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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.

233 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

  • Identify what stayed constant: the stage, auditorium, fourteen chairs and central main entrance.
  • Track the storage room’s relocation from the left side in 2010 to the right side in 2012.
  • Compare the supporting rooms: the 2010 media room and café give way to a different arrangement including a hall, showers and restaurants in 2012.

Suggested structure

  1. Introduce the two dates and the place shown.
  2. Give an overview of the main features that remain and the overall scale of change.
  3. Compare the upper and side areas, including the media room, hall, showers and storage.
  4. Describe the lower rooms and note the café/restaurant and ticket-office changes.
  5. Finish with the features that remain in the same position.
Useful vocabulary & examples
remain in the same position
to stay in the same location in both plans

The auditorium remained in the same position in both years.

be relocated to
to be moved to a different place

The media room was relocated to the left side of the theater.

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

The café was replaced by a restaurant area.

occupy the upper area
to be situated in the top section of a plan

The hall occupied the upper area in 2012.

Task Prompt

The plans below show a theater in 2010 and 2012. 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 8.0

The maps illustrate the transformations that took place in a small theatre from 2010 to 2012. Overall, this place underwent several modifications, with the expansion of the theatre and the rearrangement of its facilities. In 2010, the audiences could access this theatre by a main door in the south. To the left of the entry, there were an admin office and a ticket office, while a café occupied the lower-right corner. The media room was positioned north of the stage, and a storage area ran along the upper-left side. The auditorium lay immediately south of the stage.

By 2012, the basic arrangement of the stage and auditorium had been retained, but the surrounding rooms had been substantially reorganised. A new hall was added above the stage, while the media room was moved to a narrow strip on the left and storage was relocated to the upper-right side. Showers were also introduced beside the auditorium on its left.

The lower part of the theatre changed notably. The admin office moved to the far lower-left area, with a restaurant below it replacing the former ticket office there. The ticket office was transferred to the lower-right corner, where the café had stood in 2010. The main entrance remained on the southern side, between these facilities. Thus, the auditorium and entrance remained central features, while additional rooms and the relocation of existing amenities altered the theatre’s layout.

Targeted Improvement Tips

1
Revise the overview so it describes added facilities and rearrangement rather than implying that the building’s footprint grew.
2
Organise the 2010 description by spatial zones, then use the same zones to compare the 2012 plan.
3
Replace indirect wording such as “could access ... by a main door” with concise map language such as “the entrance was on the southern side.”

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