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IELTS Writing Samples

IELTS essay samples (writing task 2), report and letter samples (writing task 1) with Band Scores, marked by IELTS teachers, including comments and suggestions on how to increase your score

IELTS Report, topic: Bar chart describing the spending on R&D in 5 countries between 2001 and 2011

This is a model answer for an Academic Writing Task 1 from the IELTS exam in Iran, shared recently. This response is likely to get Band 8 or 8.5 in IELTS.

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task

The bar chart below describes the gross domestic spending on Research and Development in five countries between 2001 and 2011. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words

IELTS Writing Task 1 Bar Chart of spending on Research and Development in five countries between 2001 and 2011

Band 8.5 Model Answer

The bar chart describes the gross domestic expenditure on research and development by China, France, Spain, the UK and the USA during the years 2001, 2005 and 2011.

Overall, it can be seen that there was a general upward trend in the spending of all of 5 countries, albeit to varying degrees.

The USA spent the most on R&D in all three years, with the annual expenditure slightly increasing from 2.5% in 2001 to 2.8% of the country’s GDP in 2011. On the other end of the spectrum, Spain spent the least, starting at just below 1% in 2001 and finishing at around 2.3%.

China’s spending grew more than that of other countries, about 0.5% each year, and increased from about 0.9% in 2001 to around 2.8% in 2011. The remaining two countries, France and the UK, showed a similar pattern and their spending held relatively steady throughout the decade, at around 2% and 1.5% of GDP, respectively.

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IELTS essay, topic: Newspapers have a significant influence on people’s ideas and opinions (reasons and solutions)

This essay topic was seen in a recent IELTS test in India

Newspapers have a significant influence on people’s ideas and opinions. Why is this happening? Is it a positive or negative situation?

Sample Band 8 Essay

Many people believe that newspapers play a pivotal role in shaping the way we think. There are numerous ways in which this affects our society, and I believe that this influence is mostly negative.

Newspapers have long been a source of valuable information that has kept societies abreast of the latest happenings in the world. Since the average citizen has minimal knowledge about the information in expert analysis articles, well-established newspapers are powerfully poised to form public opinion through attention-grabbing images and carefully worded commentary. This leaves the reader no choice but to trust the accuracy of what they have read.

Sadly, unbiased objectivity, which used to be the core idea behind journalism, seems to be a thing of the past. The arrival and spread of social media platforms has caused a gradual decline in print media subscriptions and their circulation, since readers tend to favor the internet and social media to stay informed about current affairs. This gave rise to a worrying trend of newspapers using sensationalist and controversial tactics to improve their sales. As a result, the constant barrage of bad news has led to a society that sees itself as more vulnerable and powerless than ever. To make matters worse, there are plenty of well-documented instances where newspapers have been used to spread false propaganda which is usually politically motivated.

All in all, although newspapers are our lifeline to the world around us, the recent trend of publishing misinformation has had a mostly negative impact on readers. It is my hope that newspapers will go back to publishing impartial accounts of the latest news in the future.

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