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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.

209 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

  • Highlight the main crossover: Japan leads in the earlier years, while China overtakes it between 2005 and 2010.
  • Contrast China’s steep late increase with Japan’s gradual decline.
  • Note that the smaller series do not follow one pattern: the US fluctuates, whereas India rises to a peak and then falls.

Suggested structure

  1. Paraphrase what the graph measures and give the years covered.
  2. Summarise the overall ranking change and the main trends without listing every figure.
  3. Compare Japan and the US, using starting points, changes and final values.
  4. Describe China and India together, emphasising China’s sharp late rise and India’s smaller peak and decline.
Useful vocabulary & examples
accounted for
formed a particular percentage or share of the total

Japan accounted for about 26% of Australian exports in 1990.

rose sharply
increased quickly and substantially

China’s share rose sharply after 2005.

fluctuated
went up and down rather than changing steadily in one direction

The percentage for the US fluctuated over the period.

peaked at
reached its highest point at a particular value

India’s share peaked at about 7% in 2010.

Task Prompt

The line graph shows the percentages of Australian export with four countries. The graph below shows the percentage of Australian exports to 4 countries from 1990 to 2012
IELTS Writing Task 1 visual

User Essay Analysis

Review the public answer with report-style highlights.

Band 4.0

Here is a line graph which shows the australian goods exports in the time duration between 1990 to 2012 with the four counteries. Let’s look into it that whats the percentage of goods exporte from australia to the four country which is given in the line graph. Firstly, we can see from the line graph. Japan's share was about 26% in 1990, and it went down to 20% in 1995. After this it became 18% in 2000 and 2005, then around 17% in 2010 and 2012. It was the biggest at the start, but China became highest at the end.

The exports to US was 11% at first. It fall to 8% in 1995 and rise back to 11% in 2000. After that it decrease to 8% in 2005 and 5% in 2010, before going up to 7% at 2012. China was only 2% in 1990 and increased slowly until 5% in 2000. It then grow quickly to 11% in 2005, 25% in 2010 and 28% in 2012. India stayed near 1% in first years, then rose to 5% in 2005 and 7% in 2010. It went down to 5% at end. Overall, China had the largest rise while Japan went lower and US and India changed a little.

Targeted Improvement Tips

1
Write a one-sentence overview before the detailed figures: Japan starts highest, while China rises to become highest by 2012.
2
Check every country-and-year figure against the graph; then group the falling Japan trend separately from the rising China trend.
3
Proofread verbs and plurals, especially forms such as “exports were,” “it fell,” “it rose” and “countries.”

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