Band score: approximately 8.0
The answer below has been rated based on the public IELTS descriptors. Click the word or words in red to see the correction, and scroll to the bottom of the page to read our comments on the report.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The table shows the amount of coal used by different sectors in the UK.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
The table provides information about coal consumed for different purposes in Britain from 1975 to 2000.
The total consumption declined steadily in [‘over’] these 25 years, from 156.9 [include the unit of measurement – ‘156.9 million tonnes’] in 1975 to 63.1 [try to use a range of expressions, such as ‘just above 60 million tonnes’] in 2000, which was less than one third of the former figure. Power stations was [even though ‘sector’ is singular, power stations are plural so commonly this would be ‘were’] the leading sector in all 5 categories, which drecreased [the ‘which’ clause refers back to the previous noun, so the sentence means that the number of categories was decreasing, which is not the case – it was the amount used that was decreasing] in general though there was a rise in 1980, when it [‘they’ – power stations are plural] used about 3 quarters of the total amount of coal.
The other 3 sectors, comprising the domestic, industry, and services industries, dropped in this period except a leveling off was found in 1990-1995 for domestic, in [‘and in’] 1995-2000 for services and other energy industries. The most dramatic decreases were in 1980; the consumptions [‘when consumption’] declined to less than 50% the [‘of the’] previous timeframe in all 4 sectors. Services [‘The services sector’] used the least coal in all these years, which was less than 2% of consumption of leading [‘the leading’] sector, power stations, in 2000.
To sum up, less coal was used in general in Britain in [‘over’] these 25 years, either [‘both’] in particular [‘the individual’] sector [‘sectors’] or [‘and’] in total consumption.
(177 words)
Comments:
There is a clear overview of the whole table, and the writer has referred to each of the sectors and has used an appropriate academic format throughout.
There are minor issues relating to vocabulary and grammar, but the structure is clear, sentences are extended and paragraphs are clearly divided.