The chart below shows estimated world illiteracy rates by region and by gender for the year 2000.
Sample Response
The bar chart reveals the illiteracy rate by region and gender for 2000. It comparescompared six regions of the worldsix parts 0f the world. Developed countries generally have a low rate of illiteracy, approximately 1% for males and 2% for femalesalmost 0 for both males and females. However, South Asia, the Arab States and Sub-Saharan AfricaHowever, South Asia, Arab states and Sub Saharan Africa have the highest rate of illiteracy, respectively.
In these regions, the female illiteracy rate is considerably higher than the male ratethe percentage of female illiterates is quite higher than male counterparts. In the Arab StatesIn Arab states, around 30 % of males cannot read or writecan’t write or read, whereas more than half of females are not literate. There is a minor difference in Sub Saharan Africa, the percentage of male illiterates are the same as that of Arab states, and about 50% of females didn’t attend school. The figures for South Asia are also highfigures in south Asia are also hovering around; around one in three malesone in3 males are illiterate. At the same time, morehigher than 50% of females are not literate.
In Latin America/Caribbean, the illiteracy rate is relatively low, close to 10%nearly close to 10%. And males and females have equal chances for education.
In conclusion, developed countries have the lowestleast illiteracy rate, followed by Latin America/Caribbean. By contrastOn the contrary, South Asia, Arab states and Sub Saharan Africa have the highest rate of illiteracy, respectively.
From the data, it is possible to infer that in the majority of parts of the world, males have a higher chance of attending school than females.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response’s strongest feature is its broad identification of the main regional and gender patterns, supported by several approximately accurate figures. However, it omits East Asia/Oceania and sometimes turns illiteracy data into unsupported claims about school attendance, while frequent language errors weaken precision. The priority is to cover all six regions selectively, describe only what the chart measures, and proofread comparisons and subject–verb agreement.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The main extremes and gender pattern are identified with generally reasonable data, but East Asia/Oceania is omitted and some educational inferences are unsupported.
Include a concise comparison for East Asia/Oceania and describe the figures strictly as illiteracy rates rather than school attendance.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response has a broadly logical regional progression, although the conclusion repeats the opening and some links within paragraphs are awkward.
Use one clear overview and organise the details into high-rate and low-rate regional groups without repeating the same summary.
Lexical Resource
There is sufficient topic vocabulary for the task, but recurrent imprecise collocations such as ‘equal chances for education’ reduce accuracy.
Prefer exact chart language such as ‘illiteracy rate,’ ‘female proportion,’ and ‘slightly higher than’ throughout.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Both simple and complex forms are attempted, but frequent tense, agreement, article, and sentence-boundary errors weaken control.
Prioritise subject–verb agreement and complete sentence structures, especially when comparing percentages across regions.
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 chart below shows estimated world illiteracy rates by region and by gender for the year 2000.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.