The plans below show a college café before it was redesigned and how it looks now.
Sample Response
The plans compare the layout of a college cafe before its redesign with its current arrangement.
Overall, the cafe has been made more suitable for customers by adding several food and drink facilities. Although the main seating area and toilets have remained in roughly the same places, the former staff rooms have been removed and an outdoor area has been created.
Before the change, the kitchen occupied the upper left corner and included a serving area for all food and drinks. Two staff dining rooms were located beside it, while most of the cafe consisted of tables and chairs. The toilets were in the lower right-hand corner, close to a small bar on the right wall.
Today, the kitchen is still in the same position, but the serving area has been replaced by a hot-meals counter. The staff dining rooms have made way for separate takeaway-food and coffee bars. In addition, a salad bar has been put along the left side of the main room, and the old bar has become a beer-and-wine bar. The central tables and chairs are still available, but a new outdoor seating space, with a barbecue, has been added below the cafe.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Name rooms accurately Original: former staff rooms Suggested revision: former staff dining rooms Why it matters: The original plan labels these spaces specifically as staff dining rooms.
- 2. Hyphenate compound modifier Original: upper left corner Suggested revision: upper-left corner Why it matters: The compound direction is hyphenated when it modifies corner.
- 3. Clarify spatial relation Original: included a serving area Suggested revision: adjoined a serving area Why it matters: The plan shows the serving area attached below the kitchen rather than contained within it.
- 4. Give exact position Original: located beside it Suggested revision: positioned to its right Why it matters: The former staff dining rooms are specifically shown to the right of the serving area.
- 5. Distinguish facility types Original: takeaway-food and coffee bars Suggested revision: takeaway-food area and coffee bar Why it matters: The current plan labels only the coffee facility as a bar.
- 6. Use formal verb Original: has been put along Suggested revision: has been installed along Why it matters: Installed is a more precise formal verb for the addition of a fixed counter.
- 7. State the location Original: are still available Suggested revision: remain in the central area Why it matters: The visual shows that the tables and chairs continue to occupy the centre of the café.
- 8. Describe location precisely Original: below the cafe Suggested revision: outside the café along its lower side Why it matters: This wording makes clear that the new seating is external and runs along the lower edge of the plan.
- 9. Sentence rewrite Original: In addition, a salad bar has been put along the left side of the main room, and the old bar has become a beer-and-wine bar. Suggested revision: In addition, a salad bar has been installed along the left side, the old bar has been replaced by recycling bins, and a separate beer-and-wine bar has been added beside the toilets. Why it matters: The current plan shows recycling bins at the former bar position and a separate beer-and-wine bar below them.
- 10. Keep overview objective Suggested revision: Describe the redesign as replacing staff space with a wider range of customer facilities, rather than judging it as more suitable. Why it matters: The visual supports the structural change but does not directly establish customer suitability.
Suggested Rewrites
- former staff rooms former staff dining rooms
- upper left corner upper-left corner
- included a serving area adjoined a serving area
- located beside it positioned to its right
- takeaway-food and coffee bars takeaway-food area and coffee bar
- has been put along has been installed along
Why this response received Band 7.5
The report is strongest in its clear organisation and accurate coverage of most major changes, including the removal of the staff dining rooms, the new counters, and the outdoor seating area. Its main limitation is visual accuracy: it omits the recycling bins and inaccurately implies that the old wall bar directly became the beer-and-wine bar. The highest-priority improvement is to verify locations carefully and include this notable new facility.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Detailed feedback by IELTS writing criterion after the annotated essay.
Task Achievement
A clear overview and most key changes are presented, but one notable feature is omitted and the account of the wall bar is inaccurate.
State that recycling bins now occupy the former bar area and locate the separate beer-and-wine bar lower on the right wall.
Coherence and Cohesion
The report progresses logically from overview to the former plan and then the current plan, with clear and natural referencing.
Group the current right-side changes together so the relationship among the toilets, recycling bins, and beer-and-wine bar is especially clear.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a sufficient range of accurate map-description vocabulary, including terms for location, replacement, and layout change.
Use more exact spatial phrasing for adjacent features and avoid the slightly evaluative claim that the café is more suitable for customers.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of sentence forms is used accurately and consistently, with strong control of clauses, agreement, and punctuation.
Maintain this control while using a concise contrast structure to distinguish retained, relocated, and newly added features.
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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.