The chart below shows the changes that took place in three different areas of crime in New Port city center from 2003-2012.
Sample Response
The graph represents the changes in the levels of three types of crimevariation in levels in the three main areas of crime in the centre of Newport city over the periodin the time period from 2003 to 2012. To start with, there were 3,400 incidentsit was 3400 incidences of burglary in 2003 and 3750 in 2004. Over the next four yearsFortunately, in the next 4 years it fell dramaticallyfell down dramatically and reached the lowest pointabsolute minimum in 2008 (about 1,200 incidents1100 incidences). However,, however, it then grew by about 200 incidentsby 300 accidents and remained fairly stable through 2012remained fairly constant by 2012. Car theft was a steady level of crime from 2003 to 2004 and got reduced in next 5 years from 2700 up to 2250. The number then increased to 2700 in 2012. Robbery reached its peak in 2005, at about 850 incidentswhich was 900 cases and felldecreased back to 500 in 2008. In the following two years, the number of incidentsincidences rose to 700 and fell slightly and ended at around 650 in 2012continued to stay at this level in 2012. OverallIn conclusion, in the Newport city centre, the number of burglariesthe rate of burglary fell significantly, the level of robbery remained fairly constant, whereas car theft roseraised and had the highest number of incidentsbiggest number of incidences in 2012.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response follows all three crime categories and selects several meaningful peaks and lows, with burglary and robbery described broadly accurately. Its main limitation is the treatment of car theft: it did not rise overall, and the 2012 figure is about 2,300 rather than 2,700, making the concluding trend inaccurate. Prioritise a precise overview based on start-to-end patterns, then verify each reported value against the chart.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The main burglary decline and broadly stable robbery pattern are covered, but the car-theft endpoint and overall trend are reported inaccurately.
State that car theft fluctuated and ended near 2,300 incidents, becoming the largest category despite finishing below its 2003 level.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response progresses clearly through burglary, car theft, and robbery before an overview, though all content is compressed into one paragraph.
Place the overview immediately after the introduction and use separate detail paragraphs to compare the major and minor crime categories.
Lexical Resource
A sufficient range of trend vocabulary is attempted, but word-choice errors such as ‘incidences’, ‘accidents’, ‘raised’, and ‘from 2700 up to 2250’ reduce precision.
Use ‘incidents’, ‘rose’, ‘fell from … to …’, and neutral reporting language rather than evaluative words such as ‘fortunately’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Both simple and complex forms are used, but errors in clause control, articles, prepositions, and sentence boundaries occur regularly.
Correct structures such as ‘there were 3,400 incidents’, ‘over the next four years’, and ‘car theft remained steady’.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The chart below shows the changes that took place in three different areas of crime in New Port city center from 2003-2012.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.