6.1.
Tips for process diagram
Process diagrams show how something is done or made. They always show steps/stages.
Here's some advice about how to describe them:
• Try to write 4 paragraphs - introduction, summary of main points, 2 detail paragraphs.
• Write the introduction by paraphrasing the question (rewrite it by changing some of
the words).
• For your summary, first say how many steps there are in the process. Then say
where/how the process begins and ends (look at the first and last stages).
• In paragraphs 3 and 4, describe the process step by step. Include the first and last steps
that you mentioned in the summary, but try to describe them in more detail or in a
different way.
• You could describe the steps in one paragraph, but it looks more organised if you
break the description into two paragraphs. Just start paragraph 4 somewhere in the
middle of the process.
• Mention every stage in the process.
• Use 'sequencing' language e.g. at the first / second / following / final stage of the
process, next, after that, then, finally etc.
• Times (e.g. past dates) are not usually shown, so use the present simple tense.
• It's usually a good idea to use the passive e.g. 'At the final stage, the product is
delivered to shops' (because we don't need to know who delivered the product).
Writing Task 1 - Simon Page 24
6.2. Forecast in Australia
The diagram below shows how the Australian Bureau of Meteorology collects up- to-the-
minute information on the weather in order to produce reliable forecasts.
The figure illustrates the process used by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to forecast
the weather.
There are four stages in the process, beginning with the collection of information about the
weather. This information is then analysed, prepared for presentation, and finally broadcast to
the public.
Looking at the first and second stages of the process, there are three ways of collecting
weather data and three ways of analysing it. Firstly, incoming information can be received by
satellite and presented for analysis as a satellite photo. The same data can also be passed to a
radar station and presented on a radar screen or synoptic chart. Secondly, incoming
information may be collected directly by radar and analysed on a radar screen or synoptic
chart. Finally, drifting buoys also receive data which can be shown on a synoptic chart.
Writing Task 1 - Simon Page 25
At the third stage of the process, the weather broadcast is prepared on computers. Finally, it is
delivered to the public on television, on the radio, or as a recorded telephone announcement.
(170)
6.3. Brick manufactuting
Here are my 2 main paragraphs describing the steps:
At the beginning of the process, clay is dug from the ground. The clay is put through a metal
grid, and it passes onto a roller where it is mixed with sand and water. After that, the clay can
be shaped into bricks in two ways: either it is put in a mould, or a wire cutter is used.
At the fourth stage in the process, the clay bricks are placed in a drying oven for one to two
days. Next, the bricks are heated in a kiln at a moderate temperature (200 - 900 degrees
Celsius) and then at a high temperature (up to 1300 degrees), before spending two to three
days in a cooling chamber. Finally, the finished bricks are packaged and delivered.
6.4. Water cycle
Writing Task 1 - Simon Page 26
The diagram below shows the water cycle, which is the continuous movement of water on,
above and below the surface of the Earth.
The picture illustrates the way in which water passes from ocean to air to land during the
natural process known as the water cycle.
Three main stages are shown on the diagram. Ocean water evaporates, falls as rain, and
eventually runs back into the oceans again.
Beginning at the evaporation stage, we can see that 80% of water vapour in the air comes
from the oceans. Heat from the sun causes water to evaporate, and water vapour condenses to
form clouds. At the second stage, labelled ‘precipitation’ on the diagram, water falls as rain
or snow.
At the third stage in the cycle, rainwater may take various paths. Some of it may fall into
lakes or return to the oceans via ‘surface runoff’. Otherwise, rainwater may filter through the
ground, reaching the impervious layer of the earth. Salt water intrusion is shown to take place
just before groundwater passes into the oceans to complete the cycle.
(156 words, band 9)
Writing Task 1 - Simon Page 27
