In this post: What separates a 6 from a 7 on a line graph, then my band 6 essay on UK acid rain emissions.
Line Graph Samples · 4 parts
- 1. The short answer, band 6 essay (you are here)
- 2. Why 6, and band 7 essay (1)
- 3. Band 7 essay (2), side by side
- 4. Rewrite, patterns and checklist
✦ In this post
The advice I heard most often about IELTS Task 1 was “always write an overview”. That is true, but I later realised that having an overview is not the same as having a correct overview. Between May and July 2024, while working towards a conditional offer from Cambridge (overall 7.5 with at least 7.0 in each skill), I wrote around 50 essays and sent them to a marker for scoring. Several of them were line graphs. In this post I put three of them side by side: one scored 6 overall, with only 5 for Task Achievement (TA); the other two both scored 7.
I wrote all three with the same template: one sentence paraphrasing the question, two sentences of overview and two body paragraphs. With the same structure, the scores should not have been so far apart. But when I went back and checked each essay against its graph sentence by sentence, the answer was clear: the band 6 essay was not badly written; I had misread the graph. The overview said “all four lines fell”, but one of the lines did not fall at all. The body also swapped two numbers and got the direction of an “overtake” the wrong way round. None of these errors is big on its own, but together they made it impossible for the examiner to trust that the essay was describing the same graph.
Each essay below follows the same order: what the task shows (I describe the graph in my own words) → score card → my original essay (unchanged, typos and grammar mistakes included) → why it got that score → a table checking my numbers against the graph. “Essay N” is the number of the essay in the order I submitted it for marking. The explanations of the scores are my own analysis against the public IELTS band descriptors, not the marker’s comments.
1. The short answer: what separates a 6 from a 7 on a line graph
If you are short of time, just read this table. These are the differences I think mattered most after comparing the three essays:
| What I compared | Band 6 essay (TA 5) | Band 7 essays (TA 7) |
|---|---|---|
| Content of the overview | Said “everything fell” and “the domestic sector changed least”; neither matches the graph | Puts every line into a group (rising, falling, flat), and the groups match the graph |
| How the body is divided | Split by time (1990–1999 / after), so the same line is cut across two paragraphs | Grouped by trend or by country, so each line’s story is told in one paragraph |
| Accuracy of numbers | Starting figures of two lines swapped; an “overtake” written in the wrong direction | A few figures off by 2–3 units, but no errors of direction |
| Crossing points and ranking changes | Never says which line ends up on top | Says who overtook whom in which year, and where each line finished |
In the language of the public band descriptors, TA 7 requires “a clear overview of main trends” and that key features are “clearly presented and highlighted”. TA 6 means there is an overview and the information is appropriately selected, though some details may be inaccurate. At TA 5, key features are mentioned but “not adequately covered”, there is “no clear overview”, and the writer often gets lost in detail. The key point is this: to an examiner, a wrong overview is almost the same as no overview, because it does not do the job of telling the reader what the main trends are.
2. The band 6 essay: UK acid rain emissions (TA only 5)
What the task shows
This was a line graph from an online practice question bank (Essay 36). I wrote it on 24 June 2024, did not time myself, and the essay is about 175 words. The graph shows the emissions of acid rain gases from four sectors in the UK between 1990 and 2007, in millions of tonnes. The four lines are: electricity, gas and water supply; other industries; transport and communication; and domestic.
When I re-read the graph myself, these were its four real key features:
| Sector | Approximate figures (1990 → 2007) | The story of this line |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity, gas and water supply | about 3.3 → about 0.5 | Highest at the start and the biggest fall; overtaken by other industries around 1996 and by transport around 2003, finishing only third |
| Other industries | about 2.1 → about 1.2 | Slow decline; the largest source from 1996 onwards, all the way to the end |
| Transport and communication | about 0.7 → about 0.7 | Fluctuates between 0.7 and 1.0, peaking at about 1.0 in 2004–2005, then back to its starting level; the only line that does not fall |
| Domestic | about 0.6 → about 0.2 | Steady decline; the lowest from start to finish |
So an acceptable overview needs to say at least two things. First, three of the four sectors fell, but transport stayed roughly level. Second, electricity dropped from first place, other industries became the largest source, and the domestic sector was always the lowest.
Score card
My original essay
This is the version I submitted for marking, unedited (typos and grammar mistakes kept).
The chart compares how the acid rain emissions in UK changed from 1990 to 2007. Overall, the emission of all four sources witnessed a downward trend; the biggest decrease happened in electricity, gas and water supply, while the smallest change was on domestic emission.
From 1990 to 1999, the emission of electricity, gas, and water supply was the highest at roughly 3.3 million tonnes in 1990. After that, it dropped dramatically and overtook other industries at around 1.75 million in 1996. As for transport and communication and domestic, which started at nearly 0.6 million and about 0.7 million, respectively, in 1990, showed a similar trend; both of them experienced slight fluctuation.
In terms of the remaining years, the emissions from other industries remained essentially unchanged at nearly 1.3 million. In contrast, the figure of electricity decreased and was surpassed by that for transport in 2003 at approximately 0.9 million, finishing the period at the third place with just below 500 thousand. Domestic emission, which steadily decreased, remained the least sources of emissions until 2007 in 0.2 million.
Continue reading · Part 2 of 4
IELTS Notes in English · Band Score Samples (post 1 of 19)
Next →: IELTS Task 1 Bar Chart Samples: Band 6, 6.5 and 7.5 Compared
Task 1 Structure · Task 2 Structure · Topic Guides · Writing Language · Band Score Samples · Practice Methods · Speaking & Study Tips
✦ Target Your Future
Some days you practise for hours and the score still does not move. I hope these notes remind you that the setbacks are part of the road: every recording you replayed, every essay you rewrote and every sentence you finally dared to say is progress you have already made.
I wrote this down so the next person can take fewer detours. You do not have to follow my method exactly. Find a rhythm that works for you, rest when you need to, and come back for the next small step.
I hope what you take away is more than a number on a score report: a little more confidence in yourself, and the courage to step a bit closer to the world.
— Ting
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