The plans below show a college café before it was redesigned and how it looks now.
Sample Response
The two plans show the changes made to a college café.
Overall, the café has been enlarged and offers more food choices. The staff dining rooms have disappeared, while outdoor seating and several new service areas have been introduced.
Previously, the kitchen was in the upper-left corner, with a serving area immediately below it for food and drinks. Two small staff dining rooms stood in the middle of the northern side. Most of the remaining indoor area contained tables and chairs. Toilets were in the south-east corner beside the lift, and the entrance was on the eastern wall.
In the current layout, the kitchen is unchanged, but the former serving area has become a hot-meals counter. The space once occupied by the staff rooms now contains separate takeaway-food and coffee-bar sections. A salad bar has been installed on the western wall, and vending machines are close to the entrance. The main indoor seating area remains central, although it is smaller because the café extends southwards. This new section has outdoor tables and a barbecue at the far left, whereas the toilets, lift and entrance remain in their original positions.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use compass direction Original: upper-left corner Suggested revision: north-west corner Why it matters: A compass direction describes the plan more precisely.
- 2. Use uncountable form Original: food and drinks Suggested revision: food and drink Why it matters: The uncountable form is more natural when referring generally to refreshments.
- 3. Add definite article Original: Toilets were in the south-east corner Suggested revision: The toilets were in the south-east corner Why it matters: The definite article is appropriate because the facilities are identifiable on the plan.
- 4. Remove unnecessary hyphen Original: takeaway-food Suggested revision: takeaway food Why it matters: This compound noun does not require a hyphen here.
- 5. Remove unnecessary hyphen Original: coffee-bar Suggested revision: coffee bar Why it matters: The open compound is the standard form in this context.
- 6. Correct facility Original: vending machines Suggested revision: recycling bins Why it matters: The current plan labels this facility as recycling bins, not vending machines.
- 7. Sentence rewrite Original: The main indoor seating area remains central, although it is smaller because the café extends southwards. Suggested revision: The main indoor seating area remains central and extends farther south than before. Why it matters: The plan shows a southward extension of the indoor seating area rather than a smaller central area.
- 8. Sentence rewrite Original: This new section has outdoor tables and a barbecue at the far left, whereas the toilets, lift and entrance remain in their original positions. Suggested revision: Outdoor tables and a barbecue have been added along the southern side, while the toilets and entrance remain in place and the former lift area contains recycling bins. Why it matters: The lift does not remain in the current plan, so the comparison must distinguish it from the unchanged facilities.
- 9. Sharpen overview contrast Suggested revision: State that the redesign replaced staff-only and lift facilities with customer service and recycling areas. Why it matters: This would make the overview's central functional change more explicit.
Suggested Rewrites
- upper-left corner north-west corner
- food and drinks food and drink
- Toilets were in the south-east corner The toilets were in the south-east corner
- takeaway-food takeaway food
- coffee-bar coffee bar
- vending machines recycling bins
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response is strongest in its clear organisation and fluent, precise description of most major layout changes. Its main limitation is an important visual misreading: the lift was replaced by recycling bins, not retained, and no vending machines are shown. The highest-priority improvement is to verify every labelled feature against the plan before writing comparisons, especially when describing what remained unchanged.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Detailed feedback by IELTS writing criterion after the annotated essay.
Task Achievement
The response presents a clear overview and covers most key changes, but it misidentifies the recycling bins and wrongly retains the lift.
Check each labelled feature against both plans so replaced and unchanged facilities are reported accurately.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response progresses logically from an overview to the earlier and current layouts, with cohesive comparisons and effective paragraphing.
Integrate the final comparisons by grouping all genuinely unchanged features separately from replacements.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied, precise, and natural across descriptions of location, replacement, and expansion.
Maintain this range while ensuring that labels such as recycling bins are reproduced exactly from the visual.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of sentence forms is used accurately and flexibly, with no notable impediment to communication.
Preserve this strong control while varying the structure of comparison clauses for further stylistic refinement.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The plans below show a college café before it was redesigned and how it looks now.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.