The pie charts below show the average household expenditures in a country in 1950 and 2010.
Sample Response
The two pie charts give information about household expenditure on goods and services in 1950 and 2010. It is immediately obvious that there are some quite significant differences between the two charts.
In 2010 the largest proportion of expenditure was on food whereas in 1950 it was on housing, with food accounting for just 11.2%with food for just 11.2%. There is a great difference in terms of housing expenditure between the two years. In 1950, 72.1%In 1950 72.1% of the total household budget went towards housing, compared to only 22% in 2010.
There has been a notable increase in the amount of money spent on transportation between the two dates. In addition, the charts show a significant rise in the proportion of money spent on health care in 2010 compared to 1950.
There are one clear similaritysome similarities, however. For example, in both 1950 and 2010 the share spent on educationthe proportion of education expenditure was roughly the same.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response is concise, logically organised, and mostly accurate in selecting important contrasts, especially the reversal in dominance between housing and food. Its overview remains too general, several sizeable changes are described without supporting figures, and the response falls just short of the minimum length; the priority is to state the principal shifts explicitly in the overview and add selective data for transportation, health care, and other spending.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response selects several important and accurate features, but the overview is vague and some major changes lack figures or coverage.
State the housing-to-food shift clearly in the overview and quantify further changes, including the rise in other spending from 4.4% to 19.2%.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information progresses logically through dominant categories, increases, and a similarity, with clear paragraphing and generally effective linking.
Use the overview to preview the organising contrasts so the later detail paragraphs feel more explicitly connected to the main trends.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is sufficiently varied and generally precise for describing proportions and changes, despite some repetition and an awkward phrase about food.
Replace repeated uses of expenditure and money spent with precise category-based comparisons while keeping wording natural and concise.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of simple and complex sentences is handled accurately, with only occasional awkward construction that does not impede meaning.
Refine compressed comparative wording such as with food for just 11.2% into a fully controlled clause.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The pie charts below show the average household expenditures in a country in 1950 and 2010.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.