The table below shows types of YouTube ads, their average lengths and how long people watch them.
Sample Response
The table listslists down different types of YouTube advertisements and shows the average length of those ads, as well as the average time viewers spend watching themduration viewers watch these adverts. As can be seen, public service adverts have the highest average length and people’s preference to view YouTube ads greatly varies. Analysing the tabletable data reveals that there are tenthere are mainly ten different types of adverts on YouTube and among them, public service advertisements have the greatest average lengthmaximum length which is approximately 67 secondsapproximately a minute and 7 seconds long. Business & finance, entertainment and lifestyle-relatedlifestyle related adverts average about half a minutehave average half a minute duration while technology ads have a slightly greater average lengthslightly more length – roughly 40 seconds. By comparisonOn the contrary, travel, retail, consumer electronics, clothing and pharmaceuticalpharmaceuticals adverts last for approximately 20 to 30 secondshave somewhat 20 to 30 seconds duration. The average duration of all types of ads shown on YouTube is exactly 38.1 seconds. YouTube users watch an average of 20.4 seconds of these adsslightly over 20 seconds of these ads which is approximately half their average lengthapproximately half the length of the average duration of all ads. Though people watch more than 28 seconds of public service ads, which is higher than that of other types of ads, the ratio between the actual length of ads and the duration people watch them is lower. In terms of this ratio, people watch more portion of entertainment & news, travel, retail and consumer electronics YouTube ads while they skip clothing, technology and business & finance adverts.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response’s strongest feature is its detailed, mostly accurate comparison of ad lengths, including the overall averages and the public-service maximum. Its main limitation is the final interpretation of viewing proportions: clothing and business-and-finance ads are wrongly grouped among those viewers largely skip, while the especially low proportions for public service and lifestyle are overlooked. Prioritise calculating and comparing viewed-time percentages consistently before drawing conclusions.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response accurately covers the main length and viewing-time patterns with several well-selected figures, but its concluding ratio comparison contains important inaccuracies.
Identify entertainment and news as having the highest viewed proportion and public service and lifestyle as having the lowest, based on consistent calculations.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information progresses logically from ad lengths to viewing times and ratios, but the single-paragraph format and a few faulty connectors weaken cohesion.
Separate the overview, length comparisons, and viewing-ratio comparisons into distinct paragraphs and replace ‘On the contrary’ with a comparison connector.
Lexical Resource
There is sufficient range for discussing advertisements and proportions, though recurring phrases such as ‘lists down’, ‘slightly more length’, and ‘watch more portion’ are unnatural.
Use precise combinations such as ‘lists’, ‘is slightly longer’, and ‘watch a larger proportion’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses a variety of sentence forms, but article, noun-phrase, modifier, and comparative errors recur without seriously obscuring meaning.
Review countable noun phrases and construct comparisons with ‘longer than’, ‘a duration of’, and ‘a larger proportion of’.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The table below shows types of YouTube ads, their average lengths and how long people watch them.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.