The bar charts below give information on road transport in a number of European countries.
Sample Response
The bar charts comparegive information about annual travel distances by transport modemethods of travel and commuting times for six European countries, as well as the corresponding averages for the European Unionthe average figure for the European Union. The charts show thatFrom the information, we can see that distance travelled by carcar use is highest in Denmark at about 12,500 kilometres per person pera year, and lowest in SpainSpain and Germany.
DeletePerhaps surprisingly, people in Denmarkthe Danish also travel much farther usingmake far greater use of the combined non-car modesalternative transport than people in the other countries shownother countries, travelling aboutover 3,000 kilometres a year by bus, traintram, metro or bike, which is about two and a half timesmore than double the EU average. By comparison, the British and French travel about a third of Denmark's distanceless than a third of that distance using these combined modesby public transport.
When it comes to commuting times, British drivers spend about 47 minutes each day travelling to work, which is more than any other country. In Denmark and Italy, on the other hand, where many more people use public transport, commuting times are significantly lower.
Why this response received Band 7.5
The response is concise, logically organised, and linguistically controlled, with effective comparisons and a useful selection of prominent figures from all three charts. Its main limitation is that several visual details are imprecise or overgeneralised, especially the treatment of Spain and Germany as joint lows, the claim about French public-transport distance, and the reference to British drivers. Prioritise exact category labels, numerical relationships, and a more comprehensive overview of the main contrasts.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response identifies prominent features across all three charts and supports them with relevant figures, though some comparisons and category references are inaccurate or incomplete.
State the major cross-chart patterns more comprehensively and verify each numerical comparison and transport category against the visuals.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information progresses clearly through car travel, alternative modes, and commuting time, with cohesive comparisons linking the selected features smoothly.
Add a distinct overview that groups the principal patterns before presenting the chart-specific details.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and generally precise, with effective expressions such as "far greater use" and "commuting times," despite minor imprecision in "British drivers" and "alternative transport."
Use the charts' exact labels, particularly "all modes" and the listed non-car modes, to make descriptions fully precise.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex sentence structures is handled accurately, with clear subordination, comparison clauses, and virtually no grammatical error.
Maintain this strong control while checking that long comparative sentences preserve exact logical and numerical relationships.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The bar charts below give information on road transport in a number of European countries.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.