The graphs show the changes in the UK industry steel between 1970 and 2000.
Sample Response
The line graph compares the changes in the total demand for steel in the UK, its production and imports from 1970 to 2000, while the second graph shows the employment figures in this industry during the same period.
Overall, while steel demand and productionthe demand for steel and the production of steel in the UK both decreased, steel imports increased. In addition, there were fewer people working in this industry over the 30-year30year period.
In 1970, the total demand for steel in the UK was around 200,000, which was about twenty times as highnearly ten times as high as the amount of steel it imported. Over the following three decades, both the demand and production of steel decreased by approximately 50%, while the amount of steel imported rose from approximately 10,000 to 75,000.
The number of people employed in the steel industry stood at 50,00050000 in 1970 when the demand for steel in the UK was high and the amount of steel imported was low. Over the following years, the employment figures in the steel industry continued to decline to around 1618,000 in the year 2000.
Why this response received Band 7.5
The response gives a clear, well-organised account of all four measures and accurately captures their contrasting overall directions. Its main limitation is that it relies heavily on endpoints and includes an inaccurate comparison between demand and imports in 1970. The most valuable improvement would be to add selected intermediate-year comparisons while checking ratios and final values carefully against both graphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
A clear overview covers all major trends and the endpoint data are mostly accurate, though the 1970 demand-to-import ratio is misstated and intermediate changes receive little attention.
Add one or two comparisons from 1980 or 1990 and report that 1970 demand was about twenty times imports rather than nearly ten times.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information progresses logically from the overview to steel values and then employment, with cohesive devices and paragraphing managed effectively.
Preserve this structure while making the relationship between the two graphs even more explicit through a concise cross-chart comparison.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is accurate and appropriate for describing industrial trends, although repeated terms such as 'amount of steel' and 'steel industry' limit flexibility slightly.
Vary repeated wording selectively with precise alternatives such as 'output', 'import volume', and 'the sector', without sacrificing clarity.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of sentence forms is used accurately, and the response is largely error-free apart from minor presentation issues such as '30year'.
Maintain the strong structural control while proofreading compound modifiers and numerical formatting, for example '30-year period' and '50,000'.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The graphs show the changes in the UK industry steel between 1970 and 2000.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.