Task 1: Selecting the Main Features

Why selection is the whole task

The instruction says select and report the main features. Reporting all of them is not thorough - it is the wrong task.

The chart below holds twelve numbers. You have roughly 170 words to spend and about seventeen minutes of writing time. If you report every figure you will use every word on data and have none left for grouping, comparison or an overview - and those are the things being marked.

A band 6 answer typically contains more data than a band 8 answer. That surprises people. The higher answer is not fuller; it is better chosen.

Twelve numbers. Which four matter?

The chart below shows the percentage of adults in three age groups who use four social media platforms. Look for patterns, not values.

Four tests for what to keep

Run these against any chart. Anything that fails all four is detail, not a main feature.

1. The extremes. What is the highest and the lowest value on the chart? Here: Instagram among 16 to 24 year olds at 78%, and TikTok among the over 45s at 9%.
2. The pattern that repeats. Does something move in the same direction across the whole chart? Here, two of them: Facebook use rises steadily with age, while Instagram and TikTok fall steeply with age.
3. The exception. What breaks the pattern? LinkedIn does not rise or fall with age - it peaks in the middle group at 48%. Exceptions are worth more marks than repetitions.
4. The crossover. Where does the ranking change? Facebook is only the third most used platform among the youngest group but the most used among the oldest. Naming that reversal is worth more than five separate figures.

The same chart, described two ways

Both are accurate. Only one of them is doing the task.

What changed between the two

Notice that the second version is barely longer. It is not fuller - it is chosen.

• The second version uses eight figures instead of twelve, and every one of them supports a point rather than filling a slot.
• It groups by behaviour - platforms that rise with age, platforms that fall, and the one that does neither - rather than marching through the chart left to right.
• It names the exception (LinkedIn) explicitly. Examiners look for whether you noticed it.
• It uses comparison language - the only platform, the opposite direction, most steeply of all - which the listing version has no opportunity to use at all.
• The listing version repeats was used by four times. Selection is not only a Task Achievement issue; it decides how much room you have to show vocabulary.

A habit worth building

Before writing, put a finger on the chart and say one sentence beginning The main thing here is.... If you cannot finish that sentence, you are not ready to write - you are still reading.

If you can finish it, you have your overview, and the body paragraphs are simply the evidence for it.

Where to go next

• Now put it into a full answer: Task 1: Line Graphs, with the same question written at band 6, 7 and 8.
• Back up a step: Reading the Question and the Chart.
• Comparison language feeling thin? Comparatives and Superlatives and Modifying Comparatives.