Eating sweet foods produces acid in the mouth, which can cause tooth decay. (High acid levels are measured by low pH values) Describe the information below and discuss the implications for dental health.
Sample Response
The line graph gives information about the acidity level of the mouth after ingesting three different sweet items:sweet items- fruit sugar, cane sugar and honey over a forty-minute periodover forty minutes. The lower the pH level of the mouth, the more acidic it becomes, making itit becomes making it highly conducive to tooth decaytooth decay formation. A pH level of 5.5 and above indicates a safe zone, which means tooth decay istooth decay, is unlikely to occur. Consequently, athe pH value below 5.5 is consideredconsidered as the danger zone, which indicates a higher risk of tooth decaywhich gives higher chance for the dental problem to happen. The line graphgraphs show that cane sugarthe cane sugar is the most dangerous among the three sweetsweets products mentioned. It becomes highly acidic at the pH level of 3.5 after 5 minutes of consumption and remained acidic for almost half an hour. On the other hand, fruit sugar becomes acidic (4.2 pH level), five minutes after consumption but reached the safe level of acidity after fifteen minutes. In contrast, honey gets the lowest acidity level (almost 5 pH level) after five minutes of ingestion and plateau on this level for another five minutes, then steadily decreases the acidity in the mouth, and thereby crosses the danger zone after 15 minutes of consumption. In summary, all three sweet itemsall the three sweet items can cause tooth decayhave a chance to cause the tooth decay. However, among the three, honey is less likely to cause dental problems as it allows the mouth’s pH to recover fasterloses its acidity faster than fruit and cane sugarscompared to fruit and cane sugars.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response interprets the relationship between pH and tooth decay well and clearly identifies cane sugar as the greatest risk and honey as the least harmful option. The main weakness is some inaccurate timing, especially the claim that fruit sugar returns to the safe level after fifteen minutes, together with recurring language errors. Prioritise checking every threshold crossing against the graph and tightening grammatical control.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response presents a relevant overview and most major trends accurately, but it misstates when fruit sugar reaches the safe pH level.
Check each line's crossing of pH 5.5 precisely, noting that fruit sugar reaches this threshold at about twenty minutes.
Coherence and Cohesion
The description follows a clear sequence from the safety threshold to the three substances, although the lack of paragraphing makes the organisation less distinct.
Use a separate overview paragraph and group the detailed comparisons of duration below the danger threshold together.
Lexical Resource
There is a good range of topic vocabulary, including acidity, conducive, and plateau, but several collocations and word forms are awkward.
Use precise combinations such as sweet products, risk of tooth decay, and remained at this level.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex structures are attempted and meaning remains clear, but agreement, article, tense, punctuation, and verb-form errors recur throughout.
Maintain consistent past tense for graph changes and check subject-verb agreement and article use in every sentence.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
Eating sweet foods produces acid in the mouth, which can cause tooth decay. (High acid levels are measured by low pH values) Describe the information below and discuss the implications for dental health.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.