The graph below shows the percentage of part-time workers in each country of the United Kingdom in 1980 and 2010.
Sample Response
The bar chart shows the percentage of people who have part-time jobs in the countries that make up the United Kingdom, both in 1980 and in 2010. There hasThere’has generally been a small increase in part-time workers from 1980 to 2010, except in Northern Ireland. The graph also shows that England and Wales had higher proportions of part-time workers thanhave far more part-time workers than Northern Ireland and Scotland.
In 1980, 25% of people in England worked part time. The only country with a greater percentage of part-time workers was Wales, with around 33% working part time. Both countries saw an increase in the percentage of people working part time in 2010. In England, the percentage rose to over 30% and Wales's percentagein Wales percentage rose to just over 35%.
Scotland had the smallest percentage of part-time workers in 1980, with just over ten per cent. However, this rose to almost 20% in 2010, which2010 which is a large increase. Lastly, Northern Ireland was the only country where the percentage of part-time workers decreasedwhich had a decreasing percentage of part-time workers. In 1980, around 15% of people wereit had around 15% of people in part-time work. This decreased by two percentage pointsa couple of per cent in 2010.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response gives a clear, well-structured account of all four countries and accurately identifies the overall contrast and the sole decline. Language is generally fluent, though a few small grammatical slips and some repeated wording reduce polish, while describing the overall rise as small understates Scotland's larger increase. Prioritise precise qualification of differing changes and a final proofread for article and contraction errors.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The overview identifies the main patterns, and the detailed figures for every country are accurate and appropriately compared.
Qualify the overview more precisely by noting that most rises were modest while Scotland's increase was comparatively large.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is logically divided into an overview and two well-focused detail paragraphs, with cohesive progression throughout.
Reduce repeated references to 'the percentage of people working part time' by using concise referencing where meaning remains clear.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is accurate and sufficiently varied for the task, with effective language for comparison and change.
Broaden the range of concise trend expressions to avoid repeating 'percentage' and 'part-time workers' unnecessarily.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied sentence forms are handled confidently, with only minor slips such as 'There’has' and the missing article before 'percentage'.
Proofread contractions and article use so isolated errors do not interrupt otherwise fluent sentences.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The graph below shows the percentage of part-time workers in each country of the United Kingdom in 1980 and 2010.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.