The table below shows the proportion of different categories of families living in poverty in Australia in 1999.
Sample Response
The table data outlines the proportionratio and number of people living in poverty by household typeimpoverished families in Australia in the year 1999. It is evident that more than one-tenth of Australian families, approximately 1.8 million in total, lived in poverty in 1999, and couples with children made the highest number of destitute families. According to the tableAccording to the table data, only 6% of single aged personsonly 6% aged singles and 4% of people in aged couples4% aged couple lived in poverty in 1999. It is evident that elder Australians were economically stronger than their younger counterparts. By contrastAgain, 19% of singles without children19% singles without any child lived in povertywere not affluent and their number was 359,000their total number was just over 0.35 million. By comparisonCompared to that, only 7% of couples with no childrenonly 7% couples with no children suffered from poverty. Furthermore, sole parentssole-parents who were poor in 1999 numbered 232,000were 232,000 in number and their poverty proportionratio was 21%, the highest. Finally, 12% couple with children lived in the destitute situation in 1999 and their percentage was 12% and the total number was 933,000. This type of family had the largest number of people living in povertypoverty-stricken households, though, their percentage was lower than that of poor sole parents and singles with no children.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response gives a clear overview of the highest and lowest poverty rates and includes every household category with generally accurate figures. Its main weakness is repeated misidentification of the table's figures as numbers of families or households rather than people, combined with awkward and repetitive phrasing. The priority is to describe the measurement unit precisely, then streamline comparisons so each statistic and its significance are stated once.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The main patterns and all categories are covered accurately, but the response repeatedly treats counts of people as counts of families or households.
State explicitly that the percentages and numbers refer to people within each household type, then maintain that unit consistently.
Coherence and Cohesion
The report follows a sensible sequence from the overview through the categories, but one long paragraph and repetitive linking make progression less controlled.
Divide the details into meaningful groups, such as older households and younger or child-related households, and remove duplicated statements.
Lexical Resource
There is adequate range for describing poverty and comparison, although several expressions are unnatural or imprecise, including 'poverty ratio' and 'destitute situation'.
Prefer precise neutral phrases such as 'poverty rate', 'people living in poverty', and 'couples with children'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning remains clear through a mix of sentence forms, but agreement, article, number, and noun-form errors recur across the response.
Check plural agreement and countable forms carefully, especially constructions such as 'aged couples', 'sole parents', and '12% of couples'.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The table below shows the proportion of different categories of families living in poverty in Australia in 1999.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.