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One of the lesser known requirements in writing task 1 for Academic IELTS is that you need to organise the information into groups.
Tip: A clear way to show your grouping is to separate the groups into different body paragraphs. You can also use topic sentences to make it clearer about how you have separated the information.
Grouping the information for data tasks:
Group the information by similarities in the data, not in the subjects.
Thailand pop. 70m
Switzerland pop. 10m
Cambodia pop. 12m
The U.K pop. 67m
In this case it would make more sense to put Thailand and the UK together, and Switzerland and Cambodia together because their information is similar.
Dynamic:
By trend
Group 1: increasing trends
Group 2: decreasing trends
If they all have the same trend, by rate of change.
Group 1: significant changes
Group 2: moderate changes
By time
Group 1: first half
Group 2: second half
Group 1: past data
Group 2: future predictions
Static:
By size
Group 1: big/ large/ high
Group 2: low/ small
By which has a higher figure
Group 1: women have a higher figure/ younger age group has a higher figure
Group 2: men have a higher figure/ the older age group has a higher figure
Maps:
Grouping
For maps, the safest and easiest option is to do it by location. This way, you can describe locations and changes at the same time.
By location
Group 1: changes in the north
Group 2: changes in the south
Group 1: changes in the east
Group 2: changes in the west
Processes, cycles, and flowcharts
These are the easiest to group. You just need to look for a logical place to split it into two parts.
Group 1: first half/ before certain aspect
Group 2: second half/ after certain aspect