The table below gives information about rail transport in four countries in 2007.
Sample Response
The table compares the data on rail transportdata of railway networks in four countries, namely Malaysianamely- Malaysia, Canada, China and the UAE in the year of 2007. Overall, it is clear that railway was more widely used by Chinese passengers, whereas in Canada, it was used primarily for carrying freightfreighting goods. In detailNow getting back to the details, a large number of people in China travelled by train, which accounted for 27 million in 2007, far exceeding the figures for the other countriesdominating that of the other countries. The highest of the four figuresThe highest out of four, the average travelling distance of Chinese was about two and a half times higherapproximately three times higher than the corresponding figure for Malaysiacorresponding number of Malaysian (770 kilometres). By contrast, rail in Canada carried a vast amount of loads (28.20 billion tons28.20 tonnes) but a mere 0.3 million travellers. It is also noticeable that railway in Malaysia and UAE shared nearly the same patterns in all three categories. The former served 5.9 million passengerscustomers in 2007, while that figure for the latter was slightly lower, 5.5 million. Likewise, there was hardly any difference between the amount of freight carried by train in both countries, at 22.2 billion tonsaccounted for 22.2 tonnes and 21.9 tonnes respectively.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response gives a clear overview and selects the most important contrasts, especially China’s dominance in passenger use and Canada’s heavy freight role. Its main weakness is precision: several units and comparison statements are incomplete or inaccurate, and some awkward phrasing reduces clarity. Prioritise reporting every measure with the correct unit and expressing country comparisons in concise, grammatically controlled sentences.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response selects the key contrasts well: China leads in passenger use and distance, Canada carries the most cargo despite very low passenger use, and Malaysia and the UAE are similar. Some units and comparisons need more precision, especially cargo in billions of tons and China's distance compared with Malaysia and the UAE.
Report all three columns with their exact units and mention Canada's very low passenger kilometres per head as well as its high cargo figure.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response has a clear overview and moves logically through passenger numbers, distance, cargo, and country comparisons.
Use shorter sentences in the details and group Malaysia with the UAE after describing the two extremes, China and Canada.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is adequate, but some phrases are unnatural, including data of railway networks, freighting goods, and corresponding number of Malaysian.
Use railway use, freight transport, passenger kilometres per head, cargo carried, and figure for Malaysia.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning is clear, but there are errors in punctuation, articles, participle clauses, and comparison structures.
Revise comparison clauses such as the figure for China was about two and a half times that of Malaysia.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The table below gives information about rail transport in four countries in 2007.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.