The pie chart below shows the main reasons why agricultural land becomes less productive. The table shows how these causes affected three regions of the world during the 1990s.
Sample Response
The presented pie chart outlines the main reasonsoutlines main reasons for the degradation of agricultural landfor degradation of farming land worldwide. Meanwhile, the table lists the percentages of land degraded by each cause in three regionspercentages of land degradation caused in the three regions in the world in the 1990s. In general, over-grazing and deforestation are the two largest causesdeforestation and over-grazing are true as massive factors for agricultural land degradation worldwide.
Looking at the details, over-grazing and deforestation account for more than half of worldwide land degradationamass more than fifty percent land degradation, 35% and 30% respectively. In contrast, over-cultivation and other causes together account for the remaining 35% of land degradationonly confirm 35% of land degradation.
Meanwhile, regarding the regional dataregarding the region, in the 1990sin 1990s deforestation caused the largest share of land degradation in Europewas the highest percentage of land degradation in Europe and accounted for 9.8%accounted 9.8% of land degradationtotal degradation of lands. This figure was higher than the figures for over-cultivation and over-grazinghigher than over-cultivation and over-grazing in the same region. However, over-grazing was the largest land-degradation factorwas the highest percentage of land degradation factor in Oceania, 11.3 percentage points of the 13% total11.3% out of 13% of total land degraded in the regiontotal land degraded for this reason. Yet, in North America, over-cultivation accounted for 3.3%over-cultivation counted 3.3% of land degradation and was the largest of the three causeshighest cause among other factors in the same region, although it was lower thannot a high percentage compared to the leading causes in the other regionsother causes in the other region.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response identifies the dominant worldwide causes and accurately reports the leading cause in each region, giving it a useful factual core. However, its overview omits the most important regional comparison: Europe had the greatest total degradation at 23%, followed by Oceania at 13% and North America at 5%; awkward vocabulary also obscures some relationships. Prioritise a complete two-part overview and use precise comparative language.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The main global causes and each region's leading cause are reported, but the overview does not compare the key total degradation rates across regions.
State that Europe had the highest total at 23%, Oceania followed at 13%, and North America was lowest at 5%, then support this overview selectively.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response has a clear introduction, overview, and separate global and regional detail sections, though linking is somewhat mechanical.
Organise the regional paragraph around the highest-to-lowest total figures before comparing the dominant cause within each region.
Lexical Resource
There is enough vocabulary to describe the charts, but repeated wording and inaccurate choices such as amass, confirm, and counted reduce precision.
Use standard data-reporting verbs such as accounted for, represented, and constituted, while varying references to land degradation carefully.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Both simple and complex sentences are attempted, but recurring article, preposition, agreement, and noun-form errors weaken accuracy.
Check articles and verb patterns in statistical statements, especially accounted for, in the 1990s, and a percentage of land.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The pie chart below shows the main reasons why agricultural land becomes less productive. The table shows how these causes affected three regions of the world during the 1990s.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.