My approach:
1) Read the title and labels carefully.
2) Look for 2 main features or trends that stand out. Straight away you can see access for all 4 technologies increase. I also noticed that the growth for CD players and home computers were very similar – steady with similar gains. And the growth for mobile phones & internet use was faster (steeper rise in shorter time). So I decide to focus on those trends and to organize my essay around that.
3) Structure :
1st paragraph: Paraphrase title of chart
2nd paragraph: Overview/summary paragraph where you clearly state the main trends you identified.
3rd paragraph: Details about first trend – CD player & computer
4th paragraph: Details about second trend – mobile phones & internet use
No need for a conclusion since you are just relating data. No need for any subjective interpretations or opinions on the content.
My full essay (165 words):
The graph shows the upward trend of household access to CD players, mobile phones, home computers and the internet in the UK from 1996 to 2003.
We can see that while overall domestic usage for all personal technology steadily increased, there was a more dramatic rise in mobile phone usage and internet access, which had only started to be recorded from 1998.
In 1996, CD players were by far the most accessible at 60 % of UK households, increasing steadily to just over 80% by 2003. Similarly, home computer accessibility also steadily gained about 20% from roughly 30% to 50% domestic usage.
On the other hand, while mobile phones started with the lowest accessibility in 1996 at about 18% usage, it climbed dramatically, surpassing home computers at the beginning of 1999 to about 70% usage by 2003. Similarly, internet access, which roughly only 10% of all households had in 1998, quickly climbed significantly to being used by almost half of all UK households by 2003.