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User-written IELTS example

Writing Academic Task 1 Band 4.0 Example

Original task prompt, user essay, band score, and related examples in the same report workspace.

221 words AcademicTask 1Bar Chart
Task 1

Illustrative target band for this original model answer.

Plan your answer

Try your own response before reading the samples.

Ideas to explore

  • Identify the category that dominates throughout: social welfare leads in all three years, reaching its highest figure in 2014.
  • Separate steady increases from fluctuating or recovering patterns: health and wildlife rise each year, whereas social welfare falls before rebounding.
  • Notice categories that finish at or near their starting values: education returns to 8, while environment ends at 7 compared with 8 initially.

Suggested structure

  1. Introduce the chart by naming the measure, the six charity types and the 2012–2014 period.
  2. Give an overview identifying the largest category and the broad direction of change.
  3. Describe social welfare separately because its figures are much higher and fluctuate notably.
  4. Group the remaining categories by pattern, comparing their starting, middle and final figures.
  5. End with a concise comparison of which categories finished higher, level or lower than in 2012.
Useful vocabulary & examples
a steady upward path
A consistent increase across successive years.

Health followed a steady upward path, rising from 6 to 9.

fell before recovering
Decreased at first and then rose again.

Environment fell to 5 before recovering to 7.

returned to its starting figure
Ended at the same value as at the beginning.

Education returned to its starting figure of 8 in 2014.

edged up
Increased by a small amount.

Arts edged up from 3 to 4 in the final year.

Task Prompt

Task 1: The chart below shows the donation given to six different types of charity by one company from 2012 to 2014.
IELTS Writing Task 1 visual

User Essay Analysis

Review the public answer with report-style highlights.

Band 4.0

Given is 4 piecharts depicting the data of the two different workers in town A and B from the period of two years between 1960 and 2010, mesured by percentages As we can be seen that the percentage of salers in both town A and B held the most sigificant in 1960. However in 2010, the chart itself gives no information about either town, workers or 2010; instead, it compares one company's donations to six charity types in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Overall, social welfare received by far the largest donations in every year, while arts and wildlife attracted the smallest amounts. Donations to most categories rose between 2013 and 2014. In 2012, around 22 units were donated to social welfare, compared with approximately 16 in 2013 and 24 in 2014. Education and environmental charities each received about 8 in 2012. Education then fell to 6 before returning to 8, whereas the environment figure dropped to roughly 5 in 2013 and recovered to 7 in 2014. Health donations increased steadily, from around 6 in 2012 to 7 and 9 in the following years. Wildlife also rose from about 3 to 4 and then 5. Arts remained at approximately 3 in the first two years and reached 4 in 2014. Thus, the largest increase was for social welfare from 2013 to 2014.

Targeted Improvement Tips

1
Before writing, name the visual accurately: this is one bar chart about a company’s donations to six charity types from 2012 to 2014.
2
Write an overview that identifies the dominant and smallest categories, then support it with the approximate figures shown for each year.
3
Reserve two minutes to check spelling, punctuation and sentence structure; pay special attention to phrases such as “As can be seen” and to the chart’s actual dates.

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