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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.

221 words AcademicTask 1Multiple Graphs
Task 1

Illustrative target band for this original model answer.

Plan your answer

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Ideas to explore

  • Compare the pace of adoption: refrigerator ownership rose especially quickly between 1940 and 1960, while washing-machine ownership changed more gradually.
  • Identify milestones in appliance ownership: refrigerators reached 100% by 1980, and vacuum cleaners did so by 2000.
  • Set the decline in housework hours alongside rising appliance ownership, while avoiding claims that the charts prove one trend caused the other.

Suggested structure

  1. Introduce both charts, the measures shown and the 1920–2019 period.
  2. Give an overview of the broad appliance-ownership increases and the fall in housework hours.
  3. Compare the three appliances, highlighting their starting points and the years they reached universal ownership.
  4. Describe the housework-hour decline chronologically, noting the plateau at 15 hours between 1980 and 2000.
Useful vocabulary & examples
household ownership
the proportion of households that have a particular item

Household ownership of refrigerators rose to 100% by 1980.

reach universal ownership
be owned by all households shown in the chart

Vacuum cleaners reached universal ownership in 2000.

edge down
decrease slightly

Washing-machine ownership edged down between 1960 and 1980.

remain at that level
stay unchanged at a previously stated figure

Housework time remained at 15 hours per week from 1980 to 2000.

Task Prompt

The charts below show the changes in ownership of electrical appliances and amount of time doing housework and households in one country between 1920 and 2019. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
IELTS Writing Task 1 visual

User Essay Analysis

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Band 8.0

The two line graphs illustrate the changing trends in the proportion of families who owned a washing machine, refrigerator and vacuum cleaner, as well as the amount of time housekeepers dedicated to house chores in one nation, across the span of a hundred years from 1920 to 2019. It is evident that households with electrical appliances became more common overall, while weekly time spent on housework fell substantially.

Refrigerator ownership started at almost zero in 1920, but climbed rapidly to about 90% by 1960 and reached 100% in 1980, remaining at that level thereafter. Vacuum-cleaner ownership rose more steadily, from 30% in 1920 to 50% in 1940 and 70% in 1960; it then increased to 90% in 1980 before reaching 100% in 2000, where it stayed through 2019.

Washing machines were owned by 40% of households in 1920, rising to 60% in 1940 and 70% in 1960. The figure dipped slightly to around 65% in 1980, then recovered to 75% by 2019. From 1980 onward, ownership remained below that of the other two appliances.

Meanwhile, weekly housework fell from 50 hours per household in 1920 to 35 in 1940 and 20 in 1960. It declined further to 15 hours in 1980 and 2000, before reaching roughly 10 hours in 2019. Overall, appliance ownership rose considerably as time spent on housework decreased.

Targeted Improvement Tips

1
Make the overview a compact comparison of the two broad directions: appliance ownership rose, while weekly housework hours fell.
2
Use the key milestones to compare appliances directly: for example, refrigerators reached 100% in 1980, vacuum cleaners in 2000, and washing machines remained lower.
3
Replace the opening phrase “housekeepers dedicated to house chores” with “time households spent on housework,” then check that every figure is clearly tied to a year.

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