Task 1 Academic · Process diagram · Consumer
How potato crisps are manufactured
A twelve-stage factory process in which half the work happens before any oil is used — and only the strongest answer explains why the order matters.
The question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
The diagram below shows how potato crisps are manufactured.
- 1Potatoes are delivered by lorry and tested for quality and sugar content.
- 2The potatoes are washed in water to remove soil and stones.
- 3The skins are removed by abrasive rollers.
- 4A rotating blade cuts the potatoes into slices 1.5 mm thick.
- 5The slices are rinsed in cold water to wash off surface starch.
- 6Air blowers dry the slices.
- 7The slices are fried in oil at 180°C for about three minutes.
- 8Excess oil is shaken off on a vibrating conveyor.
- 9Salt or flavouring is added in a rotating drum.
- 10Optical cameras detect and remove discoloured crisps.
- 11The crisps are weighed and sealed in bags filled with nitrogen.
- 12The bags are packed into boxes and dispatched to shops.
A 150-word factual summary of a graph, chart, table, process or map. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
Twelve stages that fall into three unequal phases; the 6.5 answer narrates twelve arrows, the 7.5 groups them but miscounts the balance, and the band 9 shows that half the process is preparation before the potato meets any oil.
The three answers
Band 6.5
176 words (the task asks for at least 150)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
The diagram shows how the potato crisps are made in a factory.
First, the potatoes are delivered with lorry and they are tested for the quality and the sugar. Then they are washed in water to remove the soil and the stones, and then the skins are removed by the rollers. After this, a blade cut the potatoes into slices which are 1.5 mm thick.
Then the slices are rinsed in cold water to wash off the starch and they are dried by air blowers.4 Then they are fried in oil in 180°C for about three minutes3, and the extra oil is shaking off on a conveyor2. After that the salt or the flavour is added in a drum which rotates.
Next, cameras check the crisps and remove the crisps which have a bad colour. Then the crisps are weighed and put in bags with nitrogen. Finally the bags are put in boxes and sent to the shops.
Overall, there are many stages to make the crisps and the last stage is sending them to shops.1
What an examiner notices
1. Task achievement
“Overall, there are many stages to make the crisps and the last stage is sending them to shops.”
No count, no shape and no phases. 'Twelve stages in three phases, from delivery to dispatch' would have been a complete overview in fewer words.
2. Grammatical range and accuracy
“the extra oil is shaking off on a conveyor”
A continuous active form where the passive 'is shaken off' is needed. The writer uses the passive correctly elsewhere, so this is a slip under load.
3. Grammatical range and accuracy
“Then they are fried in oil in 180°C for about three minutes”
Temperatures take 'at'. It is a small error, but a common one in process answers.
4. Coherence and cohesion
“Then the slices are rinsed in cold water to wash off the starch and they are dried by air blowers.”
Another 'then', and the final preparation stages are grouped with frying in the same paragraph instead of marking the move from preparation to cooking.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
Compare another question
- Task 1 Academic · Process diagram
How coffee is produced
A strictly linear process that also splits geographically, and three answers that differ in whether they notice the split at all.
- Task 1 Academic · Process diagram
How glass bottles are recycled
A ten-stage recycling process, and a lesson in why a process answer is scored on grouping and passive voice rather than on retelling the arrows.
- Task 1 Academic · Process diagram
The life cycle of the dragonfly
A nine-stage natural cycle drawn as an even circle, where the time spent in each stage is anything but even.