The graph below shows waste recycling rates in the U.S. from 1960 to 2011.
Sample Response
The line graph depicts the trends in waste recycling rates in the U.S. from 1960 to 2011.
The amount of waste recovered in the United States followed a overall upward trendgradually rising trend from 1960 to 2011. The percentage of waste recycled also increased, but there was the recycling rate remained below 35%a lot of waste left unrecycled.
Initially, the quantity of waste recoveredproduced was comparatively lowless, especially from 1960 to 1975, when the total waste recovery was under 10 million tons. The total waste recoveredgenerated started rising and rose sharply after 1985grew drastically after 1985 reaching 86.9 million tons by 2011.
As for the percentageamount of waste recycled, it followed a generally upward patternslowly rising pattern from 6.4% in 1960 to 10.1% in 1985. There was a rise in the percentage of waste recycled from 1990 and this amount increased and reached 34.7% in 2011, which was the highest amount of waste recycled in the given time period, although this percentage of waste recycled is quite low.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response clearly conveys that both recovery volume and recycling percentage rose over time, and it supports these trends with several accurate figures. The main limitation is inaccurate labelling of recovered waste as waste produced or generated, while the comment about unrecycled waste adds little to the visual summary. The priority is to preserve the graph's exact series names and compare their different rates of growth more directly.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The main upward trends and several key values are reported accurately, but the response repeatedly confuses total waste recovery with waste production or generation.
Use the graph's exact measure names throughout and replace the subjective comment about unrecycled waste with a sharper comparison of the two trends.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response progresses clearly from an overview to separate discussion of recovery volume and recycling percentage.
Reduce repetition in the final paragraph and use a more direct comparison to connect the two series.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is adequate for describing change, but repeated wording and inaccurate choices such as 'waste produced' reduce precision.
Build a more exact set of graph terms, distinguishing 'amount recovered', 'recycling rate', and 'percentage recycled'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Sentence structures are varied and mostly accurate, with a few punctuation and clause-control lapses that do not impede meaning.
Check comma placement around time phrases and simplify long coordinated clauses to improve control.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The graph below shows waste recycling rates in the U.S. from 1960 to 2011.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.