The table below shows the expenses per week of a retired single person and a couple in Australia for their comfortable lifestyle.
Sample Response
The yielded table illustrates how much money retired single and couple person spends per week in Australia, expenses measured in dollars. Overall, it can be clearly seen that others and housing expenses are most in both categories while shopping on the least. In addition, the retired couple's total weekly expensesthe retired couple per week expenses total are higher than those of a retired single personis more than a single person who retired. For a retired single person, per week, use the average of 650 dollars. Housing expenses are $160 while the highest amount, $177,whereas, with the highest $177 is spent on other expensesspend on other. Together, these two expensesAbove both expenses account for roughly halfcontain a roughly half proportion of total spendingusage. Spending on clothing is almost doubledouble than shopping expenses. Furthermore, food, shelter, and health expenses are $55, $92, and $64, respectively. For the retired coupleFor 2 retired persons, total weekly spending is $284 morenearly$300 more than for the single retireethan one retired person. Food and health expensesRoughly expenses on food and health are similar at $70 and $77, respectivelyare similar on account of $70. $120 is used on clothing whereas housing costs $124 more than for the single retireewhereas same amount more money spending on housing-related than single retired persons. Moreover, Spending money on shelter is $110, which is more than twice the $50 spent on shoppingwhich is half than shopping usage. Other expenses have a value of $223223 dollar expenses.
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response gives a clear overview and covers nearly every expense category with generally accurate figures and useful comparisons. Its main weakness is frequent awkward or incomplete phrasing, compounded by the inaccurate claim that the couple's shelter cost is half its shopping cost. The highest priority is to use complete, controlled comparative sentences while checking every numerical relationship against the table.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The overview identifies the main spending pattern and higher total for the couple, and most figures are reported accurately, although one shelter-shopping comparison is reversed.
Check each comparison directly against the table and state that the couple's shelter spending is more than double its shopping spending.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response progresses from an overview to the single person's costs and then the couple's costs, but the absence of paragraphing and some abrupt links weaken cohesion.
Separate the overview and the two groups of details into clear paragraphs, using comparisons to connect related figures.
Lexical Resource
There is sufficient vocabulary for expenses and comparisons, but frequent unnatural choices such as 'yielded table,' 'usage,' and 'on account of' reduce precision.
Use standard Task 1 collocations such as 'the table shows,' 'weekly expenditure,' 'respectively,' and 'spent on.'
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mixture of sentence forms is attempted, but frequent errors in agreement, articles, plurals, and comparative structures often make clauses awkward.
Build complete subject-verb sentences and practise accurate comparative forms such as 'twice as much as' and 'higher than.'
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The table below shows the expenses per week of a retired single person and a couple in Australia for their comfortable lifestyle.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.