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User-written IELTS example

Writing Academic Task 1 Band 9.0 Example

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

195 words AcademicTask 1Map
Task 1

Illustrative target band for this original model answer.

Plan your answer

Try your own response before reading the samples.

Ideas to explore

  • Highlight the main transformation: a central seating and table area in the earlier plan gives way to a layout with more specialised facilities.
  • Compare how the east side changes from children's and adult non-fiction books plus an enquiry desk to a lecture room, an information desk, self-service machines and a café.
  • Track the west side from media, adult fiction and a reading room to storytelling, children's fiction, reference books and a computer room; note that the entrance stays centrally located.

Suggested structure

  1. Introduce the two plans and give an overview of the most significant changes and any feature that remains.
  2. Describe the earlier layout, grouping rooms by side or by upper, middle and lower sections.
  3. Describe the current layout using the same spatial framework so the reader can compare positions.
  4. Finish with a concise summary of how the library's range of facilities has changed.
Useful vocabulary & examples
occupy the upper-left corner
be located in the top-left part of a floor plan

The media room occupied the upper-left corner of the library.

be replaced by
be removed and have something else put in its place

The central seating area was replaced by several new facilities.

remain in the same position
stay in the location shown in the earlier plan

The entrance remains in the same position at the centre of the lower wall.

be located opposite
be positioned across from another place or feature

The enquiry desk was located opposite the reading room.

Task Prompt

The diagram below shows the floor plan of a public library 20 years ago and how it looks now. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
IELTS Writing Task 1 visual

User Essay Analysis

Review the public answer with report-style highlights.

Band 9.0

The provided picture illustrates the design of a public library today in comparison to 20 years ago. Overall, the most significant change is that today’s library offers much more than just a place for books. Dedicated rooms now serve a variety of functions, contrasting with the previous design, which primarily focused on traditional book-related activities, whereas the earlier floor plan had a central area of tables and chairs, today these have been removed and the entrance remains at the bottom centre. The former library also contained CDs, videos and computer games in the northwest, children’s books in the northeast, and adult fiction and non-fiction on opposite sides of the central space. A reading room for newspapers and magazines occupied the southwest, while an enquiry desk stood in the southeast. In the current plan, storytelling events and two sofas occupy the northwest, with children’s fiction books below them; a lecture room replaces the children’s-book area in the northeast. All reference books now fill the western middle section, opposite adult fiction books and an information desk on the eastern side. Finally, a computer room occupies the southwest, while self-service machines and a café are in the southeast.

Targeted Improvement Tips

1
Make the overview name the main change explicitly: the library moves from book-related facilities towards events, technology and visitor services.
2
Describe each plan in the same spatial order, such as northwest, northeast, southeast and southwest, to make the comparisons easier to verify.
3
Replace broad references such as “these” with the specific feature being described, especially when several facilities appear in the same sentence.

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