The charts below show the percentage of food budget the average family spent on restaurant meals in different years. The graph shows the number of meals eaten in fast food restaurants and sit-down restaurants.
Sample Response
The illustration demonstrates how people’s tendency to have outside meals augmented between 1970 and 2000 and the ratio of food budget they spent on homemade food and restaurant meals. Generally speaking, people ate a higher number of outside meals over the time and their spending on that increased noticeably. As can be seen, people spend one-tenth of their food budget to dine outside in 1970 and had around 40 meals outside the home of which 20 meals were taken from fast food shops. Next decade, their expenditure ratio on homemade food declined and they spend 5% more for enjoying meals from a restaurant. In 1980, they ate approximately 60 meals at a bistro of which roughly 35 were fast food meals. Over the time, their spending ratio on restaurant meals soared and in 2000, they had around 90 fast food meals and 50 sitdown restaurant meals. It is worth noticing that this tendency swelled their food budget for cafeteria meals as they spend half of their food funds to enjoy outside meals.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use natural phrasing Original: outside meals over the time Suggested revision: meals outside over time Why it matters: Meals outside is the natural expression, and over time does not take the article here.
- 2. Clarify the reference Original: spending on that Suggested revision: spending on restaurant meals Why it matters: The pronoun that has an unclear reference in this comparison.
- 3. Use past tense Original: spend Suggested revision: spent Why it matters: The data describe the completed year 1970, so the verb should be in the past tense.
- 4. Separate the relative clause Original: outside the home of which Suggested revision: outside the home, of which Why it matters: A comma is needed before the non-defining of which clause.
- 5. Describe meal category Original: were taken from fast food shops Suggested revision: were fast-food meals Why it matters: The chart classifies the meals by restaurant type rather than showing where they were taken from.
- 6. Add article and preposition Original: Next decade Suggested revision: In the next decade Why it matters: The time phrase requires both the preposition and the definite article.
- 7. Use precise chart language Original: expenditure ratio on homemade food Suggested revision: proportion spent on home cooking Why it matters: This wording accurately names the percentage category shown in the pie charts.
- 8. Distinguish percentage points Original: they spend 5% more Suggested revision: they spent five percentage points more Why it matters: Restaurant spending rose from 10% to 15%, an increase of five percentage points rather than five percent.
- 9. Use correct preposition Original: for enjoying meals from a restaurant Suggested revision: on restaurant meals Why it matters: Spend takes on when referring to the object of expenditure.
- 10. Remove the article Original: Over the time, their spending ratio Suggested revision: Over time, their spending ratio Why it matters: Over time is the correct fixed expression for a gradual change.
- 11. Use neutral trend wording Original: soared Suggested revision: rose Why it matters: Rose describes the overall increase accurately without overstating a single interval.
- 12. Hyphenate compound modifier Original: around 90 fast food meals Suggested revision: around 90 fast-food meals Why it matters: Fast-food should be hyphenated when it modifies meals.
Suggested Rewrites
- outside meals over the time meals outside over time
- spending on that spending on restaurant meals
- spend spent
- outside the home of which outside the home, of which
- were taken from fast food shops were fast-food meals
- Next decade In the next decade
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response identifies the overall rise in restaurant spending and meal frequency and includes several useful endpoint figures. Its main limitation is incomplete and occasionally inaccurate coverage: 1990 is omitted, the 1980 meal categories are reversed, and some values are only approximate. The highest-priority improvement is to organise the report around all four years and systematically compare fast-food and sit-down meals alongside the budget proportions.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The main upward trends are identified, but omission of 1990 and inaccuracies in the 1980 meal figures make coverage uneven.
Cover all four years and verify each category, especially the 1980 values of about 30 fast-food and 35 sit-down meals.
Coherence and Cohesion
The report follows a broadly chronological sequence, although presenting everything in one paragraph weakens the organisation.
Separate the overview from detailed paragraphs and group the budget and meal data into clear, coordinated comparisons.
Lexical Resource
There is some range in trend vocabulary, but several choices such as augmented, bistro, and cafeteria meals are imprecise or unnatural here.
Use standard chart-reporting terms such as rose, restaurant meals, proportion, and fast-food or sit-down meals consistently.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning remains clear despite recurring tense and agreement errors, particularly shifts between past forms and present-tense spend.
Maintain the past tense consistently and check verb forms in clauses describing what families spent and ate.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The charts below show the percentage of food budget the average family spent on restaurant meals in different years. The graph shows the number of meals eaten in fast food restaurants and sit-down restaurants.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.