The graph below shows the unemployment rates in the US and Japan between March 1993 and March 1999.
Sample Response
The line graph compares the proportion of unemployed people in the US and Japan overthrough the period from March 1993 to March 1999.
It is obvious that the unemployment rates of these two countries moved in opposite directionschanged oppositely - while the rate decreased in the USA, it increased in Japanwhile it decreased in the USA, it increased in Japan.
The US unemployment rateThe percentage of the US tended to decrease over the years. Meanwhile,However, at the same time, unfortunately, Japan witnessed an overall increasethe rapid growth in its unemployment ratein the rates. By March 1999Nevertheless, in 1999, both nations almost had the similar unemployment ratessame percentage, which means the lowest US ratelowest figures of the US were equal to the highest Japanese ratehighest ones of Japan.
In March 1993, the unemployment rateproportion of unemployment in the US was just over 7%a bit off 7% whereas that of Japan was about 2.5%. It was marked in 1998 when Japan's rate reached the highest point of approximately 5.2%. The contradiction happened to the US: its rate went to the lowest of 4.8%.
Although the trends in the two countriesprocesses of figures changing of these countries were totally opposite, the last numbersDelete, amazingly, turned out to be extremely close. In March 1999, the rates of unemployment in the USA and Japan stood still at about 5.1% and 4.9% respectively.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response clearly identifies the opposing national trends and organises its comparisons into a usable overview and detail sections. Its main limitation is numerical accuracy: the reported 1998 peaks and lows are unsupported, and the March 1999 figures should be about 4.2% for the US and 4.7% for Japan rather than 5.1% and 4.9%. Prioritise reading values directly from the axes before describing turning points.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The overview correctly captures the opposing trends and eventual convergence, but several late-period dates and values are inaccurate.
Use the horizontal and vertical axes to verify each endpoint, peak, and low before including exact figures.
Coherence and Cohesion
Paragraphing and broad progression are clear, although the overview is repeated and some connectors do not express the intended relationship.
State the main trends once, then organise the details chronologically with direct comparisons at the start and end.
Lexical Resource
There is some range for trends and comparisons, but frequent awkward collocations such as ‘the contradiction happened’ reduce naturalness and precision.
Use standard chart phrases including ‘the rate fell’, ‘reached a low’, ‘rose steadily’, and ‘the figures converged’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response attempts varied complex structures, but recurring pronoun, article, noun-phrase, and adverb-placement errors remain noticeable.
Keep each country as the explicit subject of its rate and simplify sentences containing multiple inserted adverbs or comparisons.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The graph below shows the unemployment rates in the US and Japan between March 1993 and March 1999.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.