The graph below shows the number of inquiries received by the Tourist Information Office in one city over six months in 2011.
Sample Response
The line chart displays the number of inquiries receivedcollected by the Tourist Information Office in a city from January to June 2011.
Overall, inIn January, more inquiries were received by telephoneover a telephone calls and by letter. However, those acquired bythrough telephone increased to the second highest inn June, inquiries sent by letter/email wereinquires sent through letters/email is the lowest of the three as those obtained in person started at the lowest levelstarted lowest and ended at the highest levelwas the highest in the end.
At the beginning of the year, many people chosechoose to make inquiriessend in their inquiries by telephoneover telephone calls or by letter/email at around 900 and just below 800, respectively. More inquiriesinvestigations were received by telephone and the figure rose to 1,600 in June, the second-highest totalas it increased to the second highest in June as 1600 people called the office. In contrast, fewer people sent letters or emailsmail to the officehospital as it dropped to the lowest of the three at just below 400 in June. In-person inquiries stoodFewer people made their inquiries at approximately 450at slightly above 400 in January, but by June, most people chose to make inquiries at the office in personinquire from the office in person, with around 1,900 inquiries receivedaround 1800 people turning up.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response identifies the broad final ranking and supplies relevant start and end figures, so the main movement of each series is generally understandable. However, the overview is grammatically tangled and the description omits important intermediate patterns, while several word-choice and sentence-control errors reduce precision. Prioritise a clean two-sentence overview, then describe the key changes across the six months with accurate terms and controlled grammar.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The main starting and finishing positions are identified with mostly accurate figures, but important intermediate changes are omitted and one reference incorrectly mentions a hospital.
Include the telephone dip and plateau and explain when in-person inquiries overtook the other methods, using the office as the correct setting.
Coherence and Cohesion
The introduction, overview, and details form a recognisable structure, though the overloaded overview sentence obscures the comparison and the body compresses several trends together.
Divide the overview into two clear sentences and group each series' movement into logically sequenced comparisons.
Lexical Resource
The response shows an adequate range for reporting data, but inaccurate choices such as investigations, hospital, and inquire from reduce precision.
Use consistent chart language such as inquiries received, by telephone, and in person instead of substituting imprecise terms.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response attempts varied sentence structures, but frequent agreement, article, tense, and sentence-boundary errors weaken control and sometimes slow understanding.
Prioritise complete sentences with consistent past tense and accurate subject-verb agreement, especially in the overview.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The graph below shows the number of inquiries received by the Tourist Information Office in one city over six months in 2011.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.