The chart below shows estimated world illiteracy rates by region and by gender for the year 2000.
Sample Response
The bar chartcolumn graph compares the illiteracy rates for males and femalesbetween both sexes in six regions of the world in 2000. Overall, the chart shows thatA quick glance at the diagram reveals that female illiteracy was higher worldwide than male illiteracymore women were unlettered globally than that of men and illiteracy ratesthe percentages of uneducated people in South Asia, Arab states and Sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa parts were considerably higher than the other regionsother parts of the world. As is observed from the illustration, female illiteracy rates were higher than male rates in every regionmore percentages of women in different regions in the world were illiterate than that of men. Almost all residentsAlmost all of the citizens in the developed countries were literate in 2000 as the illiteracy rate in these countries was almost nilnill, 1–2%1-2 % to be more precise. The highest rate of illiteracy could be found in South Asia where more than half of women were illiteratewere not educated at all while more than one in every three males was also illiterateunschooled. Similar percentages of uneducated males and females could be found in the Arab and Sub-Saharan African regions and in all these regions the percentages of illiterate females were significantly higher than the corresponding male ratesthan the uneducated males. On the contrary, the percentage of East Asian population who were literate was far higher than that of the South Asian population and yet the percentage of female illiteracy was more than double than that of males. Finally, Latin Americathe Latin America had around 10% illiterateunenlightened males and females and the gap between the unlettered males and females in this region was remarkably lower, similar to the developed countries.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response identifies the dominant gender pattern and the regions with the highest and lowest illiteracy, using several relevant comparisons. Its main limitation is uneven precision: some regional figures are only loosely described, and awkward comparative grammar occasionally obscures otherwise accurate observations. Prioritise reporting a few exact values for the major regions and expressing male-female comparisons with cleaner structures.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
A clear overview and accurate identification of the main regional and gender patterns provide good task coverage, though several comparisons lack precise figures.
Support the overview with exact values for South Asia, the Arab States, Sub-Saharan Africa, and East Asia to make the key comparisons more precise.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information progresses logically from the overall pattern to regional details, but the single long paragraph and some overloaded sentences weaken clarity.
Separate the overview from two grouped detail paragraphs and keep each sentence focused on one comparison.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a reasonably broad vocabulary for literacy and comparison, although choices such as 'unlettered' and 'unenlightened' are imprecise in this context.
Prefer consistent academic terms such as 'illiterate', 'illiteracy rate', and 'proportion' instead of forced synonyms.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex structures communicates the main meaning, but recurring errors affect comparisons, articles, and agreement.
Practise accurate comparison forms such as 'higher than that for men' and 'more than double the male rate'.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The chart below shows estimated world illiteracy rates by region and by gender for the year 2000.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.