Task 2 · Band 8 path
Process Diagram — How Something Is Made or Happens
No numbers to report. The band is decided by the passive and by how you join the stages.
Recognise the visual
What this visual type shows, the tense and voice it demands, and the traps that cap it at Band 6.
No numbers to report. The band is decided by the passive and by how you join the stages.
Less frequent than charts, which is exactly why it costs marks — many candidates meet their first one on test day.
Also called: Flow chart · Diagram of a process · Life cycle · Manufacturing diagram
Spotting it
How this question is worded
Boxes joined by arrows, with no axis and no numbers
A process. There is nothing to compare and no trend to describe: you are reporting a sequence, and the grammar of sequence is what is being marked.
The diagram shows how … is manufactured / produced
A man-made process. People do the actions, but the people are irrelevant, so the whole report is in the present simple PASSIVE.
The life cycle of the …
A natural process. Nature does the acting, so the ACTIVE present simple is usually correct — "the larva emerges", not "the larva is emerged".
The final arrow loops back to the first box
A cyclical process. It has no end, so your overview must say so, and the last sentence should close the loop rather than stop.
The rule that decides Task Response
Your overview must state how many stages the process has and where it begins and ends — or, if it is cyclical, that it has no end. That is the whole-diagram claim, and it is the one thing a reader who cannot see the picture most needs. After that, every stage must appear, in order, and none may be skipped: unlike a chart, a process cannot be selected from, because a missing stage breaks the sequence.
The standard
What a Band 8 answer to this type does
- An introduction naming what the process produces or describes, in one sentence.
- An overview giving the number of stages and the start and end points (or the fact that it is a cycle).
- Every stage covered, in order — no selection, because a gap breaks the chain.
- The present simple throughout, passive for man-made processes and active for natural ones.
- Varied sequencers and time clauses, not "then" repeated at every step.
- The right technical nouns taken from the diagram's own labels.
Where the band is lost
The 7 traps in this question type
Each of these is a specific, repeatable way to lose marks on this type — not general writing advice.
Active voice for a manufactured processGrammatical Range & Accuracy capped at 6
"Workers put the clay into a mould" introduces an agent the diagram never shows, and repeating it across eight stages turns one choice into a systematic error. The passive exists precisely because the action matters and the actor does not.
The fix
Man-made process → present simple passive at every stage: "the clay is placed in a mould", "the bricks are left to dry".
Passive forced onto a natural processGrammatical Range & Accuracy 6.5
Having learned "processes take the passive", candidates write "the eggs are hatched" and "the caterpillar is emerged". Verbs like emerge, hatch, grow, dissolve and evaporate are intransitive — they have no object, so they cannot be made passive at all.
The fix
Ask who or what does it. If nature does it, stay active: "the eggs hatch", "the larva emerges". If a person does it, go passive.
"Then" as the only connectorCoherence & Cohesion capped at 6
A report that runs "First… Then… Then… Then… Finally" has one cohesive device used mechanically, which the descriptors name explicitly as a Band 6 feature. It also makes every sentence the same length and shape.
The fix
Rotate three kinds of link: sequencers (subsequently, at the next stage), time clauses (once the mixture has cooled, after being fired), and relative or participle clauses (which is then transferred to…).
No overview, because there are no numbersTask Achievement capped at 5
Candidates who associate the overview with data skip it entirely on a process. The requirement does not change: the reader still needs the whole-picture claim, and here it is the number of stages and where the process starts and ends.
The fix
Write it as your second paragraph, every time: "Overall, the process consists of seven stages, beginning with … and ending when …".
Past tense for a processGrammatical Range & Accuracy 6
A process diagram describes what happens every time, not what happened once. The past simple turns a general truth into a single historical event, and like the voice error it repeats in every sentence.
The fix
Present simple throughout, active or passive. The only exception is a diagram explicitly labelled as showing a historical method.
Vague verbs where the diagram supplies the wordLexical Resource capped at 6.5
A process diagram hands you its own technical vocabulary on the labels, and a report that turns "the clay is fed into a chipper" into "the clay goes into a machine" has thrown away the one source of precise lexis it was given. Repeating "put", "go" and "make" across seven stages is what a Band 6 process report sounds like.
The fix
Take the nouns from the labels and choose a verb that fits the action: fed, poured, transferred, stripped, compressed, sealed. One precise verb per stage is enough.
Inventing detail the diagram does not showTask Achievement 6.5
Adding temperatures, durations or reasons — "the clay is heated to 900°C for two hours to strengthen it" — supplies information the diagram never gave. It is the same fault as explaining why a line fell, and it is easy for an examiner to check.
The fix
Report only what the labels and arrows show. Where the diagram gives a figure, use it; where it does not, describe the action and move on.
Quick reference
The Process at a glance
Your overview must state how many stages the process has and where it begins and ends — or, if it is cyclical, that it has no end. That is the whole-diagram claim, and it is the one thing a reader who cannot see the picture most needs. After that, every stage must appear, in order, and none may be skipped: unlike a chart, a process cannot be selected from, because a missing stage breaks the sequence.
Less frequent than charts, which is exactly why it costs marks — many candidates meet their first one on test day.
How to recognise this question
- “Boxes joined by arrows, with no axis and no numbers”
- A process. There is nothing to compare and no trend to describe: you are reporting a sequence, and the grammar of sequence is what is being marked.
- “The diagram shows how … is manufactured / produced”
- A man-made process. People do the actions, but the people are irrelevant, so the whole report is in the present simple PASSIVE.
- “The life cycle of the …”
- A natural process. Nature does the acting, so the ACTIVE present simple is usually correct — "the larva emerges", not "the larva is emerged".
- “The final arrow loops back to the first box”
- A cyclical process. It has no end, so your overview must say so, and the last sentence should close the loop rather than stop.
The four-paragraph structure
Say what process the diagram shows, and what it produces or describes.
Number of stages, start point, end point — or that the process is a cycle.
The first half of the process, stage by stage, with varied links.
The second half through to the end — or back to the start, if it is a cycle.
The traps that cap this type at Band 6
Active voice for a manufactured processGrammatical Range & Accuracy capped at 6
"Workers put the clay into a mould" introduces an agent the diagram never shows, and repeating it across eight stages turns one choice into a systematic error. The passive exists precisely because the action matters and the actor does not.
Fix: Man-made process → present simple passive at every stage: "the clay is placed in a mould", "the bricks are left to dry".
Passive forced onto a natural processGrammatical Range & Accuracy 6.5
Having learned "processes take the passive", candidates write "the eggs are hatched" and "the caterpillar is emerged". Verbs like emerge, hatch, grow, dissolve and evaporate are intransitive — they have no object, so they cannot be made passive at all.
Fix: Ask who or what does it. If nature does it, stay active: "the eggs hatch", "the larva emerges". If a person does it, go passive.
"Then" as the only connectorCoherence & Cohesion capped at 6
A report that runs "First… Then… Then… Then… Finally" has one cohesive device used mechanically, which the descriptors name explicitly as a Band 6 feature. It also makes every sentence the same length and shape.
Fix: Rotate three kinds of link: sequencers (subsequently, at the next stage), time clauses (once the mixture has cooled, after being fired), and relative or participle clauses (which is then transferred to…).
No overview, because there are no numbersTask Achievement capped at 5
Candidates who associate the overview with data skip it entirely on a process. The requirement does not change: the reader still needs the whole-picture claim, and here it is the number of stages and where the process starts and ends.
Fix: Write it as your second paragraph, every time: "Overall, the process consists of seven stages, beginning with … and ending when …".
Past tense for a processGrammatical Range & Accuracy 6
A process diagram describes what happens every time, not what happened once. The past simple turns a general truth into a single historical event, and like the voice error it repeats in every sentence.
Fix: Present simple throughout, active or passive. The only exception is a diagram explicitly labelled as showing a historical method.
Vague verbs where the diagram supplies the wordLexical Resource capped at 6.5
A process diagram hands you its own technical vocabulary on the labels, and a report that turns "the clay is fed into a chipper" into "the clay goes into a machine" has thrown away the one source of precise lexis it was given. Repeating "put", "go" and "make" across seven stages is what a Band 6 process report sounds like.
Fix: Take the nouns from the labels and choose a verb that fits the action: fed, poured, transferred, stripped, compressed, sealed. One precise verb per stage is enough.
Inventing detail the diagram does not showTask Achievement 6.5
Adding temperatures, durations or reasons — "the clay is heated to 900°C for two hours to strengthen it" — supplies information the diagram never gave. It is the same fault as explaining why a line fell, and it is easy for an examiner to check.
Fix: Report only what the labels and arrows show. Where the diagram gives a figure, use it; where it does not, describe the action and move on.
Process questions — frequently asked
There is no data. What goes in the overview?
The number of stages, and where the process starts and ends — plus whether it is a cycle. That is the whole-picture claim here, and skipping the overview because there are no numbers caps Task Achievement at around 5 exactly as it would on a graph.
Active or passive?
Ask who does it. A manufactured process is done by people who do not matter, so it is passive: "the clay is dug", "the bricks are fired". A natural process is done by nature, so it is active: "the eggs hatch", "the water evaporates". Many verbs on natural diagrams cannot be passive at all.
Do I have to describe every stage?
Yes. A process is the one Task 1 type you cannot select from, because every stage depends on the one before it and a gap breaks the chain. Cover them all, in order, across two paragraphs.
Can I say why a stage happens?
Only if the diagram says so. "Held in a drying chamber to remove moisture" is fine when the label reads "drying"; "to make the bricks stronger" is invented, and invented detail costs Task Achievement just as an invented figure would.
Next
Once this type is at Band 8, move to another — Line graph, Bar chart, Pie chart — or check a full essay you have written in the Essay Checker
Go deeper on Task 2
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