The chart below shows the results of a survey that sampled a cross section of travelers at a major metropolitan airport about the purpose of their trip. The survey was carried out during four different months in 2002.
Sample Response
The table gives data on the main reasons for travel according to a survey that was conducted atin a major airport in four different months in 2002. A glance at the table reveals that most of the people travelled either for business or holidaysbecause of their business need or for holidays and the highest percentage of people went to visit family during December. Turning to the detailsGetting back to the details, almost two-thirdsthird of the travelers travelledtook the tour in March 2002 for business purposestheir business purposes while the remaining 27%remaining one-third travelled to visit their familytravelled for visiting their family, for holidays or for other reasons. A contrasting scenario could be observed during June 2002 when more than half of the travelers travelled for holidaysmoved to enjoy their holidays while only 29% of them travelled for business purposes. Visiting family and other purposes contributed to the remaining 17% tours by those people. During September 2002During the September 2002, holiday makers dropped to 31% while business travel rose to 53%businessmen travelled more. In this month family visiting contributed to 11% tour in the airport. Finally, in December 2002, a similar percentage of people travelled for businessto make business trips and to enjoy holidays. The highest percentagepercentages of people moved to visit family in this month and this group accounted for just over one-quarter of the travelersthat was slightly more than one-fourth of the travelers.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response gives a clear overview and covers the main monthly shifts, especially the contrast between business and holiday travel and December’s peak for family visits. Its main weakness is imprecise or awkward reporting, including describing March’s 73% business share as almost two-thirds. The highest-priority improvement is to use exact proportions and more natural comparative language while retaining the effective chronological structure.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The overview identifies the dominant purposes and the December family-visit peak, while most monthly comparisons are accurate despite one notable approximation error.
Report March business travel as nearly three-quarters rather than almost two-thirds and include exact figures for the principal comparisons.
Coherence and Cohesion
The month-by-month progression is clear and linking is generally effective, but the single-block presentation limits paragraph-level organisation.
Place the overview in its own paragraph and group March with September and June with December according to their similar patterns.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied enough to describe trends and purposes, though awkward choices such as 'took the tour' and 'contributed to 11% tour' reduce precision.
Prefer natural survey language such as 'travelled for business,' 'accounted for 11%,' and 'holiday travel fell to 31%.'
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses varied sentence forms, but errors with articles, plurals, fractions, and clause construction recur throughout.
Review noun phrases and percentage expressions, writing forms such as 'nearly three-quarters of travellers' and '11% travelled to visit family.'
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The chart below shows the results of a survey that sampled a cross section of travelers at a major metropolitan airport about the purpose of their trip. The survey was carried out during four different months in 2002.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.