IELTS Academic Writing Task 1: Reasons for Volunteering (2005 vs. 2015)

The question

How to approach this pie chart question

Pie charts show proportions of a whole. With two pies, the task is to describe how the shares changed or differ.

1. Say what the whole is and what the percentages measure.
2. Overview: the biggest share and the main shift between charts.
3. Compare the largest slices first, then the smallest.
4. Use fractions and percentages (just over a third, roughly 20%).

How to plan this answer

Structure

1. Overview: one sentence stating that helping the community and personal enjoyment were the two main reasons in both years, with enjoyment becoming the leading reason by 2015.
2. Body 1: the 2005 pie, where helping the community (35 per cent) was the leading reason and personal enjoyment (25 per cent) second.
3. Body 2: the 2015 pie, where personal enjoyment (32 per cent) overtook helping the community (28 per cent).
4. Body 3: the smaller categories, such as gaining skills, meeting people, supporting a cause and other reasons, with the changes in each.

Key features to spot

• Helping the community fell from 35 per cent in 2005 to 28 per cent in 2015 and lost its leading position.
• Personal enjoyment or satisfaction rose from 25 to 32 per cent, a rise of seven points, and became the most cited reason.
• The top two reasons together accounted for 60 per cent in both years, so the shift was between motives rather than a change in the top two overall.
• Gaining new skills or experience rose from 15 to 18 per cent, and meeting new people rose from 10 to 12 per cent.
• Supporting a cause fell from 10 to 7 per cent, and the Other category fell from 5 to 3 per cent.
• The data come from the National Volunteer Survey of Country X and are presented as percentages of volunteers' reasons.

Useful vocabulary

• the leading motive: Personal enjoyment became the leading motive for volunteering by 2015.
• to overtake: Personal enjoyment overtook helping the community as the most common reason.
• to account for: Helping the community accounted for 35 per cent of responses in 2005.
• to decline: The share of volunteers citing community help declined to 28 per cent.
• a modest increase: Skills and experience saw a modest increase, from 15 to 18 per cent.
• over a third: Over a third of volunteers cited helping the community in 2005.
• to remain unchanged: The combined share of the top two reasons remained unchanged at 60 per cent.
• to shift towards: Motivations shifted towards personal satisfaction over the decade.
• the least common reason: Other was the least common reason in both years.
• to be cited by: Meeting new people was cited by 12 per cent of volunteers in 2015.

Common mistakes

• Saying that more people volunteered, when the pies show shares of reasons rather than numbers of volunteers.
• Giving significance to the Other category, which is small in both years.
• Using loose labels such as 'fun' or 'hobby' instead of the category names used in the chart.
• Listing all six categories in turn without grouping the changes.
• Claiming the total number of reasons or volunteers changed, which the chart does not show.

Examiner tip: Name the reason that changed rank first, then note that the combined share of the top two stayed the same, which shows the change is between motives rather than in the top two overall.