The chart below shows the results of a survey about people’s coffee and tea buying and drinking habits in five Australian cities.
Sample Response
The bar chart details drinking habits in 5 Australian cities covering coffee and tea purchases and café visitsas they relate to coffee and tea over the last 4 weeks. Overall, more than half the population in all cities except Adelaide went to a cafe for coffee or tea, while buying instant coffee was also popular and buying fresh coffee generally less common.
Turning first to café visitsLooking first of all at going to cafes, it was most common inmost characteristic of Melbourne and Hobart at 64% and 63%, respectively. Sydney was comparably high at just over 60%, followed by Brisbane at over 55%, and finally Adelaide at under 50%. Adelaide was the only city where people bought more instant coffee by a slight margin (50%). In Hobart, instant coffee purchases stood at 54%, ahead of Brisbane at 52%, Melbourne at 48% and lastly Sydney, at just over 45%and lastly Sydney (just over 45%).
Buying fresh coffeeStocking up on fresh coffee was below 45% for all cities. It was most common in Sydney (44%) and Melbourne (42%). Hobart followed at 39%Hobart was next at 39%, and Adelaide and Brisbane were much lower and nearly level at around 34%.
Why this response received Band 8.5
This is a concise, well-organised report whose overview and detailed comparisons accurately capture the main patterns across the five cities. The main limitation is that a few descriptions are slightly imprecise, such as grouping Adelaide and Brisbane at around 34% when Adelaide is closer to 35%. Prioritise exact but selective numerical comparisons and slightly more natural phrasing to make an already strong response fully precise.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response presents a clear overview and accurately selects and compares virtually all significant features of the chart.
Refine the few approximations by distinguishing Adelaide's fresh-coffee figure from Brisbane's slightly lower result.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information progresses naturally from the overview to the cafe and instant-coffee comparisons and then to fresh-coffee purchases.
Use an even smoother transition into the final category so the progression feels entirely effortless.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied, precise, and well suited to comparing proportions, with only occasional slightly informal or awkward choices.
Replace phrases such as 'stocking up on' and 'most characteristic of' with more neutral statistical wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of sentence structures is used accurately and flexibly throughout, with no meaningful loss of control.
Maintain this strong control while varying comparative clause structures a little further.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The chart below shows the results of a survey about people’s coffee and tea buying and drinking habits in five Australian cities.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.