The chart below shows the percentage of people in a city in the UK using the Internet for different activities in 2007 and 2009.

Percentage People UK Internet Activities 2007 2009 - IELTS Writing Task 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

A student's answer to this task, and the feedback on it

Written by an IELTSX user under exam conditions and published unedited and anonymously. Band 7.5 · 177 words.

The bar chart illustrates the proportion of people in a UK city who used the Internet for seven different purposes in 2007 and 2009.

Overall, online shopping was the most popular activity in both years. Over the two-year period, three activities became more common, three declined in popularity, and the figure for games remained unchanged.

Shopping not only led the ranking but also grew further, rising from 45% to half of all users. Job seeking saw a similar increase of five percentage points, from 25% to 30%. Likewise, watching TV online became more widespread, climbing from 15% to 20%, which made it the least popular activity in 2007 but not in 2009.

By contrast, banking, which had been the second most common use in 2007 at 40%, dropped to 35%. The decline was sharpest for music, which fell from 38% to 30%, the same level as job seeking. Learning also lost popularity, decreasing from 20% to 15% and becoming the least common activity by 2009. Meanwhile, the share of people playing games online stayed constant at 20%.

Examiner feedback

This is a well-organised response with a clear overview and accurate, fully covered data for all seven activities. Its main limitations are some repetitive verbs of change and a few slightly awkward relative-clause constructions that could be tightened.

Task Achievement - 8

- The overview is clear and accurate: it identifies shopping as the most popular activity in both years and correctly notes three rises, three falls and one unchanged activity. - All seven activities are reported with precise figures for both years, and the key features (shopping's rise, banking's fall, music's sharpest decline, job seeking matching music at 30%) are well selected and supported with data. - The figures are internally consistent with the overview and the stated rankings. I could not check them against the source chart, so the examiner should confirm them there.

Coherence & Cohesion - 8

- Four clearly organised paragraphs (introduction, overview, two data paragraphs) progress logically from rises to falls to the static activity. - Cohesion is well managed through contrastive and additive devices such as "By contrast", "Likewise" and "Meanwhile", with occasional lapses in clarity. - Reference is handled well ("the same level as job seeking", "it"), though "which made it the least popular activity in 2007 but not in 2009" is slightly awkward in its link to the previous clause.

Lexical Resource - 7

- Vocabulary is varied and suited to the task: "proportion", "widespread", "sharpest", "constant", "least common", "dropped". - Spelling and word formation are accurate throughout. - Some verbs are repeated ("rising", "climbing", "grew", "became more common") and "remained unchanged" in the overview is restated as "stayed constant", so there is limited variation in phrasing for change.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy - 8

- A good range of structures is used, including participial phrases ("rising from 45% to half of all users"), relative clauses and comparative constructions, all handled accurately. - Most sentences are error-free, and tense use (past simple for 2007 and 2009 data) is consistent. - Punctuation is well controlled, with correct comma use around linking phrases and clauses.

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