The chart below gives information about how families in one country spent their weekly income in 1968 and in 2018.
Sample Response
The bar chart compares the information regarding how families in one country spent their weekly earnings in 1968 and in 2018. Overall, families in 1968 spent most of their weekly incomes on food .However, in 2018 people tended to spendtend to spent more on leisure and housing, whilsthousing. whilst food expenditures are relatively lower thanlesser then these two. In 1968, families spent almost 35% of theirthere income on food, whileinto food. while expenditure on housing, clothing, and footwear wasexpenditures on housing,clothing and footwear was only 10%. Household and personal goods took only 8% of their weekly income. On the other hand, inIn 2018 people tended to spend moretend to spent more on leisure and housing. Leisurehousing . leisure took almost 22% whereas 19%whereas , 19% of theirthere weekly earnings were spent on housing. Food was the third largest expense,Then on number three comes food with only 16% of their income.
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response successfully identifies the main trends and provides a clear overview of the shifting spending habits between 1968 and 2018. However, the essay is significantly under-length at only 127 words, which prevents a fully developed comparison of all categories. To improve, expand on the remaining categories such as transport, fuel, and personal goods, while correcting frequent spelling and grammatical errors.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The candidate presents a clear overview and highlights key features like food, leisure, and housing. However, because the response is under-length (127 words), several categories (such as transport, fuel and power, and personal goods) are completely omitted or not compared, limiting the score.
Aim to write at least 150 words by systematically comparing all categories shown in the chart, grouping them logically rather than leaving some out.
Coherence and Cohesion
The essay is organized into logical paragraphs (Introduction, Overview, 1968 details, and 2018 details). However, there are spacing issues around punctuation, and some cohesive devices are used repetitively or incorrectly.
Ensure proper spacing after punctuation marks (commas and periods) and use a wider variety of transition words to connect ideas smoothly.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is generally adequate to describe the chart, but there are noticeable spelling errors ('there' instead of 'their', 'lesser then' instead of 'less than') and repetitive phrasing.
Practice distinguishing homophones like 'there' and 'their', and learn synonyms for spending (e.g., expenditure, consumption, outgoings, allocation).
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Grammar is the weakest area. There are frequent errors in tense consistency (mixing present 'tend' with past 'spent'), subject-verb agreement ('expenditures... was'), and sentence fragments starting with 'while'.
Focus on maintaining consistent past tense when describing historical data (1968 and 2018) and ensure that plural subjects are paired with plural verbs.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The chart below gives information about how families in one country spent their weekly income in 1968 and in 2018.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.