The plans below show a college café before it was redesigned and how it looks now.
Sample Response
The two plans illustrate how a college café has been changed following a redesign.
Overall, the café has become more focused on providing a wider range of food and drink services, while the main indoor seating area remains in the same position. In addition, outdoor facilities and several new service areas have been added.
Before the redesign, the kitchen occupied the upper left corner and was connected to one serving area for both food and drinks. Most of the café consisted of tables and chairs. There were also two small staff dining rooms in the north-east section. The toilets were located in the south-east corner, beside an entrance, and a lift was placed along the eastern wall.
Today, the kitchen and toilets are still in their original locations, although the old serving area has been replaced by a hot-meal counter. The staff rooms have been removed and this space is now used for a takeaway-food counter and a coffee bar. A salad bar has also been installed on the western side. The lift has been changed into a recycling bin. Finally, the redesign has extended the café outside: barbecue facilities and outdoor seating have been built along the southern edge.
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. Correct room location Original: north-east section Suggested revision: northern central section Why it matters: The two staff dining rooms occupy the central part of the northern side rather than the north-east corner.
- 3. Match facility label Original: hot-meal counter Suggested revision: hot-meals counter Why it matters: The plural form matches the facility shown on the current plan.
- 4. Remove unnecessary hyphen Original: takeaway-food counter Suggested revision: takeaway food counter Why it matters: The compound noun does not require a hyphen in this position.
- 5. Specify wall position Original: on the western side Suggested revision: along the western wall Why it matters: This wording locates the salad bar more precisely on the plan.
- 6. Use correct plural Original: a recycling bin Suggested revision: recycling bins Why it matters: The current plan shows multiple recycling bins in the former lift area.
- 7. Sentence rewrite Original: Finally, the redesign has extended the café outside: barbecue facilities and outdoor seating have been built along the southern edge. Suggested revision: Finally, the café has been extended southwards, with a barbecue area at the south-west corner and outdoor seating along the southern edge. Why it matters: The rewrite distinguishes the building extension from the outdoor facilities and locates the barbecue accurately.
- 8. Add unchanged entrance Suggested revision: Briefly note that the eastern entrance remains in the same position. Why it matters: Including this unchanged feature would make the before-and-after comparison more complete.
Suggested Rewrites
- upper left corner north-west corner
- north-east section northern central section
- hot-meal counter hot-meals counter
- takeaway-food counter takeaway food counter
- on the western side along the western wall
- a recycling bin recycling bins
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response is strongest in its accurate, well-organised comparison of the two layouts, with a clear overview and precise coverage of nearly all major changes. Its main limitation is minor imprecision in locating the former staff rooms, and it does not explicitly confirm that the entrance remains unchanged. To improve further, use exact spatial descriptions and include every unchanged feature when summarising the redesign.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Detailed feedback by IELTS writing criterion after the annotated essay.
Task Achievement
A clear overview and accurate selection of nearly all key changes provide strong and comprehensive task coverage.
State the unchanged entrance and locate the former staff rooms more precisely to make the comparison fully exact.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information is grouped logically into overview, former layout, and current layout, with smooth progression throughout.
Refine transitions between retained and replaced features so the comparison becomes even more tightly integrated.
Lexical Resource
The response uses varied and precise vocabulary for spatial relationships, facilities, and changes with natural control.
Choose even more exact location terms where a feature occupies a central rather than broadly north-eastern position.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex and simple structures is used accurately, with consistently clear sentence control.
Continue varying comparison structures while maintaining the same high level of grammatical accuracy.
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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.