The graph below shows the average cost of housing in three different areas.
Sample Response
The bar graph compares the average cost of housing in rural, suburban and urban areas in 1990 and 2000. A glance at the graph reveals that housing costs more than doubled in just 10 years. More specificallyGetting back to details, costs of housing in all areas—urban, suburban and rural—areas – urban, suburban and rural areas increased significantly from 1990 to 2000. However, the cost of housing in rural areas increased less sharplydid not increase that much compared to the sharp increasesthe soaring prices in urban and suburban areas. Urban housing costsThe urban housing costs doubled in a decade and the cost of housing in suburban areasand cost of housing in suburban areas increased sharplyincreased a great deal. In contrast to those soaring prices, rural housing coststhe rural cost for housing rose by a smaller amountwent up in a smaller proportion. Like the city areas, it increased but less sharplybut not that much. In 1990, the cost of housing in rural areashousing cost in the rural area was 75 thousand dollarsdollar and it reachedreached to 125 thousand in 10 years. During the same period, housing costs in suburban areasplaces roseascended to 275 thousand dollars from just one hundred thousandjust hundred thousand a decade earlierin a decade earlier. Finally, the housing price in urbanmetropolitan areas went as high as 300 thousand dollars in 2000 from half of that a decade earlierage.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response selects all three areas and reports the key values accurately, with a useful contrast between rural growth and the much steeper suburban increase. The main weakness is a misleading overview claim that housing costs generally more than doubled, alongside repetitive sequencing and several awkward grammatical forms. Prioritise an exact overview stating that every area rose, while only suburban prices more than doubled.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The report covers all categories with accurate figures, but its claim that housing costs more than doubled is not true of rural or urban housing.
Write an overview that distinguishes the moderate rural rise, the doubling of urban costs, and the near-tripling of suburban costs.
Coherence and Cohesion
The comparisons follow a broadly clear sequence, although repetition and the absence of paragraph breaks weaken the organisation.
Separate the overview from the details and group the urban and suburban surges before contrasting them with rural growth.
Lexical Resource
There is sufficient range for describing changes, but collocations such as ‘went up in a smaller proportion’ and ‘ascended to’ lack precision.
Use standard data language such as ‘rose by a smaller amount’, ‘increased from’, and ‘almost tripled’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of sentence forms conveys the comparisons clearly, despite recurring article, preposition, agreement, and word-form errors.
Edit constructions such as ‘reached to’, ‘75 thousand dollar’, and ‘a decade age’ for accurate forms and agreement.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The graph below shows the average cost of housing in three different areas.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.