The charts below show the proportion of people’s spending on different commodities and services in a particular European country in 1958 and in 2008.
Sample Response
The pie charts compare the proportions of total expenditurepercentage of people’s expenditure on various goods and services in one European country in 1958 and 2008.
Overall, it is clear that while spending on housing, food and luxury goods increased as proportions of total expenditure by 2008increased in 2008 as a proportion of total expenditure, the percentage spent on clothing and travel/transport fell.
In 1958, people spent 22% of their income on housing costs and this rose to 32% in 2008. The proportion spent on food more than doubled from 8% in 1958 to 17% in 2008. A similar increase was seen in spending on luxury goods from 7% to 17% over the same periodin the same years.
In contrast, the percentage of total expenditure on clothing declined dramatically, from 32% to 12%just 12% in 1958 and 2008, respectively. Similarly, the proportion spent of travel/transport fell by more than half to only 6% in 2008. Spending on entertainment, however, remained relatively stable, with a slight decrease from 18% in 1958 to 16% in 2008.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response gives a clear overview and accurately covers every spending category, supporting the main changes with well-selected figures in a concise, logical structure. The principal limitation is a small lapse in phrasing, particularly “the proportion spent of travel/transport,” rather than any weakness in data selection. Prioritise a final check of prepositions and collocations so the otherwise precise language remains consistently natural.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response presents a clear overview and accurately reports all six categories with relevant comparative figures.
Refine the overview by also identifying entertainment as the category that remained broadly stable.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is concise, logically sequenced, and divided into purposeful paragraphs with well-managed contrast.
Maintain this structure while making the relationship between each overview trend and its supporting detail even more explicit.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and precise for describing proportions and change, with just one noticeable collocational slip.
Check preposition patterns after phrases such as “the proportion spent on” to preserve consistently natural expression.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of sentence structures is used accurately, and the isolated preposition error does not affect clarity.
Use a final grammar check to catch small function-word errors in otherwise well-controlled complex sentences.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The charts below show the proportion of people’s spending on different commodities and services in a particular European country in 1958 and in 2008.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.