The charts below show the proportion of people’s total spending on different commodities and services in a particular European country in 1998 and 2008.
Sample Response
The charts give information about how people in a European country spent their money on different commodities and services in 1998 and 2008.
In general, the proportions of expenditure on electronic goods and clothing were the highest in both surveyed years. Additionally, half of the categoriesmost of the given categories saw a decrease in their figures, while expenditure on clothing and electronic goodsthe expenses for clothing and electronic goods occupied larger proportions of people’s spending.
In 1998, 16% of people’s budget was spent on electronic goods, which was four percentage points higher4% higher than the percentage spent on clothing. Meanwhile, spending on holidays and eating outthe amount of money spent on holidays and eating out accounted for 8% and 6% respectively. Only 3% of people’s expenditure was used to purchase newspapers and magazines, and a further 3% was spent on cinema visitsan additional 3% for going to the cinema.
The proportion of money spent on clothing rose by six percentage pointsrose by 6% in 2008, while that of electronic goods rose by four percentage pointssaw a 4% growth. In contrast, the percentage of expenditure used for taking holidays dropped to 5%, while that of eating out remained unchanged. Notably, people reduced their spending on newspapers and magazines and on cinema visitson newspapers and magazines, and going to the cinema, to 1% in each casedown to 1% for each.
TR: 9.0 CC: 9.0 LR: 8.0 GRA: 8.0
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response selects virtually all relevant figures, compares the two years clearly, and follows a highly effective overview-and-details structure. The main limitation is a slightly inaccurate overview claim that most categories decreased when only three of six did, together with the irrelevant self-scoring line at the end. The priority is to make overview generalisations mathematically exact and remove any material that does not describe the charts.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The report accurately presents every category and the principal rises and falls, but the claim that most categories decreased overstates a three-out-of-six pattern.
State that half the categories fell, two rose, and one remained unchanged, and omit the unrelated score labels.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information is organised logically into an overview and two year-based detail paragraphs, with clear comparisons and cohesive progression.
Preserve the strong structure while ending with the final chart comparison rather than an unrelated self-assessment line.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied, precise, and well suited to expenditure data, with only occasional slightly awkward collocations.
Use percentage or proportion consistently in constructions such as accounted for, and reserve amount of money for absolute monetary values.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex comparative structures is used accurately, and the few minor lapses do not impede communication.
Polish elliptical comparisons by supplying a complete verb phrase where needed, especially when listing parallel expenditure figures.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The charts below show the proportion of people’s total spending on different commodities and services in a particular European country in 1998 and 2008.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.