Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-10

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The charts below show the number of French adults whose parents spoke a French regional language to them when they were children and the number who speak a French regional language to their own children.

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information below.

Number of adults (in thousands) whose parents spoke a regional language to them in childhood

Student answer (Band 4.0)

This bar chart illustrates the number of french adults whose parents spoke a french regional language to them when they were children and the number who speak french regional language to their own chidren

Overall, occitan spokers had remained highest in both categories, whereas coriscan had lowet figure respectivaly. While alsatian prefered more habitually than breton in contrast the breton is used widely for occasionall purpose.

Occitan had around 610 thousa speakers followed by alsatian falling short at approxiamately 600 m

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.0

The response identifies the chart topic and attempts an overview, noting that Occitan is highest and Corsican lowest. However, the overview is only partly accurate: Occitan is highest for occasional parental speech, but Alsatian is highest for habitual speech and for speaking to children. The claim that Corsican has the lowest figure is broadly supported, but the comparison between Alsatian and Breton is unclear and the final sentence gives only two approximate figures, with “600 m” incorrectly expressed. Most categories and the second chart are not described. The response is also substantially below the required 150 words: only 58 words were counted, and 23 words copied from the prompt were excluded. Include a clear overview and compare the main figures across both charts, supported by accurate data.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

There is a basic paragraph structure: an introduction, an overview, and a short detail paragraph. The opening establishes the subject, and “Overall” signals an attempt to summarise the main features. However, progression is limited because the final paragraph stops after one comparison and does not develop the information from either chart. The contrast signalled by “While” is difficult to follow, and “in contrast” does not clearly connect the ideas that follow. The response therefore has some organisation, but the relationships between points are not consistently clear. To improve, group the figures by chart or by language, use clear comparison links, and ensure each paragraph develops a complete point rather than ending abruptly.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

The response uses some relevant chart vocabulary, including “illustrates,” “categories,” “followed by,” and “figure,” and attempts to describe comparisons. However, spelling and word-form errors are frequent enough to make parts difficult to interpret: “french,” “chidren,” “spokers,” “coriscan,” “lowet,” and “respectivaly.” Some expressions are also inaccurate or unnatural, such as “600 m” for a figure of about 600 thousand and “used widely for occasionall purpose.” Use precise terms consistently, such as “thousand,” “habitually,” and “occasionally,” and check language names and spelling. A wider set of accurate comparison phrases would also help describe the differences between the two charts.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response attempts both simple and more complex sentence forms, including the contrast structure beginning “While,” and the meaning of the opening sentence is generally understandable. However, grammatical control is uneven. In “Occitan spokers had remained highest,” the past perfect is not appropriate for describing static chart data; use the present simple, such as “Occitan has the highest figure.” The clause “While alsatian prefered more habitually than breton” lacks a clear grammatical structure, and the following contrast does not repair it. Articles and sentence boundaries also need attention, particularly in the opening and final fragment. Practise complete comparison sentences with accurate subject–verb structure and use the present simple to report chart information.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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