The pie charts below show the percentage of five kinds of books sold by a bookseller between 1972 and 2012.
Sample Response
The three pie charts compare the book sales acrossof five categories in the years 1972, 1992 and 2012. It is noticeable that the proportion of sales for adult fiction and children’s fictionproportion of sold books about adults’ fiction and children’s fiction saw a continued rise in the whole period shown, while biography and other genres experienced a decrease. The largest proportion belonged toThe biggest popularity focused on books of other kinds in 1972, which wasis then overtaken by adults’ fiction in subsequent recorded years.in the following two years. In 1972, adults’ fiction took up 20% of books sold, before increasing to 25% in 1992 and accounting for the largest share. Surging to 45% in 2012, adults’ fiction remained the biggest contributor to book sales. The proportion of children’s fictionProportion of children’s fiction saw a milder growth, from 20% in 1972 to 22% in 1992, before climbing to 25% in 2012.followed by climbing to 25% in 2012. Decline and fluctuation can be witnessed in the other categories. From 1972 onwards,Since 1972, the proportion of books in the 'other' categorycontribution by books on other kinds slid fromto 25% to 20% before dropping to 12% in 2012, compared with a similar decreasecompared with similar decrease of the figure for biography. Travel bookstheme, however, rose first from 15% to 18% in the first twenty yearsthe first half period, then fell to 10% in 2012.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response effectively presents key data trends with a clear overview and accurate comparisons across all three time periods. The main limitations lie in minor phrasing inaccuracies regarding timeframes and recurring missing articles. Focus on refining prepositions, time-period terminology, and article usage to achieve greater precision.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
Key trends and main details are selected and described accurately, including a clear overview of overall increases and decreases.
Ensure time references reflect the 20-year intervals accurately rather than describing them as individual years.
Coherence and Cohesion
The essay is logically structured into clear paragraphs with a cohesive flow between overall trends and specific data breakdowns.
Vary cohesive linking devices to connect key statistics more smoothly between sentences.
Lexical Resource
A good range of trend vocabulary is used, though occasional awkward word choices and prepositions appear.
Refine collocation accuracy when introducing categories, such as using 'books in other categories' instead of 'books on other kinds'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex sentence structures is controlled well enough to convey meaning clearly despite grammatical lapses.
Pay closer attention to article usage before noun phrases like 'the proportion' and correct prepositional pairs like 'from X to Y'.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The pie charts below show the percentage of five kinds of books sold by a bookseller between 1972 and 2012.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.