Process diagrams: how a building reuses rainwater
You can write an overview of a process and describe its stages in order, with the passive where people or machines do the work.
Some Academic Task 1 questions show a process: how something is made, or how a system works. There are no figures to compare, so the report is about stages and their order.
At band 7 the descriptors still ask for a clear overview. For a process, the overview gives the number of stages and says where the process starts and ends.
Warm-up
From label to sentence
A diagram has a box labelled Filter: leaves and dirt removed. Which sentence belongs in a report?
Choose the sentence you would write.
How it works
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The diagram below shows how rainwater is collected and reused in a block of flats.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
The method
- 1Follow the arrows
Find the first stage and the last, and count the stages in between. Notice whether the process runs from a start to an end, or goes round in a cycle.
- 2Write the overview
Give the number of stages and name the first and the last. Add one feature of the whole process if there is one: here, the water goes down into the ground and then back up to the roof.
- 3Turn labels into sentences
Labels are notes. Give each one a subject, a verb and articles: filter: leaves removed becomes it passes through a filter, which removes leaves.
- 4Choose passive or active
Use the passive for what people or machines do: the water is pumped up. Keep verbs like fall, flow and run active, because water does those by itself.
- 5Show the order
Link the stages with sequence words. Split them between two body paragraphs at a natural break: here, the way down to the tank, then the way back up.
Words that show the order
For the first stage. To begin with, rain falls on the roof.
For the stages in the middle. Vary them. After that, the water is stored underground.
For a stage that depends on another. Once the tank is full, extra water flows into the drain.
For the end of the process. Finally, the water is supplied to the toilets.
Watch me do one
I follow the arrows before I write anything. The water starts as rain on the roof and ends in the toilets, the washing machines and the garden taps.
Then I count the boxes. There are six stages.
Looking at the whole diagram, one thing stands out. The water goes down into a tank under the ground, and then it is pumped all the way up to the roof. That deserves a sentence of its own.
My overview: Overall, there are six stages in the process, which begins with rain falling on the roof and ends with the water being used in the building and its garden.
There is no detail about the filter or the overflow yet. Those go in the body paragraphs.
A model answer
The diagram illustrates the system a block of flats uses to collect rainwater, store it and use it again. Overall, there are six stages in the process, which begins with rain falling on the roof and ends with the water being used in the building and its garden. On the way, the water travels down to a tank under the ground and is then pumped all the way up to the roof. To begin with, rain lands on the roof and runs into the gutters, from where it is carried down through downpipes. It then passes through a filter, which removes leaves and dirt. After that, the filtered water is stored in an underground tank. When this tank is full, any extra water flows out through an overflow pipe into the drain. In the next stage, the water is pumped up to a second tank in the roof. From there, it is supplied to the toilets and washing machines inside the building, as well as to the taps outside, where it can be used to water the garden.
- TaskThe overview: how many stages, where the process starts and where it ends.
- TaskOne feature of the whole process, which no single box shows.
- CoherenceSequence words take the reader through the stages in the diagram's order.
- GrammarPresent simple passive: the pipes do the work, and the water stays the topic.
- GrammarFlow has no object, so it stays active.
- VocabularySupplied to is the precise verb for sending water to where it is used.
- CoherenceThe second body paragraph picks up where the first one stopped.
Coloured text shows what the examiner is looking for.
Practice with Elita6 questions
Five questions on this diagram and its language, then an overview and paragraph of your own for a new process.
Which is the overview?
Choose the sentence that works best as the overview of this diagram.
Which is the best overview?
The right form
Put the verb in brackets into the form a process report needs.
After that, the filtered water in an underground tank. (store)
Write no more than 2 words.
Active or passive?
Complete both gaps with the verbs in brackets, in the present simple. One needs the passive and one does not.
To begin with, rain (fall) on the roof, and it (carry) down through downpipes.
Write no more than 2 words in each gap.
Linking two stages
Choose the word that completes the sentence.
______ the tank is full, extra water flows out into the drain.
One wrong verb
Which sentence from a student's report has a mistake with the passive?
Which sentence contains the error?
A new process
This time the process is given as a list of labels. Write the overview and the first body paragraph.
A diagram shows how plastic bottles are recycled, in six stages: 1 bottles collected from homes; 2 sorted by type and colour; 3 washed; 4 shredded into small flakes; 5 flakes melted and made into pellets; 6 pellets used to make new products, such as clothing and new bottles. Write the overview and the first body paragraph.
0 / 70 words
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Words to keep
A channel along the edge of a roof that catches rain. Rain runs off the roof into the gutters.
A pipe that carries rainwater from the gutter down to the ground. The downpipes carry the water to a filter.
A pipe that takes away extra water when a tank is full. When the tank is full, the overflow pipe sends water to the drain.
Push a liquid through pipes with a machine. The water is pumped up to a tank in the roof.
Provide something that people need. The roof tank supplies water to the toilets.
One step in a process. The process has six stages.
Before you go
Follow the arrows first: find the start and the end, and count the stages.
Put the number of stages, the first and the last in the overview, with no detail.
Turn every label into a full sentence, with the passive for what people or machines do.
Keep verbs such as fall and flow active, and link the stages with sequence words.
Next: That is the end of Unit 4. Unit 5 is about health, and it begins with the words for health and how to talk about amounts with countable and uncountable nouns.