Back to Writing Hub

User-written IELTS example

Writing Academic Task 1 Band 4.0 Example

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

206 words AcademicTask 1Line Graph
Task 1

Illustrative target band for this original model answer.

Plan your answer

Try your own response before reading the samples.

Ideas to explore

  • The coast grows overall despite a small dip between 1987 and 1992, then finishes with the highest visitor total.
  • The lakes show the largest fluctuation: a sharp rise to a 2002 peak followed by a substantial fall.
  • The mountains remain the least visited area at the end, but their numbers increase gradually rather than decline.

Suggested structure

  1. Introduce the graph, its subject, locations and time period.
  2. Give an overview of the broad trends, the lakes’ peak and the final ranking.
  3. Describe the coast’s starting point, brief decline and subsequent rise.
  4. Compare the mountains’ steady increase with the lakes’ rise and later fall.
Useful vocabulary & examples
rose steadily
increased gradually over a period

Visitor numbers for the mountains rose steadily from about 20,000 to 35,000.

peaked at
reached the highest point

The number of visitors to the lakes peaked at approximately 75,000 in 2002.

fell to
decreased and reached a particular level

The lakes’ figure fell to around 50,000 by 2007.

ended as the most popular destination
had the highest visitor figure at the end of the period

The coast ended as the most popular destination, at about 75,000 visitors.

Task Prompt

The graph below shows the number of overseas visitors to three different areas in a European country between 1987 and 2007 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 4.0

As we can see, the line graph depicts the amount of international tourists to different areas in a European nation in the period between 1987-2007. A glance at the graph reveals that there is an increase in the number of visitors in three domains of the coast, mountains and lakes over two decades. Beginning with the coast, about 40 thousand tourists visited this area in 1987. The figure went down a little to around 35 thousand in 1992, but then it climbed steadily and reached approximately 75 thousand in 2007, the highest figure at the end. The mountains had less visitors than the coast at first, with about 20 thousand in 1987. Their number rose slowly to around 30 thousand in 1997 and stayed at this level until 2002, before growing slightly to about 35 thousand in 2007. The lakes started with only 10 thousand visitors. This figure increased to about 25 thousand in 1992 and 40 thousand in 1997. It then rose sharply to a peak of around 75 thousand in 2002, becoming the most popular area at that time. However, the number fell to 50 thousand in 2007. Overall, the coast ended as the most visited area, while the mountains remained the least popular.

Targeted Improvement Tips

1
Replace the opening overview with one sentence that captures both the general rise and the lakes’ peak-and-decline pattern.
2
Check every comparison against the graph: the coast finishes at about 75 thousand, the lakes at 50 thousand, and the mountains at 35 thousand.
3
Proofread specifically for countable nouns and date-range phrasing, including “fewer visitors” and “from 1987 to 2007.”

Related examples for this topic

Compare different bands on the same IELTS prompt.

Browse all