The chart below shows the total number of minutes (in billions) of telephone calls in the UK, divided into three categories, from 1995-2002.
Sample Response
The bar chart outlines the duration of local, national and internationalnational & international and mobile callsmobile phone calls in the UK between 1995 and 2002.
Overall, British citizens talked over the local land-lines the most; and mobile phone gained a huge popularity over the time, especailly after the year 2000. In 1995Initially, in 1995, British residents made calls totalling over 70 billion minutestalked over 70 billion minutes on local fixed linesusing local-fixed lines, and the call durationtheir conversation duration for national and international fixed-line callson the national and international fixed-lines was almost half of that. They madespoke only about 3 billion minutes of callsb million minutes on cell phones. The call durationcommunication span on local fixed linesvia local-fixed lines peaked in 1999was the highest in 1999 when it accounted for 90 billion minutes. At that time, their national and international landline communication amounted 50 billion minutes, and over 10 billion minutes on the cell phones. It is evident that the total duration of phone conversationstotal number of phone conversation using the local lines increased untiltill 1999 and then declinedkept on declining while national and international fixed-line calls rose steadilya steady growth was evident for national and international fixed line calls. During 2001, British people spoke around 60 billion minutes on national and international land-lines while the use of mobile phone was on the hike, around 50 million minutes conversation was made by cell phones.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response provides a clear account of the major trends, particularly the peak and subsequent decline in local calls and the growth of the other categories. Its main limitation is data precision: the 1995 mobile figure is corrupted, 2001 mobile use is reported in millions rather than billions, and 2002 is omitted. The priority is to verify units and include the final-year comparisons while preserving the clear trend overview.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The main trends are identified and supported with several accurate values, but two mobile figures are faulty and the final year is not described.
Verify all mobile values and units, then compare the three categories in 2002 to complete the report.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response progresses clearly from an overview to selected years and trend development, though the dense detail paragraph and final comma splice weaken control.
Divide the details into logical trend groups and use a full stop before the final mobile comparison.
Lexical Resource
There is sufficient range for describing trends, but awkward combinations such as 'communication span' and 'on the hike' reduce naturalness and precision.
Use standard graph language such as 'call duration,' 'rose sharply,' 'peaked,' and 'declined.'
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response attempts varied complex structures, but article, preposition, noun-form, and clause-boundary errors recur without usually obscuring meaning.
Check verb patterns and sentence boundaries, especially constructions such as 'amounted to 50 billion minutes' and separate independent clauses.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The chart below shows the total number of minutes (in billions) of telephone calls in the UK, divided into three categories, from 1995-2002.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.