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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.

200 words AcademicTask 1Table
Task 1

Illustrative target band for this original model answer.

Plan your answer

Try your own response before reading the samples.

Ideas to explore

  • Agriculture is the largest global water-use sector across the displayed period, rising to about 3,000 km³ by 2000.
  • Industrial and domestic use both increase over time, but remain below agricultural use; industry ends at roughly 1,400 km³ and domestic use at about 500 km³.
  • In 2000, Brazil exceeds the Democratic Republic of Congo in population, irrigated land and per-person water consumption; the per-person figures are 359 m³ and 8 m³ respectively.

Suggested structure

  1. Introduce the line graph and table, including their subject and time point.
  2. Give an overview of the dominant global sector and the main country contrast.
  3. Describe the global trend, comparing agriculture, industry and domestic use from the start to the end of the period.
  4. Summarise the table by comparing population, irrigated land and per-person consumption.
Useful vocabulary & examples
per-person consumption
The amount used by each individual on average.

Per-person water consumption was 359 m³ in Brazil.

irrigated land
Land supplied with water artificially to support crop growth.

Brazil had 26,500 km² of irrigated land.

rose from … to …
A concise way to describe an increase between two figures.

Agricultural water use rose from about 500 km³ to approximately 3,000 km³.

remained the smallest category
Continued to be the lowest of the compared groups.

Domestic use remained the smallest category in the graph.

Task Prompt

The charts compare the amount of water used for agriculture, industry and homes around the world, and water use in Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
IELTS Writing Task 1 visual

User Essay Analysis

Review the public answer with report-style highlights.

Band 8.0

The line graph shows global water consumption in three different sectors between 1900 and 2000, while the table compares water use in Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2000. Overall, water consumption increased in all three sectors but agriculture consumed far more water than the other two. Brazil was a much bigger water user per person than the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it also had a much larger population and area of irrigated land.

In 1900, agriculture used about 500 km³, compared with roughly 100 km³ for industry and less than 100 km³ for domestic use. Agricultural consumption rose throughout the period, reaching around 3,000 km³ by 2000, with particularly rapid growth after 1970. Industrial use increased more gradually at first, then climbed to approximately 1,400 km³. Domestic consumption remained the lowest, but also rose steadily to about 500 km³.

The table shows that Brazil had a population of 176 million, compared with 5.2 million in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its irrigated land area was 26,500 km², far exceeding Congo’s 100 km². Per-person water consumption was also considerably higher in Brazil, at 359 m³, while the figure for Congo was 8 m³.

Targeted Improvement Tips

1
Make the overview compare both visuals: state that all sectors rose, agriculture remained dominant, and Brazil’s figures were much higher than Congo’s.
2
When estimating values from the graph, continue using approximate language such as “about” and “approximately,” and compare the starting and ending figures.
3
Present the table data in paired contrasts, using a consistent order: population, irrigated land, then per-person consumption.

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