The charts below give information about USA marriage and divorce rates between 1970 and 2000, and the marital status of adult Americans in two of the years.
Sample Response
The bar graphs show data on the marriage and divorce ratesrate in the USA from 1970 to 2000 and also show the marital statusstatuses of the adult AmericansUS citizens in 1970 and 2000in these two years. According to the first barbat graph, the number of marriagesthe marriage rate in 1970 and 19801970 & 1980 was 2.5 million and this figure fell tothis rate decreased to 2 million in the year 2000. By contrastOn the contrary, the number of divorces in the USAthe divorce rate in the USA was 1 million in 1970 and this rate increased to almost 1.5 million in 1980 and after that, it kept decreasingdecreased to around 1 million again in the year 2000. From the second graph, we can observe that in 1970, 70%in 1970 70% of adults were married while 15% had never marriedless than 15% never got married. The percentagespercentage of widowed and divorced people were less than 10% in this year. After 30 years, in 2000, the percentage of the married population fell by 10 percentage pointsthe percentages of the married population decreased by 10% and the percentage of people who either never got married or got divorced increased.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response communicates the main movements in marriages, divorces, and adult marital status with mostly accurate figures, and its chart-by-chart sequence is easy to follow. However, it lacks a distinct overall summary and omits the 1990 data and the slight fall in widowhood; the highest-priority improvement is to state the combined trends first, then support them with all four time points and precise percentage figures.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The principal trends are generally accurate, but there is no clear overview and important features such as the 1990 marriage and divorce figures and declining widowhood are omitted.
Add an overview noting that marriages fell overall, divorces peaked in 1980, and married adults decreased while never-married and divorced shares rose.
Coherence and Cohesion
The report moves logically from the first chart to the second, but the single paragraph and repetitive sentence linking make the progression mechanical.
Use a separate overview and one detail paragraph for each chart, with comparisons grouped rather than connected mainly by repeated uses of "this rate."
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is adequate for describing change, but repetition of "rate," "percentage," and "increased" limits flexibility, and "bat graph" is a noticeable spelling error.
Vary accurate terms such as "number," "proportion," "rose," "peaked," and "declined," while proofreading key chart vocabulary.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning remains clear through both simple and complex sentences, although agreement and verb-form errors such as "it kept decreased" and "the percentage ... were" recur.
Review tense and agreement in trend descriptions, using forms such as "continued to decrease" and "the percentages were below 10%."
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 charts below give information about USA marriage and divorce rates between 1970 and 2000, and the marital status of adult Americans in two of the years.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.