The first chart below shows the results of a survey which sampled a cross-section of 100,000 people asking if they traveled abroad and why they traveled for the period 1994-98. The second chart shows their destinations over the same period.
Sample Response
The charts present data about the main reasons UK residents travelledreasons for travelling by UK residents as well as their favourite destinations from 1994 to 1998.
Overall, the main reasons Britons travelledreasons for Britons to travel during this period were holidaysholiday making, business and visits to friends and relatives. Western Europe was their favourite destination.
As the data suggests, the number of holidaymakers steadily increased. In 1994, the number of holidaymakersholiday seekers was around fifteen thousand, and it grew to over twenty thousand in 1998. Moreover, the number of people travelling for business also gradually increased: from just overincreased - just over three thousand in 1994 and approximately four thousand four years later. Finally, visiting abroad for meeting friends and relatives showed a steady increase till 1997, when more than one thousand British visited abroad for that reason. All the reasons combined, more than twenty thousand British travelled abroad in 1994 and this number grew by almost nine thousand in just four years.
In addition, Western Europe was the favourite destination of those travellers as nearly eighteen thousand travelled to this destination in 1994 while the rest, nearly four thousand, went to other places. Other AreasNorth America seemed the second most common destination for those travellers during this period.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response is well organised and clearly identifies holidays and Western Europe as the dominant purpose and destination. However, several important details are inaccurate or oversimplified: the trends were not entirely steady, the 1997 friends-and-relatives figure was just over 3,000, and Other Areas—not North America—was the second-largest destination. Prioritise checking rankings and figures across both charts before summarising trends.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
Both charts are addressed and dominant categories are identified, but key figures, trends, and the destination ranking contain substantial inaccuracies.
Report the 1995 dips, the correct friends-and-relatives figure, and the destination order before adding broader trend claims.
Coherence and Cohesion
The introduction, overview, purpose details, and destination details form a clear and logical sequence.
Make the comparison between the two datasets more explicit while retaining the effective paragraph structure.
Lexical Resource
A good range of travel and trend vocabulary is used, though some expressions are awkward or insufficiently precise.
Replace phrases such as “visiting abroad for meeting” with concise forms such as “visiting friends and relatives abroad.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied simple and complex structures are generally accurate, and the few grammatical slips do not impede communication.
Refine article use and noun phrases while maintaining the clear control of tense and complex sentences.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The first chart below shows the results of a survey which sampled a cross-section of 100,000 people asking if they traveled abroad and why they traveled for the period 1994-98. The second chart shows their destinations over the same period.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.