The three pie charts below show the changes in annual spending by local authorities in Someland in 1980, 1990 and 2000.
Sample Response
The charts show how much local authorities spent on six servicesa range of services in Someland in three separate years: 1980, 1990 and 2000. In all three years, higher education accounted for the largest share of expenditurethe greatest expenditure was on education. But while K-12 education saw a fall from 25% in 1980 to only 18% of spending in 2000, higher education remained the largest proportion, reaching 45% of total spending in 1990 and then falling to 40%ending at 40% in 2000. Expenditure on health and human resources increased to 20%had increased to 20% by 1990 before decreasing to only 10% by the end of the period. In contrast, spending on transportationthe share of transportation followed the opposite patternsaw an opposite trend. This sharecost decreased to only 6% of total expenditure in 1990 but rose dramatically in 2000 when it represented 22% of the total budget. MeanwhileSimilarly, the share spent on environmental servicesthe cost of environmental services saw a rising trend, growing from only 4% to 9% by 2000. Overall, higher education constituted the largest cost to local authorities, and while spending increased for transportation and environmental services, there were corresponding drops in expenditure on health and human resources and K-12 education.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response accurately identifies the dominant spending category and clearly tracks the main changes in transportation, health and human resources, and education. Its main limitation is that it omits the Other category and gives only partial coverage of environmental spending, so the account is not fully comprehensive. Prioritise a concise comparison that covers every category while retaining the strong selection of major trends.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
A clear overview and accurate key comparisons cover most major changes, though the Other category and some intermediate environmental data are omitted.
Include the remaining category and compare its decline across the three years to make the coverage fully comprehensive.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information progresses logically from education to the other services, with cohesive contrasts and a clear concluding overview.
Separate the overview from the detailed comparisons to make the structure easier to scan.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and generally precise, with effective terms such as constituted, proportion, and corresponding drops.
Replace slightly awkward phrases such as This cost and saw an opposite trend with more precise descriptions of the spending share.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex sentence forms is handled accurately, with only minor awkwardness in tense and phrasing.
Use simple past consistently when describing dated figures and reserve the past perfect for genuine earlier-past relationships.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The three pie charts below show the changes in annual spending by local authorities in Someland in 1980, 1990 and 2000.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.