Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-02

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The graph below gives information about the number of jobs in four sectors of the economy in the US between 1960 and 2020.

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

Number of jobs in four sectors of the economy in the US, 1960-2020

Student answer (Band 6.0)

The line graph compares the proportion of the number of employments in millions such as manufacturing, retail, agriculture and healthcare and contribution of it towards the united states economy between the period of eight decades from 1960 to 2020.

Overall, Retailing and healthcare both contributed significantly throughout. While, manufacturing increased in the beginning then it stared falling rapidly and became the second largest among the remaining three. farming has a good started but eventually it also started decreasing and become the least contributed towards us economy.

Manufacturing holds the highest share in 1960 open 15 million jobs in the whole US and follows uptrend for twenty years till 1980 at 20 million than it decreasing significantly till 2020 at little below 15 million. While retail and health care follows same uptrend despite their beginning was different at little above 5 million and below 5 million. Both started increasing rapidly and became the largest holder in 2020 at slightly above 15 million jobs.

Agriculture got head start in 1960 at around 5 million vacancies in the US but then it stated falling throughout and be the least contributed sector in 2020 with only around 2 million jobs.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response satisfies the baseline requirements by addressing all parts of the prompt, successfully presenting an overview of the four sectors alongside key data points such as the peak for manufacturing at 20 million in 1980 and the ultimate figures in 2020. However, the evaluation sits in the mid-range because certain parts of the response are under-developed or contain minor inaccuracies in data reporting, such as misidentifying agriculture as starting around 5 million when the chart shows it at 6 million in 1960. The overview is clear and captures the general trends, touching upon the rise of healthcare and retail against the decline of manufacturing and agriculture, which aligns well with the descriptors for a competent performance that covers the main features while leaving some room for fully extended support.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response demonstrates a clear overall progression and is appropriately divided into paragraphs, starting with an introduction and overview before moving into body paragraphs detailing specific sectors. Cohesive devices are employed to link ideas together, such as using 'While' and 'Overall' to guide the reader through the data. Nevertheless, the cohesion can occasionally feel mechanical or slightly repetitive in sentence openings, and referencing is not always completely smooth, as seen with some abrupt transitions between sentences in the body paragraphs. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to structure the information logically, showing clear elements of coherent organisation that satisfy the expectations for this band level.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The writer uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, attempting less common items related to economic trends such as 'uptrend', 'significantly', and 'vacancies'. However, there are noticeable word choice and word form errors throughout the text, such as 'employments' instead of 'employment', 'stared' instead of 'started', and awkward phrasing like 'farming has a good started'. These inaccuracies do not entirely impede communication, as the general meaning remains clear, but they restrict the lexical score because of frequent slips in collocation, spelling, and word forms that prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures like subordinate clauses introduced by 'While' and 'despite'. However, control over grammar and punctuation is inconsistent, with frequent errors in verb forms, tense consistency, and subject-verb agreement, such as 'Manufacturing holds the highest share in 1960 open 15 million jobs' and 'retail and health care follows same uptrend'. Punctuation is also weak in places, with lowercase letters starting sentences and comma splices or missing punctuation elements. These errors require some effort from the reader to parse the exact meaning, keeping the grammatical evaluation at this level.

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