An IELTS Writing Task 1 line graph at Band 6, 7 and 8
Quick answer
This page describes one invented line graph three times, at Band 6, 7 and 8, with the same overview and the same key features, and marks the phrases that earn or lose marks. For a line graph, the thing that most often separates the bands is whether the overview commits to a direction for every line and the detail then quotes the figures that settle each comparison.
In the app, a Task 1 report is marked with a band range for each criterion and a Data Accuracy card, so you can set your own against the three here.
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On this page
This page takes one invented line graph and describes it three times, at Band 6, Band 7 and Band 8. The three reports have the same overview and pick out the same key features. Only the writing changes, so the differences you see belong to the bands and not to what was noticed in the data. How to read and plan a graph like this is explained in the guide to line graphs, bar charts, pie charts and tables; the line graph is a label from practice material, not an IELTS category.
The three answers were written for this site. They are not from a real paper, they were not marked by IELTS, and they are illustrations to compare against, not answers to memorise. IELTS.org penalises memorised and plagiarised content, and the visual in your exam will be different, so the use of this page is to see what each band looks like.
Key takeaways
- All three answers state the same overview and use the same features. What changes is how exact the overview is, how well the figures fit the claims and how accurately the sentences are built.
- The Band 6 answer has an overview, but it gives no scale, one detail misreports the line, and it ends with an opinion the graph does not support.
- The Band 7 answer commits to a direction for each line and groups the detail, with a slip or two left in.
- The Band 8 answer quotes the figures that settle each comparison and moves from one stage to the next without help.
The task
This task is invented for practice and is not from a past paper. The figures are round and are not real statistics.
The line graph shows the amount of electricity generated from three sources in one country between 2000 and 2020. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
The data behind the graph, in terawatt-hours a year:
| Year | Coal | Gas | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 60 | 20 | 2 |
| 2005 | 55 | 30 | 5 |
| 2010 | 40 | 40 | 12 |
| 2015 | 25 | 45 | 25 |
| 2020 | 10 | 40 | 45 |
All three answers rest on the same reading of the graph:
- Overview: coal fell at every point, wind rose from the smallest source to the largest, and gas rose and then levelled off between the two.
- Feature one: coal fell from 60 to 10 and drew level with gas at 40 in 2010.
- Feature two: gas peaked at 45 in 2015 and eased to 40 in 2020.
- Feature three: wind was 2 at the start, equalled coal at 25 in 2015 and reached 45 in 2020, above gas and coal.
The same line graph at Band 6, 7 and 8
Hover or tap a marked phrase to see what a marker would note. The legend names the criterion for each colour, and orange marks a slip that loses marks.
Band 6
The line graph shows how much electricity was produced from coal, gas and wind in one country between 2000 and 2020, and the figures are in terawatt-hours.
Overall, coal went down a lot and wind went up a lot, and by 2020 wind was the biggest source, while gas was in the middleAn overview is there, but “a lot” gives no scale and the gas line is only placed, not described.
In 2000, coal was the largest source at 60 terawatt-hours, but it fall every five yearsWrong verb form: should be “fell at every point” and reached 10 in 2020. Coal was 55 in 2005 and 40 in 2010, so it went down in every period. Gas started at 20 and rose to 40 in 2010, the same as coal. It then growWrong verb form: should be “grew” to 45 in 2015 and stayed stable at 40 in 2020Gas fell from 45 to 40, so “stable” misreports the line.
Wind was the smallest source at the start, with only 2 terawatt-hours, so it was far below coal and gas. It increased slowly until 2010, when it was 12, and then it increased very quicklyThe same verb is used again, and “and then” is the only link in the paragraph. In 2015 wind was 25, the same as coal, and in 2020 it reached 45, higher than both gas and coal. I think wind is a good source and it will grow more in the futureAn opinion and a prediction; Task 1 asks only for what the graph shows.
Band 7
The line graph compares the amount of electricity generated from coal, gas and wind in one country over a twenty-year period, with figures in terawatt-hours.
Overall, coal declined steadily while wind grew from the smallest source to the largest, and gas rose and then levelled off between the twoOverview commits to a direction for each line and names the final order.
Coal supplied 60 terawatt-hours in 2000, three times as much as gas, but its output fell at every point, to 40 in 2010 and 25 in 2015, ending at only 10 in 2020. Gas, which wereAgreement: should be “was” level with coal at 40 in 2010 after rising from 20 in 2000, peaked at 45 in 2015 before easing to 40 in 2020A participle structure that gives the order of events in one sentence.
Wind, by contrast, started from just 2 terawatt-hours and grew slowly until 2010, when it reached 12, so it remained the smallest source until then. After that, the rise was much steeperSignals the change of pace without repeating the verb, and wind equalled coal at 25 in 2015 before overtaking both fuelsExact and compact, and “fuels” avoids repeating the names in 2020, when it reached 45. The contrast with coal is the most striking feature of the graphThe comparison is named, but it is stated more than it is shown with figures.
Band 8
The graph shows annual electricity generation from coal, gas and wind in one country, in terawatt-hours, at five-year intervals from 2000 to 2020.
Overall, coal declined at every interval, while wind rose from the smallest source to the largest and gas rose before levelling off just below its peakDirection, scale and final order in one sentence, with no figures to pre-empt the detail.
Coal began as the dominant source at 60 terawatt-hours, three times the figure for gas, but it lost groundIdiomatic and exact for a steady decline at every interval and had fallen level with gas at 40 by 2010Past perfect used for an event that came before the point described. Thereafter the two divergedOpens the next stage and names the contrast, so no connector is needed: coal dropped to 10 by 2020, one sixth of its level in 2000, whereas gas peaked at 45 in 2015 and slipped back only slightly, to 40.
Wind followed the opposite course. From a mere 2 terawatt-hours it crept to 12 by 2010, still the smallest source, then more than doubled in the next five years to equal coal at 25, and had pulled ahead of gas, then at 40, by reaching 45 in 2020The figure quoted for gas is the one that settles the comparison with wind. The shift is abrupt rather than gradualA precise contrast that says how the change happened, with most of the growth coming after 2010.
What moved the band
The accounts below follow the public band descriptors, as this site paraphrases them. Each quotation comes from the answer of the band named in its sentence.
Task Achievement
The Band 6 report has an overview and picks the right features, but the detail does not always match the graph. In Band 6, “stayed stable at 40 in 2020” misreports a line that fell from 45, and “I think wind is a good source and it will grow more in the future” adds an opinion and a forecast that the graph cannot support. Its overview says “a lot” twice, so a reader learns the direction and nothing of the size.
Band 7 gives each line a direction and the final order: “wind grew from the smallest source to the largest”. The features are named clearly, though the last sentence, “The contrast with coal is the most striking feature of the graph”, names a comparison without proving it.
Band 8 illustrates each feature with the figure that proves it. It writes “had pulled ahead of gas, then at 40, by reaching 45 in 2020”, so the comparison and its evidence share a sentence. The Task Achievement cell at Band 7 holds the wording this account paraphrases.
Coherence and Cohesion
The Band 6 report is organised into four paragraphs, but its joins are bolted on. In Band 6, the wind paragraph runs on “and then it increased very quickly”, repeating a verb it has already used.
Band 7 links with devices placed where they fit: “by contrast” turns to wind and “After that, the rise was much steeper” marks the change of pace. Each paragraph keeps to one line of the graph.
Band 8 hands over without labels. “Thereafter the two diverged” opens the second stage of the coal and gas story and says what happens next, and “Wind followed the opposite course” turns to the next paragraph by pointing back at what was just described. The Coherence and Cohesion cell at Band 6 describes the bolted-on pattern.
Lexical Resource
The Band 6 vocabulary is enough for the task, but it stays general: “went down a lot” and “went up a lot” do the work that exact verbs for each movement could do.
Band 7 is flexible and mostly exact. “overtaking both fuels” is compact, and the report varies its verbs for movement instead of repeating them.
Band 8 chooses words because they are accurate. “lost ground” says that coal declined steadily without a weaker verb, and “abrupt rather than gradual” states how the shift happened. Nothing is rare for its own sake. The Lexical Resource cell at Band 7 describes this control.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The Band 6 report mixes simple and complex sentences, and its errors repeat: in Band 6, “fall every five years” and “grow to 45 in 2015” use the base form where the past is needed, which a careful proofread would catch.
Band 7 shows several kinds of complex sentence, and many are clean. “peaked at 45 in 2015 before easing to 40 in 2020” packs two stages into one structure. One slip remains in “Gas, which were level with coal”.
Band 8 widens the range and almost every sentence is clean. “had fallen level with gas at 40 by 2010” uses the past perfect for the right reason, and the colon after “Thereafter the two diverged” sets up the contrast. Compare the Grammatical Range and Accuracy cell at Band 8.
Traps this task sets
These come from the guide to line graphs, bar charts, pie charts and tables, and each is visible in the Band 6 answer.
- A vague overview. “Went down a lot” names a direction with no size. The overview should say which line is largest at the end, not only which way each one moved.
- Misreading the last point of a line. Gas peaked in 2015 and then fell. A report that calls the end “stable” has read the slope wrongly, and the figure beside it shows the error.
- Giving opinions or forecasts. The Band 6 answer ends with a view about wind. The task is to describe the information, so the last sentence should be data.
- Repeating one verb. A line graph is all movement, so a report that uses “increased” three times has wasted the vocabulary the task rewards.
How to use these answers
Write your own report on the same graph first, in 20 minutes. Then read the three answers against yours, one paragraph at a time, and ask which band your paragraph resembles on each of the four criteria.
Next, mark your own script with the same codes: where you stated the overview, where a link carried the logic, where a word fitted exactly and which slips a marker would circle. Do not memorise any sentence from these pages: IELTS.org penalises memorised content, and the visual in the exam will not match this one. Then draw a second line graph of your own, from a table of five years of figures, and describe it the same way.
How the app marks it
IELTS Mentor AI marks a Task 1 report with a band range for each of the four criteria, from a strict to a lenient reading, followed by what worked and how to improve for each criterion. A Data Accuracy card separates a misread chart from a language mistake. The editor is timed at 20:00 with a live word count against the 150 minimum.
Where this fits
This page belongs to the guide to line graphs, bar charts, pie charts and tables, which explains how to plan a report, and to the Writing test format guide, which covers the whole test. The same exercise is done for the other visuals: bar chart, pie chart, table, process diagram, map and two charts. For the Task 1 practice tool, see Writing Task 1 practice, and for how the Writing score is built, see how the IELTS Writing score is calculated.
Frequently asked questions
Are these IELTS Writing Task 1 sample answers from a real paper?
No. They were written for this site, on an invented graph with round figures, and IELTS did not mark them. The band each one illustrates is the site's reading of the public band descriptors, not a score that any examiner gave.
Can I memorise the Band 8 line graph answer for the exam?
No. IELTS.org penalises memorised and plagiarised content, and the graph in your exam will be different, so a learned report would not describe it. Use the three answers to compare with your own, then describe the visual in front of you.
Will the exam give me a line graph?
IELTS publishes no list of the chart types you can expect. IELTS.org says only that Academic Task 1 may show one or more graphs, charts or tables, or a diagram. A line graph is a practice shape on this site, not a promised one.
How long should the Band 8 answer be?
IELTS.org asks for at least 150 words in about 20 minutes and sets no maximum. The three answers here are between 170 and 200 words, so each can be written inside the time.
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