itself an observation.
  • Is every verb passive and in the present simple? Check for any invented farmers or workers.
  • How many times did you write then? More than twice is too many.
  • Could you group the seven stages into phases - growing, processing, manufacturing?
  • Did you resist explaining why the beans are fermented or dried?

Where to go next

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