The bar chart below gives information about vehicle ownership in China.
Sample Response
The diagram illustrates how many vehicles were owned per thousand people in Chinahow many cars per thousand Chinese held between the years 1987 and 1999. As a general trend, motorised vehicle ownership in China increased significantly and in just 12 years, the figure rose sharplyit skyrocketed. According to the column graph, motor car ownership in China in 1987 was quite low as less than 30 cars were owned per thousand Chinese peopleby per thousand Chinese. In 1989, it crossed 50 vehicles per thousand people50 cars ownership per thousand Chinese people and this trend continued in the next years. Then, in 1991, every ten people owned a vehicle on averageon an average and this number kept on increasing in the following years. In 1995, 200 cars were owned by a thousand Chinese. After 2 years, this number reached 300this number reached to 300 which indicatesindicate that there were about 300 vehicles per thousand peoplealmost every three persons in China owned a car. In the final year, the number of cars owned by a thousand Chinese citizens crossed 400 and that was more than 13 times higher than the initial figure in 1987.
Delete[Writtne by - Li Wei ]
Why this response received Band 7.0
The report clearly identifies the dramatic rise in vehicle ownership and covers the full period with a logical sequence and generally appropriate chart vocabulary. Its main weakness is precision: it sometimes converts the chart's vehicles-per-thousand unit into unsupported claims about individual ownership, while one-paragraph organisation and recurring grammar errors reduce control. Prioritise reporting the unit exactly, then group the data into overview and detail paragraphs and proofread articles, prepositions, and agreement.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response identifies the sharp overall rise and reports the main values from the bar chart. It covers the whole period and includes a clear overview, but it occasionally overinterprets the figures as car ownership by individual people and makes the unsupported claim that almost every three people owned a car.
Keep the trend summary, but describe the unit consistently as vehicles per thousand people and avoid converting it into household or person-level ownership claims.
Coherence and Cohesion
The report has a logical sequence from introduction to overview and year-by-year detail. Cohesion is generally clear, though it is written as one paragraph and relies on simple time markers.
Separate the overview from the detailed figures and group the years into early, middle, and final stages of growth.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is appropriate for a chart report, with useful terms such as increased significantly, column graph, and initial figure. Some word choices and collocations are inaccurate, especially around ownership and people.
Use precise chart language such as vehicles per thousand people, rose to, reached, and the figure instead of cars were owned by per thousand Chinese.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Grammar is mostly clear, but there are repeated errors with articles, prepositions, agreement, and word forms. These errors rarely prevent understanding but reduce accuracy.
Check prepositions after owned and reached, use singular/plural agreement carefully, and remove unnecessary articles in phrases such as on average.
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
The bar chart below gives information about vehicle ownership in China.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.