IELTS, Writing
IELTS Writing Task 1
Academic: describe a chart, table, map or process. General Training: write a letter. At least 150 words.
Format and scoring
| Skill | Writing |
|---|---|
| Time | 20 minutes |
| Word count | 150 to 200 words |
| How it's scored | Assessed on task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammatical range and accuracy. |
| Weight (estimate) | About 33% of your writing score |
How to answer Writing Task 1
- 1Paraphrase the task in your first sentence.
- 2Write an overview of the main trends (Academic) or state the purpose (General).
- 3Give key details with comparisons, grouped into paragraphs.
- 4Check the word count and grammar.
Writing Task 1 template
- 1The chart type illustrates what it measures in place between start and end.
- 2Overall, the biggest trend, while the main contrast or exception.
- 3Category A rose / fell from figure to figure, comparison with another category.
- 4By contrast, category B trend, reaching figure by end.
Common mistakes
- No overview, which caps Task Achievement.
- Giving an opinion in an Academic Task 1.
Sample question
How commuters travel to work, 2005 vs 2025
Commuters by main mode of transport, 2005 and 2025. 2005: Car 48%, Bus 18%, Rail 12%, Bicycle 6%, Walking 16%. 2025: Car 31%, Bus 15%, Rail 21%, Bicycle 17%, Walking 16%.
The chart below shows the percentage of commuters in a European city who used five different modes of transport to travel to work in 2005 and 2025. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Show a model answer (Band 9.0)
The bar chart compares how commuters in a European city travelled to work in 2005 and 2025, across five modes of transport. Overall, the car remained the most common way of commuting in both years, but its dominance declined markedly, while rail and cycling became considerably more popular. Walking was the only mode whose share did not change. In 2005, almost half of all commuters (48%) drove to work, a figure far higher than for any other mode. Buses were the second most popular choice at 18%, followed by walking at 16% and rail at 12%, while only 6% of people cycled. By 2025, the proportion of car commuters had fallen by 17 percentage points to 31%. Over the same period, rail use rose from 12% to 21%, overtaking both the bus and walking to become the second most common mode. The most dramatic relative change was in cycling, which almost tripled to 17%. By contrast, bus use dipped slightly to 15%, and the share of people walking to work remained steady at 16%.