The table below shows sales made by a coffee shop in an office building on a typical weekday.
Sample Response
The table illustrates the sales made by a coffee shopsales in a coffee shop in an office buildinga building on a typicalparticular weekday.
Overall, it is clear that the coffee shop has the highest saleshas highest sales of all types of food and drink in the morning from 7.30 to 10.30 except for sandwiches, whereasexcept sandwiches whereas the lowest sales across all categorieslowest sales for the coffee shop for all kinds of food and drink occurstarts from 2.30 to 5.30 except for pastrieswith an exception of pastries.
Firstly, the coffee shop sells higher sales in the morning period, namelymore foods and drinks in the morning section that are coffee (265), tea (110) and pastries (275) than any other periodsection. The coffee shop has their second highest sales in the last section which starts from 5.30 to 8.30 for most of their foods and drinks except pastries, which has the lowest sales among the four sections. It is then followed by the period from 10.30 to 2.30. Interestingly, sandwiches reach theirsandwiches have its peak sales between 10.30 and 2.30, at 200from 10.30 to 2.30 (200). The business hours with the lowest total salesleast sales in foods and drinks start from 2.30 to 5.30.
Not forgetting to mention the fact that coffee is the best seller among all foods and drinks overallon a daily basis, it is followed by pastries. The third best seller in the shop is sandwiches and tea is the fourth.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response is strongest in its accurate overview and sensible selection of the main peaks, low points, and overall product rankings. The main weakness is that some comparisons are expressed vaguely and several sentences contain awkward agreement or reference, which reduces precision despite generally clear meaning. Prioritise pairing each key comparison with exact figures while using clear subjects and consistent singular–plural agreement.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The overview accurately identifies the principal highs and lows, and the response selects relevant daily totals and peak periods with only limited imprecision.
Support more of the period comparisons with exact paired figures, particularly when ranking the lunch and evening periods.
Coherence and Cohesion
Clear paragraphing and a logical overview-to-detail structure make the account easy to follow, despite occasional vague reference and mechanical linking.
Replace vague links such as ‘It is then followed’ with explicit subjects and group the detail paragraphs around time periods or products.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is sufficiently varied for sales and ranking comparisons, but expressions such as ‘morning section’ and ‘sales in foods and drinks’ are unnatural.
Use precise table language such as ‘time slot’, ‘units sold’, ‘recorded the highest figure’, and ‘the least popular item’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response attempts varied sentence structures, but agreement, pronoun, article, and sentence-boundary errors occur regularly.
Prioritise subject–verb and pronoun agreement, especially in phrases such as ‘sandwiches had their peak’ and ‘the shop recorded its sales’.
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 table below shows sales made by a coffee shop in an office building on a typical weekday.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.