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User-written IELTS example

Writing Academic Task 1 Band 6.0 Example

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

183 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 6.0

The bar charts illustrate the amount of money that a company dedicated to six different types of charity between 2012 and 2014. Overall, different growth rates were observed. Social welfare topped the list in two years. There were upward trends in spending for health, wildlife and arts throughout the survey process. According to the charts, the donations to social welfare were 22, 16 and 24 in 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively. Education received 8 in 2012, fell to 6 in 2013 and returned to 8 in 2014. The amount for the environment also declined, from 8 to 5, before rising to 7 in the final year.

By contrast, health donations climbed from 6 in 2012 to 7 in 2013 and 9 in 2014. Wildlife giving increased from 3 to 4 and then 5, while the figure for arts remained at 3 in the first two years before reaching 4 in 2014. Compared with social welfare, these categories received smaller donations throughout the period. Overall, social welfare recorded the highest figure in every year, and health showed a consistent increase across the three years.

Targeted Improvement Tips

1
Before writing the overview, identify the top category in each year; here, social welfare leads in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
2
Check whether each trend is continuous or only overall: arts stays at 3 between 2012 and 2013, then rises to 4.
3
Group categories with similar patterns and include figures for all six, using a consistent format such as “from 6 to 7 and then 9.”

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