The two graphs show the main sources of energy in the USA in the 1980s and the 1990s.
Sample Response
The pie chart depict the proportions of different energy sourcesdepicts the use of different sources of energy in the USA in 1980 and 1990in two decades – 1980s and 1990s. An overview of the diagram shows that the major source of energy in the USA was oil in both decades, and the use of nuclear power as a source of energy doubled in just ten years.
The graphs show that oil was the main energy source for the USA which was used to produce 42% of energy42% energy in the 1980s and 33% in 1990s. This shows that oil's share of energy declined by 1990It shows that oil produced energy declined in 1990. Around one quarter of energyAround one-fourth of energy in the USA came from natural gas in both yearsboth in these decades. The use of nuclear power as a source of energy increasedincreases and it produced 10% of energy10% energy in the 1990s which was double the percentagedouble than the percentage of energy production from this source in the previous decade. The production of energy from coal in the 1980s was around 22% and it increased by five percentage points in 1990it increases by 5% in 1990s. It is notablevery surprising to notice that the production of energy from hydroelectric power remained the same (at 5%i.e. 5%) in both decades.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response offers a clear overview and accurately selects the principal changes, especially oil's continued dominance and the rise in nuclear power. Its effectiveness is reduced by imprecise, sometimes subjective phrasing and recurring grammatical errors in tense, articles, and comparisons. The main priority is to describe each source's proportion with neutral chart language and consistently accurate comparative structures while organizing related trends more tightly.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The report identifies the main patterns accurately: oil remained the largest source, nuclear power doubled, coal increased, and hydroelectric power stayed unchanged. Some wording is imprecise, especially saying oil produced energy declined rather than the share of oil decreased.
Describe the data as proportions of energy sources, and compare each source's share between 1980 and 1990.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response has a clear overview followed by details and generally logical comparisons. Some ideas are repeated and the final sentence is more evaluative than necessary.
Group declining sources, rising sources, and unchanged sources to make the comparison tighter.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is sufficient for pie-chart comparison, but there are awkward phrases such as produce 42% energy and double than. The phrase very surprising is too subjective for Task 1.
Use neutral chart language: accounted for, share, proportion, fell by, rose by, remained unchanged.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning is clear, but there are regular errors with articles, tense consistency, comparatives, and noun phrases.
Use past tense consistently for 1980 and 1990 data, and check comparative forms such as double the figure.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The two graphs show the main sources of energy in the USA in the 1980s and the 1990s.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.