The pie charts below show the most common advantages and disadvantages of Bowen Island, according to a survey of visitors.
Sample Response
The two pie charts compareshow the aspects of Bowen Island that visitors regard as the main advantages and disadvantagestourists enjoy the most and the least. Bowen Island has many features that attract tourists, buttourists but the most commonly reported of thesethe most popular of these are the people and the scenerythe scenery and the people, with the two categories together accounting for 77% of the reported advantagesmore than two thirds of the visitors to the island listing these as the greatest advantages. The standard of accommodation on the island was cited as an advantageappears to be more than adequate, with 11% of respondents listing good accommodation as an advantagelisting this as an advantage. Culture was cited by 12% of visitors12% of visitors cite the culture of the island as a advantagemajor attraction. However, the island seems far from being a perfect tourist destination. Among the island's disadvantages,When it comes to the negative aspects of the island, the high cost of living, poor weather and the entertainmentquality or lack of entertainment were the three most commonly reportedare seen as the worst of these. Together, these three categories accounted formake up 90% of the reportedtotal disadvantages. In addition,In spite of the high costs on the island, 10% of the visitors complain of poor food quality. Overall, it seems that most people like Bowen Island because of the scenery and people. However, it is possible that the unspoilt nature of the island means there is little in the way of entertainment and this, combined with the high cost of living, makes it unlikely to appeal to everyone.
Why this response received Band 7.5
The response covers every segment of both charts and communicates the dominant advantages and disadvantages with accurate proportions and confident language. Its main weakness is unsupported interpretation, particularly the claim that the island's unspoilt nature causes limited entertainment, while a few linking choices are logically imprecise. Prioritise an objective overview that identifies the largest shares and avoids causal explanations not shown by the survey.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All chart segments are covered accurately and the dominant advantages and disadvantages are clearly identified, though some interpretation exceeds the visual evidence.
Remove speculative causal claims and state directly that people and scenery lead the advantages while cost dominates the disadvantages.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas move logically from advantages to disadvantages and the closing overview, although the single-paragraph format weakens the visible structure.
Divide the report into an overview and grouped detail paragraphs, and use contrast links only where the relationship is genuinely contrastive.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a broad, confident range for describing survey results, attractions, and negative features, with generally precise wording.
Replace awkward wording such as quality or lack of entertainment with the exact chart category and use neutral reporting language throughout.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide variety of sentence forms is used with strong control, including complex clauses that remain clear and accurate.
Refine punctuation around longer coordinated clauses to make the already controlled syntax even easier to process.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The pie charts below show the most common advantages and disadvantages of Bowen Island, according to a survey of visitors.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.