The two graphs show the main sources of energy in the USA in the 1980s and the 1990s.
Sample Response
The given pie charts show data on the main energy sources in the United States of America in 1980 and 1990in two decades. As is presented in the pie charts, oil was the main energy source for the USA both in the 80s and 90s but the use of oil and coal decreasedhad reduced and part of their sharetheir places as energy sources were somewhat replaced by the use of nuclear power in the USA. According to the given data, oil was the main energy source in the USA which was 42% in 1980. The second-largest energy source in this decade was the natural gas which supplied 26% of the total energysupplied 26% of total energy in the same period. Then coal supplied more than 20 per cent energy demand in the USA while hydroelectric power and Nuclear power both supplied 5% of the total energy. In the next decade, Nuclear power accounted for one-tenth of total energy supplyproduced one-tenth of total energy demand and that was almost double whatthat it was in the previous decade. The hydroelectric power as an energy source remained unchanged as it provided 5% of total energy demand in this decade also. The two other main sources of energy in the USA changed only slightly for gas but rose for coalremained almost unchanged in this decade and those two sources were Coal and Natural Gas. Finally, the use of oil as an energy source reduced to 33%, which was 9 percentage points lowerwhich is almost 10% less than the previous decade but remained the largest source despitealbeit the reduction in 1990in this 90s decade.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response covers all five energy sources and communicates the dominant overall pattern clearly, especially oil's continuing lead and the rise of nuclear power. Accuracy is weakened by misreporting coal's change and treating coal and gas as virtually stable, while some tense and comparison forms are awkward; prioritise a source-by-source comparison with exact percentage-point changes, then organise the overview and details into separate paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response covers all five energy sources and identifies the main trend: oil remained the largest source while nuclear rose and hydro stayed unchanged. Accuracy is weakened by saying coal reduced or that coal and gas were almost unchanged, since coal rose from 22% to 27% and gas only fell slightly.
State the changes source by source: oil fell by 9 percentage points, coal rose by 5, nuclear doubled, gas dipped by 1, and hydro stayed at 5%.
Coherence and Cohesion
The report is logically organized and easy to follow, but the long single paragraph would be clearer if divided into overview and detailed comparison paragraphs.
Use one overview paragraph and one detail paragraph comparing decreases, increases, and unchanged sources.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is generally suitable, though a few phrases are wordy or unnatural, such as produced energy demand and this 90s decade.
Use supplied, accounted for, share, fell to, rose to, and remained stable.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Grammar is mostly clear, but there are tense, article, and comparative errors, especially around had reduced and double that it was.
Use simple past for chart data and revise comparison phrases such as almost double the previous share.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The two graphs show the main sources of energy in the USA in the 1980s and the 1990s.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.