Most candidates would rather see a bar chart than a process diagram. A picture of a brick kiln or a water cycle, covered in arrows and unfamiliar labels, feels like a trap. In practice it is the opposite: a process is the most formulaic Task 1 type there is, because the diagram makes the two hardest decisions for you. With a chart you must select which figures matter and group them; with a process, every stage matters and the arrows dictate the sequence. Your only real job is language: the right structure, the right voice, and enough sequencing variety to hold the stages together.
Read the process before choosing a structure
The anxiety comes from vocabulary. A diagram of cement production might label a rotating kiln or a grinder, and you worry you will not know the words. But the labels are printed on the diagram, and you are allowed to use them. What the examiner is actually assessing, under Task Achievement, is whether you cover all the stages, write a clear overview, and report the process accurately. Check labels, arrows, alternatives and quantities carefully. A memorised structure cannot replace reading the supplied diagram.
If you have not yet read our Task 1 overview guide, start there for the general shape of a report. This article covers what changes when the picture is a process rather than a chart.
The four-paragraph structure
A process report uses the same skeleton as any Task 1 answer, adapted to a fixed sequence rather than a data set.
- Introduction (one sentence): paraphrase what the diagram shows. Change the wording, not the meaning.
- Overview (one or two sentences): say how many stages there are, where the process begins, and where it ends. No stage-by-stage detail here.
- Body paragraph 1: the first half of the stages, in order, linked with sequencing language.
- Body paragraph 2: the remaining stages through to the finished product or the point where the cycle repeats.
Splitting the stages across two body paragraphs is not cosmetic: it feeds your Coherence and Cohesion score. Look for a natural halfway point in the diagram, such as the moment raw material becomes an intermediate product, a change of location, or the point where a cycle turns back on itself, and break the paragraphs there.
For a process, the overview almost writes itself: state the number of stages, the starting input, and the final output. Something like 'Overall, the process consists of six main stages, beginning with the collection of raw clay and ending with the delivery of finished bricks.' The Task Achievement descriptor rewards a clear overview, and a weak or missing overview can limit Task Achievement. It is the highest-value sentence in the whole report.
Counting stages and naming the endpoints
Two small decisions make the overview easy. First, count the stages and commit to a number; grouping two minor steps into one stage is fine, missing the big picture is not. Second, name the start and end points in plain terms: what goes in, and what comes out. For a cycle, such as the water cycle, there is no true end point, so say instead that the process is natural and continuous, and name the stage where it begins again.
See a real process diagram and try the structure yourself.
Practise a process questionPresent simple passive: the default voice
Use present simple for a general process unless the task supplies a different time frame. Passive forms are useful when describing what happens to a material: the clay is dug, the bricks are shaped, the mixture is heated. Active forms can be clearer when the actor matters. Choose structures that fit the diagram and use them accurately; a particular voice does not independently earn a band.
WeakNext stage, they put the beans in a big oven and roast them, then grinding to a paste.
StrongerAt the next stage, the beans are roasted in large ovens before being ground into a smooth paste.
The rewrite fixes three things at once: present simple passive (are roasted), a sequencer that is not a numbered list item (at the next stage), and a passive linking structure (before being ground) that joins two stages in one sentence.
The most common slips are dropping the auxiliary (the beans roasted in ovens), sliding into the past tense, or mixing active and passive at random. If passives collapse when you write at speed, the passive voice drill pressure-tests exactly these Task 1 forms alongside conditionals and tense consistency.
Man-made process or natural cycle? The voice changes
The passive-by-default rule has one important exception. Natural cycles often use active verbs such as water evaporates, clouds form and rain falls. Other stages can naturally use passive forms, such as eggs are laid. Forcing the passive onto these verbs produces unnatural English. Read each stage and choose a grammatical form that accurately describes it.
Man-made process
- Default voice: present simple passive (the mixture is heated, the bottles are filled).
- Focus on the material and the machinery, not the people.
- Has a clear start (raw input) and end (finished product).
- Typical verbs: is collected, is processed, is packaged, is delivered.
Natural cycle
- Default voice: present simple active (water evaporates, the larvae hatch).
- Focus on what happens by itself; there is no agent to hide.
- Circular: say the process is continuous and where the cycle restarts.
- Typical verbs: forms, rises, falls, develops, returns.
Some diagrams combine natural events and processing. Choose active or passive according to the verb and focus: natural processes can use passives, and machinery can be the subject of an active sentence.
Sequencing language beyond firstly
Make the sequence easy to follow. Use numbering, time clauses or other sequencers where they help, without treating a connector count as a scoring rule.
- Openers: the process begins when, at the first stage, initially.
- Moving on: once the clay has been shaped, at this stage, at the following stage, after this, subsequently.
- Joining two stages in one sentence: before being fired, after which it is left to cool, where it is stored.
- Perfect passive participle: having been dried, the bricks are packed. Use this only when the sequence and subject are clear; one structure alone cannot establish a band.
- Closers: at the final stage, the finished product is then, and the cycle then repeats (for natural processes).
Phrases such as 'before being ground' and 'having been dried' can express sequence and connect clauses. Check accuracy and clarity rather than treating a phrase as guaranteed credit under two criteria.
Paraphrasing the process title
The introduction must reword the question, and process titles offer reliable swaps. 'The diagram shows the process of making bricks' can become 'The diagram illustrates how bricks are manufactured' or 'The diagram outlines the stages in the production of bricks'. Three moves cover almost every title: swap the verb (shows becomes illustrates or outlines), turn the noun into a passive clause (the process of making X becomes how X is made or produced), and add a frame such as 'the stages involved in'. Do not attempt to paraphrase technical labels from the diagram itself; use them as printed.
The three traps that sink process reports
- Describing stages out of order, or doubling back. The arrows give you the sequence for free; follow them exactly, because a jumbled order damages both Task Achievement and Coherence.
- Adding opinions or explanations. 'This method is efficient' or 'this stage is important for quality' does not belong in Task 1. Report what happens, never comment on it.
- Missing the overview. Candidates dive straight from the introduction into stage one. Give an overview of the main features; a specific stage count or sentence template is not compulsory.
One habit prevents the worst of these: before you write, trace the diagram from input to output and count the stages. Thirty seconds of tracing rules out the out-of-order error and hands you the overview at the same time.
The formula is the whole point: paraphrase, overview with stage count and endpoints, stages in order across two paragraphs, passive for man-made and active for natural, varied sequencers doing the linking. Write two or three practice reports against that checklist and the process diagram stops being the question you dread.