If you’ve ever looked at a diagram in IELTS Writing Task 1 and thought, “Where do I even begin?”, don’t worry — you’re not alone. Many feel unsure when they see a process diagram. But with a clear structure and a little guidance, this task becomes much easier to handle.
Structure to Follow for Diagram Questions
- Introduction
- Overview
- Body Paragraphs
- Body Paragraph-1
- Body Paragraph-2
Let’s walk through it step-by-step using a real example:
The diagram below shows how sugar is manufactured from sugar cane.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Step 1: Understand the question
Before you start writing, take a moment to really understand what the diagram is showing. Ask yourself:
- Is it a linear process (start to end) or a cyclical one (repeats)?
- Where does the process start and end?
- How many steps are there?
- What is the final result?
This helps you plan your response with confidence.
✍️ Step:2 Write an Introduction
This part is simple and short — just paraphrase the question in your own words in 1–2 sentences.
✅ Include:
- Mention what the diagram shows
- Indentify the subject
- If the question says-
- ‘The diagram shows how books are printed’ then you could write ‘The diagram illustrates the process of printing books’ and
- ‘The diagram shows the process of making a cup of tea.’ then you could write ‘The diagram explains how a cup of tea is made’.
💡 Useful expressions:
- The diagram illustrates…
- The diagram shows…
- The diagram explains…
- The diagram depicts…
- The diagram describes…
From the question:
| How to start | The diagram illustrates |
| What the graph is about | the process of manufacturing sugar from sugarcane. |
| How to paraphrase? | Use synonyms or change the sentence structure from the question. shows → illustrates how sugar is manufactured from sugar cane. → the process of manufacturing sugar from sugarcane. |
And this is a possible way to writing the introduction:
The diagram illustrates the process of manufacturing/producing sugar from sugarcane.
👀 Step 2: Write an Overview
Now, give a big-picture summary. This is one of the most important parts of your essay.
✅ Include:
- Number of stages or steps.
- Starting and ending stages or steps.
Start your overview like this:
- Overall, …
- Overall, it can be seen that…
- It is clear that…
- In general…
And this is a possible way to writing the overview:
Overall, the manufacturing process of sugar from sugarcane consists of seven different stages and a number of different tools and infrastructures, starts with growing sugar cane and ends with drying and cooling the sugar.
📌 Step 4: Write Body paragraphs
Now it’s time for the details. To keep things clear and organized, divide the steps into two paragraphs. You don’t need a perfect formula — just group a few steps logically.
✅ Include:
- Explain each stage clearly, using linking words and proper grammar.
- Follow the tense shown in the diagram (usually present simple).
- Learn sentence structures using ‘Voice’ (specially passive voice)
And this is a possible way to writing the body paragraphs:
At the first stage of the process, sugar canes are grown in fields, which usually takes 12 to 18 months. After that, they are harvested either by hand or with the help of machines. Next, the harvested sugar cane is crushed to get the juice.
In the following stage/In the next stage, the juice is purified using a limestone filter. In the fifth stage, the clean juice is heated in an evaporator, where it becomes syrup. After this, the syrup goes into a centrifuge, which helps to separate the sugar crystals from the syrup. Finally, the sugar crystals are dried and cooled, and the final product is ready to be used.
✨ You’ve Got This!
Understanding and describing diagrams may seem tricky at first, but with the right structure and a bit of practice, you’ll soon feel much more confident. Clarity and organization are the keys to a high score in Task 1.
Need more practice? Try writing about a few different process diagrams and use this structure each time. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.
