The bar chart shows the percentage of households with cars in a European country between 1971 to 2001.
Sample Response
The yielded bar charts demonstrate how many families lived with the car in a European country from 1971 to 2001.
Overall, it can be clearly seen that no car households were on downwards trend year by year whereas, for other two it was upwards except 1991.
For no car, 45% households had no car in 1971 which declined slightly 5% after a decade, In 2001 it was 30. For single-car, in 1971, 35% proportion of families had one car. In 1981 it rose, and the percentage was 42 later it touched its zenith point on account of 50%, between that three decades period dip was 38% in 1991.
For more than 2 cars, a quarter proportion of households had more than 2 cars, and this percentage grew, after a decade it had the same percentage as no car had in 1981. In 1991 it had 31%, and in 2001 with the highest percentage, it was 36%.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use the correct adjective Original: yielded Suggested revision: given Why it matters: "Yielded" does not mean supplied or presented in this context.
- 2. Use singular form Original: charts Suggested revision: chart Why it matters: The task contains one chart, so the noun must be singular.
- 3. Report percentages Original: how many families Suggested revision: the percentage of households that Why it matters: The vertical axis shows percentages of households rather than raw numbers of families.
- 4. Use ownership language Original: lived with the car Suggested revision: owned cars Why it matters: The chart categorises households by car ownership, not by living arrangements.
- 5. Name the group clearly Original: For no car Suggested revision: For households without a car Why it matters: This phrase clearly identifies the household category being described.
- 6. Add the percentage link Original: 45% households Suggested revision: 45% of households Why it matters: A percentage must be linked to its group with "of".
- 7. Express the change correctly Original: declined slightly 5% Suggested revision: declined by five percentage points Why it matters: "By" is required for the amount of change, which is measured in percentage points.
- 8. Fix the sentence boundary Original: after a decade, In Suggested revision: by 1981. In Why it matters: This correction names the year precisely and removes the comma splice.
- 9. Name the group naturally Original: For single-car Suggested revision: For one-car households Why it matters: This is the natural label for households in the one-car category.
- 10. Remove double quantification Original: 35% proportion of families Suggested revision: 35% of households Why it matters: Using both "35%" and "proportion" is redundant and ungrammatical here.
- 11. Name the group clearly Original: For more than 2 cars Suggested revision: For households with more than two cars Why it matters: This phrase clearly identifies the category before its percentage is reported.
- 12. Remove redundant noun Original: a quarter proportion Suggested revision: a quarter Why it matters: "A quarter" already expresses a proportion, so the extra noun is unnecessary.
Suggested Rewrites
- yielded given
- charts chart
- how many families the percentage of households that
- lived with the car owned cars
- For no car For households without a car
- 45% households 45% of households
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response’s strongest aspect is that it identifies the broad fall in carless households and general growth in the two car-owning groups, with a recognizable overview and category-based structure. Its main limitation is frequent inaccurate or unclear detail, compounded by awkward word choices and poorly controlled sentence boundaries. The highest priority is to verify every figure against the chart and express each year-to-year comparison in short, grammatically complete sentences.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response covers all three household groups and gives a relevant overview, but several figures are inaccurate or insufficiently anchored to specific years.
Check each value against the chart, especially the multi-car figures for 1981 and 1991, and report the full four-year pattern consistently.
Coherence and Cohesion
Grouping the details by car-ownership category gives the report an overall progression, although long run-on sentences make relationships hard to follow.
Use one sentence for each major time comparison and connect clauses only when the relationship between years is explicit.
Lexical Resource
Some relevant trend vocabulary is attempted, but frequent collocation and word-choice errors make several descriptions unnatural or unclear.
Prefer accurate phrases such as ‘households without a car,’ ‘fell by five percentage points,’ and ‘reached a peak’ over forced alternatives.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response attempts complex structures, but frequent article, agreement, clause, and punctuation errors reduce clarity.
Write complete sentences with clear subjects and verbs, then check articles, percentage expressions, and comma boundaries.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The bar chart shows the percentage of households with cars in a European country between 1971 to 2001.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.