Back to Writing Hub

User-written IELTS example

Writing Academic Task 1 Band 8.0 Example

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

187 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 8.0

The chart presents the donations allocated by a single company to six distinct charitable categories over the period from 2012 to 2014. Overall, social welfare consistently received the highest donations, whereas arts received the least financial support throughout the three years. In detail, donations for social welfare demonstrated a fluctuating trend: the contributions were at 22 units in 2012, before falling to 16 in 2013 and then rising to 24 in 2014. Education received 8 units in both 2012 and 2014, with a dip to 6 in 2013. A similar pattern can be seen in environment, where the figure declined from 8 to 5, before recovering to 7. By contrast, health was the only category to increase in every year, from 6 units in 2012 to 7 in 2013 and 9 in 2014. Wildlife donations also rose steadily, from 3 to 4 and then 5 units. Arts remained the smallest recipient: it received 3 units in both 2012 and 2013, followed by a slight increase to 4 in 2014. In summary, although social welfare dominated the figures, health and wildlife were the categories with uninterrupted year-on-year growth.

Targeted Improvement Tips

1
Check for ties at the lowest or highest value before describing a category as the sole leader or lowest recipient.
2
Group categories with similar trends—for example, compare education with environment, then describe the steady increases in health and wildlife.
3
Use consistent, natural phrasing for figures, such as “received 8 units” or “the figure rose to 9,” rather than repeating “donations” in every clause.

Related examples for this topic

Compare different bands on the same IELTS prompt.

Browse all