The bar charts below give information on road transport in a number of European countries.
Sample Response
The bar charts comparegive information about annual travel distancesmethods of travel and commuting times for six European countries, as well as the average figuresfigure for the European Union. From the information, we can see that distance travelled by carcar use is highest in Denmark at about 12,500 kilometres per person a year, and lowest in Spain and Germany. DeletePerhaps surprisingly, people in Denmarkthe Danish also make far greater use of bus, train, metro and bicycle travelalternative transport than people in other countries, travelling aboutover 3,000 kilometres a year by bus, traintram, metro or bike, more than twice the EU averagewhich is more than double the EU average. By comparison, the British and French travel no more than a thirdless than a third of that distance by public transport. When it comes to commuting times, British commutersdrivers spend about 47 minutes each day travelling to work, the highest figure among the countries shownwhich is more than any other country. In Denmark and Italy, on the other hand, where substantial distances are travelled by public transportmany more people use public transport, commuting times are significantly lower.
Why this response received Band 7.5
The response is concise, fluent, and selects useful comparisons from all three charts, with especially strong control of vocabulary and complex sentences. Its main limitation is that the overview is narrow and some claims are slightly inaccurate or unsupported, particularly the public-transport comparison and the suggestion that British commuting data refer only to drivers. Prioritise a fuller overview that accurately highlights Germany’s near-peak commuting time and the main cross-chart patterns.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response covers all three charts and identifies several important extremes, but it omits Germany’s high commuting time and makes a few imprecise or unsupported claims.
Provide a broader overview of the main patterns across all charts and distinguish clearly between all-mode commuting data and car-specific travel.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically from car use to alternative transport and commuting time, although presenting the entire report as one paragraph weakens the grouping of information.
Separate the overview and the detailed comparisons into distinct paragraphs so each chart relationship is easier to follow.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and precise, with effective expressions for transport use, distance, and comparative trends, despite a small amount of imprecise wording.
Use neutral, data-specific phrasing and avoid expressions such as “Perhaps surprisingly” when the chart itself cannot support that interpretation.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex sentence structures is used accurately and fluently, with strong control of clauses and punctuation.
Maintain this control while shortening the densest comparative sentences to make each factual relationship maximally clear.
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 bar charts below give information on road transport in a number of European countries.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.