The maps below show Pebbleton 20 years ago and today.
Sample Response
The two maps detail the town of Pebbleton 20 years ago20 years in the past and in the present day. Looking from an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that the town has become more residential and has become more accessible to pedestriansoffers more access for pedestrians.
The most noteworthy changes to the town relate to the expansion of housing. AtOn the northern end of the narrow peninsula, there are now additional houses and the old fort has been replaced bywith a children’s playground (adjacent to a new community centre), though the lighthouse remains unchanged. South of the community centre are new tennis courts between Lighthouse Lane and a footpath leading to a footbridge near the school on Coast Roadthat link with a footpath (as well as Lighthouse Lane) and footbridge that connects with the school (along Coast Road) on the other side of a small river.
The final change is that a former film studio on the southwestern tip of the peninsula is nowpresently a block of flats. The areas that have remained the same are the main roads, a playing field on the southern shore (alongside Old Fort Road), and most of the treesmost of the wooded space around the town.
Why this response received Band 9.0
The response gives a perceptive overview and accurately selects nearly all significant changes and unchanged features, supported by precise spatial detail. Its organisation and language are highly controlled, although the description of the new pedestrian route is slightly dense and could be easier to parse. The highest-priority refinement is to unpack that route into a shorter sequence showing exactly how the footpath and footbridge connect the peninsula to the school.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The overview and supporting details comprehensively and accurately cover the major additions, replacements, connections, and unchanged features.
For maximum clarity, distinguish the footpath from the footbridge more explicitly when describing the new pedestrian access.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is logically organised around the overview, major developments, and remaining changes, with cohesive progression throughout.
Reduce the density of the long pedestrian-route sentence so each spatial relationship is immediately clear.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is wide, precise, and natural, including effective language for locations, replacement, continuity, and development.
Maintain this precision while favouring slightly simpler wording where several map features are described together.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex structures is used with consistently strong control and virtually no grammatical error.
Refine the parenthetical structure in the route description to make an already accurate sentence more effortless to read.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The maps below show Pebbleton 20 years ago and today.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.