The table below gives information on consumer spending on different items in five different countries in 2002.
Sample Response
The given table represents the amount spentrepresents amount spent by consumers in five different countries on different categories of items in the year 2002. As is presented in chart people of Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and finally Turkey consumed specific amount on different items respectively as mentioned different items like food and tobacco whereas clothing and footwear and finally leisure and education.
Let’s analyse the data in the tabledata given table in detail. As is observed, Turkey spent the largest proportionconsumed excessive amount on food and tobacco which constitutes the highest percentage of 32.14%, whereas32.14%.Whereas Ireland was the country with the second-highest figuresecond top country which spent a significantly high proportionconsumed significant high amount on food and tobacco (28.9%) while Italy, Spain and Sweden spent morehigher than 15%15% respectively. On the other hand, all countries consumed smaller proportionsfewer amounts on clothing and footwear. As is observed, 9% was the highest amount consumed on clothing and footwearclothes & footwear by ItalianItaly consumers whereas Ireland, Spain, Sweden and finally Turkey's expenditure figuresTurkey expenditures were less than 5%. Interestingly Turkey gave priority to leisure and education and recorded the highest proportion (4.35%)spent significantly higher (4.35%) while at the same time Ireland allocatedIrish did not take interest in leisure and education and spent only 2.21%. In conclusion, Turkey gave priority to food and tobacco whereas Italy spent a substantial amount on clothing and footwear and lastly, Turkeylastly Turkish allocated the largest proportion to leisure and educationgave priority to education and leisure and spent 4.35%.
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response identifies several category leaders and includes some accurate figures, especially for food, tobacco, clothing, and footwear. Its main weakness is data accuracy: it wrongly places four clothing figures below 5% and overlooks that Spain, not Ireland, spent least on leisure and education, while the overview remains unclear. Prioritise a concise overall comparison and verify each supporting figure before describing country rankings.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
Some highest figures are reported accurately, but the response lacks a clear overview and contains major inaccuracies about clothing expenditure and the lowest leisure figure.
Summarise the dominant pattern across categories first, then verify every ranking and percentage against the table before adding details.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response has a recognisable introduction, detail section, and conclusion, but progression is weakened by repetition, mechanical linking, and a sentence fragment beginning with "Whereas".
Organise details by category or overall spending pattern and connect comparisons within complete sentences instead of repeating stock phrases.
Lexical Resource
There is enough vocabulary to discuss spending and rankings, but frequent awkward collocations such as "consumed excessive amount" and "gave priority" reduce naturalness and precision.
Use accurate expenditure language such as "spent the highest proportion on" and vary comparison verbs without changing their meaning.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response attempts complex comparisons, but frequent errors with articles, plurals, agreement, punctuation, and sentence boundaries reduce control despite generally understandable meaning.
Prioritise complete sentence structures and systematically check articles and subject-verb agreement in every comparison.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The table below gives information on consumer spending on different items in five different countries in 2002.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.