The line graph below shows the oil production and consumption in China between 1982 and 2006.

Sample Response

1

The line chart illustrates the amounts of oil produced and consumedhow much oil was produced and consumed in China from 1982 to 2006.

2

Overall, there wasit can be seen that there was upward trends in both oil production and consumptionan upward trend in both the production and consumption of oil over the periodduring the given period. In addition, oil consumption climbed significantly faster thansignificantly faster compared to oilits production over the 24-year periodover 24 years.

3

At the beginning of the period, the figures for both oil production and consumption were nearly equal, at around 2 million barrels per day. After 8 years, the amount of oil produced rose significantly by 1 million and remained unchanged until 1994. Meanwhile, oil consumptionthat of oil consumed remained stablewitnessed a stability until 1990 and thenuntil 1990, after which it rose sharplyclimbed remarkably to approximately 3.5 million in 19943 million in 1994.

4

From 1994 onwardsIn the second half of the period, oil productionthe figure for oil production increased gradually to about 3.5 million barrels per day by 2006increased slightly to 3.5 million barrels per day. By contrast, the amount of oil consumed grew steadily by 1 million every 4 years, and finally reached a peak of 6 million at the end of the period.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.5

The report has a clear overview, logical chronological organisation and strong control of sentence structure. The main weakness is precision: consumption was about 3.5 million barrels per day in 1994, and its later increases were not uniformly one million every four years. Check each plotted value and interval more closely, then preserve the current concise structure while reporting changes with greater numerical accuracy.

Band score breakdown

IELTS Writing Criteria Scores

TA

Task Achievement

7.0
Scoring rule

The response identifies the main divergence and covers both series across the period, though a few values and interval changes are imprecise.

Next step

Report consumption at about 3.5 million in 1994 and distinguish the smaller 1994-1998 rise from the larger later increases.

CC

Coherence and Cohesion

7.5
Scoring rule

The overview and two chronological detail paragraphs form a clear, coherent progression with effective comparison.

Next step

Link each later-period data point more explicitly to its year to make the progression even easier to verify.

LR

Lexical Resource

7.0
Scoring rule

Trend and comparison vocabulary is varied and generally precise, although a few collocations are unnatural.

Next step

Replace phrases such as 'witnessed a stability' with natural forms such as 'remained stable'.

GRA

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.5
Scoring rule

A good range of simple and complex sentence forms is used with strong control and only minor lapses.

Next step

Refine comparative constructions such as 'faster compared to its production' to 'faster than production'.

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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1

The line graph below shows the oil production and consumption in China between 1982 and 2006.

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