The graph below shows the quantities of goods transported in the UK between 1974 and 2002 by four different modes of transport.
Sample Response
The line graph compares the quantitiessupply of goods transported in the United Kingdom from 1974 to 2002 via road, water, rail and pipeline. Overall, road and water transportroad transportation and water transportation carried greater quantities of goodsmore quantity of goods in the UK than the amount carried by pipeline and railpipelines and rails. According to the given data, initially in 1974, more than 70 million tonnes of products were transported to the UK on the road while around 40 million tonnes was transported via water and rail transportations. The smallest quantityLeast quantity of goodssupplies (around 5 million tonnes) was transported by pipelinein pipelines in thethis same year. Over the periodyear, the goods transported via road increased with some fluctuations and reached aboutreached to about 100 million tonnestons in 2002. The water transports were used more for transporting goods to the UK and except in 1998, the amount of goods transported in waterway kept on increasing and finally reached over 60 million tons in 2002. The use of rail transportrail transportation system for carrying goods to the UK declinedgot reduced as smaller quantities of goodsless quantity of goods were transported by rail in later yearsin rails later years but finally, the quantity reached 40reached to 40 million tons in 2002. Finally, goods carried by pipelines increased over the year reached over 20 million tons in 2002.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response’s strongest feature is its broad coverage of all four transport modes, with generally accurate starting and finishing values and a clear sense of their relative importance. Its main limitation is imprecise reporting of several intermediate movements, especially for water, rail, and pipeline transport. The highest-priority improvement is to organise the data into clearer comparison groups and describe each fluctuation with more exact figures and time references.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response gives a clear overview and accurately describes the broad rankings and end-point trends, although several intermediate movements and figures are imprecise.
Describe the water, rail, and pipeline fluctuations more precisely and distinguish approximate values from exact end points.
Coherence and Cohesion
The information progresses logically from an overview to mode-by-mode details, but the single dense paragraph and repetitive linking weaken organisation.
Use separate detail paragraphs to group the higher-volume modes and the lower-volume modes, with clearer comparisons between them.
Lexical Resource
A sufficient range of transport and trend vocabulary is used, but awkward collocations and word forms reduce precision.
Improve countability and transport collocations, using forms such as quantities of goods, by road, and reached rather than reached to.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses both simple and complex structures, but recurring errors with articles, agreement, prepositions, and plurals reduce control.
Check each sentence for subject-verb agreement and article use, especially around quantities, modes of transport, and time expressions.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The graph below shows the quantities of goods transported in the UK between 1974 and 2002 by four different modes of transport.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.