The Chart Below Shows the Value of One Country’s Exports in Various Categories

Lilie King
Written by Lilie

7.5 in Academic Writing

April 15, 2021

The chart below shows the value of one country’s exports in various categories during 2015 and 2016. The table shows the percentage change in each category of exports in 2016 compared with 2015.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

This essay question is from Cambridge IELTS 14 Test 2 Writing task 1.

Export Earnings (2015-2016)

the chart below shows the value of one country’s exports in various categories

Sample Essay

The bar graph displays how much one nation’s exports in five different categories were worth in 2015 and 2016, while the table illustrates how much export values for the five categories changed in percentage terms in 2016 as compared to 2015.

Overall, export earnings increased in 2016, in all the categories except gems and jewellery. Textile exports showed the greatest percentage increase that year.

Petroleum products and engineered goods were the two most valuable exports in both years; their values were around $61 and $58 billion respectively in 2015 and then both went up to approximately $62 billion in 2016. Exports of agricultural products and of textiles also both climbed, to roughly $31 billion. Gems and jewellery, in comparison, was the only sector whose export value fell, from about $44 to $41 billion.

Of the 5 export categories, textile exports showed the largest growth in value, at 15.24%. This was followed by engineered goods, petroleum products and agricultural products, whose export values went up by 8.5%, 3% and 0.81% respectively. The export value of gems and jewellery, by contrast, experienced a drop, by 5.18%.

188 words

How to Vary Your Language

Percentage change -> Change in percentage terms

Example     The table illustrates how much export values for the 5 categories changed in percentage terms.

Value
There are two things that could increase.

1) The amount of textiles (in weight) that are exported (sold to foreign countries)
2) The amount of money that is received from exporting those textiles

So, if you don’t state the measurements, you should use a term that reflects how the data is measured, such as “value” in this case, For example, there are no measurements stated in the overview paraphrase, so the word ‘value’ is needed.

Example     Overall, the values of exports increased in 2016, in all the categories except gems and jewellery.

However, you can omit the world ‘value’ if you state the actual measurements.

Example     Textile exports rose from $25 billion to $32 billion.
(but it would not be wrong to include it)

31 CommentsLeave A Comment

  1. Hello, could you review my writing, please?
    The bar chart compares the amount of exported products in billions over a one-year period between 2015 and 2016 in five different branches. The table represents the difference in percentage of each exported branch of products’ proceeds.
    Overall, the graphs demonstrate an upward trend in the income of exports in each category except gems and jewellery over the given span.
    The export earnings of petroleum and engineered goods were the highest, at 60 billion and 58 billion, respectively, in 2015. Profits then rose by 3% for oil products and 8.5% for engineering goods, respectively, in 2016. The values from international trade of agriculture were approximately 30 billion in 2015, and a year later they grew by 8%, only. With regard to the textile industry, the figure underwent the most significant change, increasing by 15.24% from 26 billion in 2015 to 31 billion in 2016.
    However, in comparison, the only sector whose export revenue saw a decrease was gems and jewellery, with a reduction of 5.1% from 43 to 41 billion over the course of a year between 2015 and 2016.

    1. Hello, friend. I’m also a ielts candidate. From my point of view, here shows some advice below:
      In the first paragraph, “one-year period” is superfluous. Also “changes” is more suitable than “difference” Cuz the percentage is from comparing the 2016’s data with 2015’s..
      The second paragraph, it seems like a overview paragraph right? But I can see few features concerning the graph. I think you can write more message in this paragraph.
      The first sentence of the 3rd paragraph has small problem in structure. It might be a better describation ” The proceeds of petroleum and engineered goods were the highest in export market,bababa…”. Also, “a year later”->”one year later”/30 billion (dollars).
      The final pargraph let me feel strange but I cannot find a suitable word to describe it. Its content is so small that the whole article is a little top-heavy. Maybe you can try to move some message from the 3rd to here.
      Finally, hope you get a nice grade in ielts writing.^.^

  2. I wonder if I can mix both charts, or in more than one charts we need to describe each chart in a different paragraph? for instance this writing:
    The following chart illustrates a country’s earnings from exporting five different categories in 2015 and 2016. Additionally the table shows the amount of change in each sector by percentage.
    Overall, It can be seen that the export income increased in all categories except gems and jewellery. Additionally the highest alteration occurred in the earnings from textiles. Furthermore, the highest amount of money earned in both years was from petroleum products.
    The mentioned country had the highest export earnings from petroleum products with around 61 billion dollars in 2015 and it maintained its first place in 2016 by almost 3% rise. Income from engineering products, which were in the second place, increased by 8.5% from 2015 to 2016, becoming almost equal to the amount of petroleum products.

    Regarding textiles, the figure showed the lowest number in 2015, which changing by 15.24%, experienced the highest change among all other categories. This alteration made it reached to just above $30 billion, almost equal to agriculture products which remained stable in 2016. The only category that witnessed a drop in income was gems and jewellery, decreasing by 5.18%.
    I am really looking forward to hearing your reply. Thanks.

  3. Dear Lilie, how does this look? I’m taking the exam tomorrow and I would be very happy to get a comment 🙂 thank you a bunch.

    The chart illustrates the value of exports belonging to one
    country in 5 categories in the year 2015, whereas the table represents percentage change of values between the years of 2015 and 2016.

    Overall, export earnings of petroleum products are the most and textile earnings are the least in both years. Generally, all earnings show an increasing percentage except gems and jewellery.

    While the slightest percentage difference belongs to agricultural products with an increase of 0.81% from around 30 million, the most accounts for textiles with an increase of 15.24% from slightly over than 25 million in 2015 to around 30, in 2016. Additionally, the only decreasing trend from over around 42 million to almost 40, is for gems and jewellery with 5.18% in 2016. Although the percentage change is similar for petroleum goods and Gems and Jewellery with 3% and 5.18% respectively, they present opposite trends. Moreover, the percentage change of textiles is followed by engineering goods with 8.5% which can be considered close.

  4. Can you check my writings below
    The bar chart depicts the earnings of an individual country by exporting goods during 2015 and 2016, and the table displays the rate of change in a single category in 2016 compared to 2015.
    Overall, the country earned the highest by exporting petroleum and engineered goods in 2015 and 2016, whereas textile was the lowest contributing sector.
    Petroleum and engineered goods were the highest exported sectors in 2015, from where the country earned a lot of foreign exchange at around 60 and 57 billion dollars, respectively. These sectors remained the highest in the following year, leading by 3 and 8.5 percent at approximately 63 and 61 billion dollars.
    Gems and Jewellery, agricultural products, and textiles did not contribute more than 45 billion dollars. The country earned around 46, 31, and 26 billion dollars from these sectors individually in 2015. In 2016, the earnings decreased by 5.18 percent in the gems and jewelry sector.
    In 2016, the earning from the farming sector was almost the same as in 2015, but it increased in the textile department by 15.24 percent and stood the same as the agricultural sector at around 31 billion dollars.

  5. Respected madam,
    in one of your last videos, you instructed that if the given value is less than 10, we have to write in figures instead of numbers, but in the above introduction paragraph, you write 5 in numbers. Please clarify why is this the case.

  6. Please lilie provide your valuable comment on this, we can write this way as well ?

    The bar chart and table illustrate the information about product categories of export earnings in comparison between 2015 and 2016. The unit amounts are given in billion.

    Overall, it can be seen that in both 2015 and 2016, all categories had rose regularly except gems and jewellery which had decreased to 5.18% from 2015 to 2016. Furthermore, In both years, the most and least exported items were the same product, namely petroleum and Textiles respectively.

    In 2015, all types of products can be seen to continually decline. The product with the highest sales was petroleum which was 60 billion. Engineered goods and gems were approximately 57 and 43 billion, respectively. However, the agricultural products were half of the amounts of the largest export year or just over 30 billion.

    In 2016, petroleum and engineered goods had nearly value 60 – 63 billion. Following by gems and jewellery which was 40 billion. finally, the smallest values were agricultural and textiles. Anywish, textiles increased as the highest figures of 15.24% from 2015 to 2016

  7. Madam could you review my eassy below

    The chart illustrates about value of country’s export in different categories from 2015 to 2016.While , The table gives information about the percentage change in every category of exports in contrast with 2016 and 2015.

    Overall , In chart the petroleum products were most exported in both years followed up with the engineering goods. Meanwhile , the lowest exports were of textiles in both fiscal years.In table most of the product category increased. Textile products had the highest percentage change.The engineering product had second most percentage change. However , Gem and Jewellery were only category which declined.
    First looking at the chart , petroleum products had the highest exports earning in both years that is 60 and 62 Billion dollar respectively. The engineering goods export earning in 2015 were about 58 Billion dollar which slightly rise in 2016 to 61 Billion dollar. The Gems and Jewellery exports fell to 40 Billion dollar in 2016.Agriculture products just marginally grew to 31 billion dollar which export earning were same with Textile in 2016.

    Next by looking at the table , Textiles had the far greater percentage change then that of other products which is 15.24 %.Engineering product rise by 8.5 percent.Pertroluem percentage change was three times less than of Engineering goods about 3%.Agriculture had the lowest growth amongst them all 0.81%.The only which decreased was Gem and Jewellery about 5.18%

  8. Can we compare this two in same body paragraph with sperate comparative sentences as both are the same I know unit is different but can we do that in this case ?

  9. The bar chart illustrates the money earned by exports of a country in different parts between 2015 and 2016 in billions, while, the table details the change of each group of exported things in the that period in percent. Overall, the petroleum and engineering products bring more money to the country and all of clusters had a upward trend,except gems and jewellery.
    Although textiles are in the lowest level of making money to country, they were experienced the largest increase among the given categories, by 15.24%. While agricultural products is the second low income maker, they nearly remained unchanged(only 0.8% growth). In the term if gems and jewellery, there were a decrease(5.18%) and their values stayed in meddle of others in the given two years.
    Petroleum products accounted for the most earnings at approximately 60 billions dollars and were witnessed a 3% change. Engineering goods were saw nearly 8.5% change.

  10. Dear lilie,
    I think it would be preferable to mention “in contrast or however” instead of “in comparison” when gems and jewellery’s trend is described. This is because the two last trend are increased, but this witnesses the opposite trend.

    Best regards

    1. Hi, Masoud. You can use “in contrast” or “in comparison” but “however” doesn’t work. Please check the dictionary. You will find many examples showing how the word is used.

  11. Dear lilie,
    Hi, hope you are great.

    I have a question, which is very important to me.
    Can we give the information about the bar chart and the table together. This is because the table shows the differences between them, which can be found in the bar chart.
    I made a report for the petroleum and testiles goods, as an example:

    “Petroliue products account for the largest export values in 2015 and 2016, both at just over $ 600 billions. Its growth rate, however, was the second least, at 3%. In contrast to petroleum goods, it was textiles that showed the most growth in exports in 2016 compared to last year, making up 15.24%. However, its export in 2016 was still the smallest group, just over $30 billions. ”

    I would appreciate it if you shared your opinion about this approach.

    Sincerely,
    Masoud

    1. Hi, Masoud. In my opinion, your comparisons don’t work. Your description of petroleum products sounds like you’d expect they would have experienced a big increase in value. But, in fact, there’s nothing surprising about their small growth. We want low and stable oil prices, don’t we? I suggest you keep it simple.

      1. Thanks for your reply. You actually don’t need to use synonyms in a task-1 essay. Just use the original wording. Focus on using different sentence constructions instead. You may find the section How to Paraphrase “Carbon Dioxide Emissions” in this blog post helpful.

        Could you be more specific about the verb issues you have?

  12. This chart illustrates value of country’s export in categories like petroleum products, engineered goods, gems and jewellery, agricultural products and textile in between 2015 and 2016 and on the other hand, table reflects the percentage of change in export in the said categories during 2015 and 2016. Overall, it reflects the change of percentage in values and sales of the export.
    In chart, the earning for exporting petroleum products, engineered goods, agriculture products and textiles have been increased in 2016 as compared to 2015. However, only the sale of gems and jewellery has slight reduced during 2016, if we compare from the sales in 2015.
    In table, it reflects percentage change in values of various products during 2015-2016. The highest percentage change in textile which is 15.4%, amongst all other products. Although, the percentage change of export in the category of gems and jewellery is in negative during that period.

  13. Please, kindly help me review this writing.
    The bar chart gives information about a county’s export worth from 5 different categories in two years while the table depicts the change in value percentagewise of the 5 categories in 2016 as compared with 2015.

    Overall, the earnings from export of these commercials increased except in one( Gems and jewelry). Meanwhile, the percentage difference in value of textile was the highest.

    Petroleum products and engineered goods were the most yielding at $60b and $58b each in 2015 and both saw a considerable increase to about $62b and $61b respectively the next year. Similarly, export value of agricultural products and textiles also rose to nearly $32. In contrast, money generated from exporting gems and jewelry fell from $42b to $40b.

    With regards to percentage difference in value between the two years, gems and jewelry decreased with 5.8%. Percentage rise in textile worth was the most significant at 15%. That of petroleum products, engineered goods and agricultural products were 3%,8.5% and 0.18% respectively.

    163 words

  14. ** Would you please review it?

    The bar chart compares a countries’ different export industry earnings while the table shows the rate of change from 2015 to 2016.

    Overall, all the five product categories faced some growth in export revenue after 1 year. However, there was a fall in the gems and jewelry sector.

    Petroleum products contributed the most among the other categories making 60 billion dollars in 2015 and saw a 3% increase in the following year. Engineering goods made 58 billion dollars in 2015, making roughly 8.5% more in 2016. Meanwhile, more than 30 billion dollars worth of agricultural products were exported in 2016 thanks to an increase of 0.81% from the year 2015.

    The textiles industry was the one that made the most improvements in selling its products outside the country within one year. In the year 2015, its earnings were around 28 billion dollars which increased by 15.24% and reached more than 30 billion dollars in the subsequent year. In contrast, the number of gems and jewelry products that generated approximately 42 billion dollars in 2015 declined by 5.18%, resulting in a loss of roughly $2 billion over the period.

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