The bar chart below gives information about the percentage of the population living in urban areas in the world and in different continents.
Sample Response
The given bar graph gives data on the percentagenumber of people living in urban areas in different continents of the world. The data are given for three different years, i.e. 1950, 2007 and projected for the year 2030. As is presented from the given data, initially in 1950, on average, 29% of peopleon an average 29% people of the world lived in urban areasin the urban area. In this year, the highest percentage of the population living in urban areas waspopulation lived in urban areas were in North America which was 64%. In Africa and Asia, these percentages were lowest (15 and 17%, respectively17 percentage respectively). Half of the Europeans lived in urban areas while this percentage was 42% in Latin America. After 57 years in 2007, the percentage of the population living in urban areaspercentage of urban area population reached to 49% in the world. North America again had the highest percentage of the population who lived in urban areas. The lowest percentage was in Africa (37%) and in other continents, the percentages were between 41% and 76%around 40 to 70. The percentage of the population lived in urban areas increased significantly in 2007 compared with the 1950 figurescompared to the percentages of 1950. It is projected that 60% of the world population would live in urban areas in the year 2030. This percentage would be over 80% in Latin America and North Americamore than 80 in both of the American continents. In Europe, this would increase to 78 and both in Asia and Africa around half of their population would live in urban areas. In summary, the percentage of people livinglived in urban areas increased over time and more and more people would be living in urban areas over time.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The report’s strongest feature is its generally accurate coverage of all three years and the clear recognition that urbanisation rises across the world and every continent. Its main limitation is that the overview arrives late and several later comparisons are vague or incomplete; the highest-priority improvement is to open with a concise overview, then group the continents by highest, lowest and fastest growth using exact percentages.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The report covers the three years, identifies the overall rise in urban populations, and gives most key figures accurately. Task Achievement is limited by some vague ranges, a delayed overview, and incomplete comparison of the 2007 and 2030 continental patterns.
Move the overview to the start and compare the highest, lowest, and fastest-rising continents directly, using the exact figures from the chart.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is logically sequenced by year and mostly easy to follow, but cohesion relies heavily on repeated phrases such as “percentage” and “urban areas”.
Group details into fewer comparative paragraphs and use clearer linking phrases to show contrasts between continents and years.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is adequate for describing a bar chart, but there are several imprecise choices such as “number of people” for percentages and repetitive wording.
Use precise chart language such as “proportion”, “share”, “rose to”, “was projected to”, and “percentage points”.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning is generally clear, but article use, agreement, and clause structure are repeatedly inaccurate.
Edit noun phrases and verb forms carefully, especially after “percentage of”, “people”, and projected future statements.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The bar chart below gives information about the percentage of the population living in urban areas in the world and in different continents.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.