The graphs show changes in spending habits of people in the UK between 1971 and 2001.
Sample Response
The pie charts compare the proportions of British expenditureproportion of expenditure of British citizens in different categories in 1971 with those in 2001with that of 2001. Overall, petrol, furniture and restaurant mealsfuel, furniture and outside meals accounted for the largest sharesdrained the highest proportion of British expenditure in 1971, but cars accounted for the largest sharepersonal cars cost them the highest after three decades. According to the illustration, British peopleBrits spent one quarter of their total expenditureused one-quarter of their total expenses to dine in different eateries and almost one third on furniturewhile almost one-third to own furniture. Petrol accounted for the largest sharePetrol cost them the highest, 36% to be precise, and those citizens spent only 7% on computersspent only 7% to buy computers. After 30 years, 43% of their expenses went on owningowing cars. Their cost ratio on furniture became one-fourth and they spend slightly less than half on restaurant meals as they did three decades earlier. How much they spent on foodhome cooked food in 1971 was not provided, butwas not provided but it was 14% in 2001. They spent 5 percentage points moreThey spend 5% more on computersfor purchasing computers and the share spent on petrol fell topetrol costs only 8% in 2001. The smallest share of expenditureThe least percentage of spending was spent on bookswas made to buy books, for which no data was given in the early chart.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response gives a clear overview and accurately accounts for every category and major change, including the shift from petrol to cars as the largest expense. Its main limitation is expression: frequent awkward collocations and inconsistent verb tenses make precise figures sound less natural than they should. Prioritise standard expenditure language and maintain the past tense throughout, while separating the two years into distinct detail paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The report accurately identifies the dominant categories and covers all available percentages and changes across both years.
State directly that furniture fell from 32% to 8% rather than describing the latter figure indirectly as one-fourth of the former.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response progresses coherently from an overview through 1971 and 2001, though all information is presented in one paragraph.
Use separate detail paragraphs for the two years and end with the smallest or newly introduced categories as a concise comparison.
Lexical Resource
There is some variety in describing spending, but many collocations such as 'drained expenditure' and 'cost ratio' are unnatural.
Use standard phrases such as 'accounted for', 'spending on furniture', 'car-related expenditure', and 'the smallest share'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of comparisons is attempted, but tense shifts, article use, and several clause structures contain recurring errors.
Keep the report in the past tense and use complete forms such as 'They spent 5 percentage points more on computers in 2001'.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The graphs show changes in spending habits of people in the UK between 1971 and 2001.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.