Academic Writing 2 — proportions and an opinion essay

A second Academic Writing paper, chosen so that neither task repeats the shape of the first one.

Task 1 is not a trend. The figures show how the households of one city heated their homes in two years, as percentage shares of a whole that adds up to 100 both times: mains gas, direct electric heaters, heat pumps, oil, district heating. That changes the language the task needs. Trend data is described with rose, fell, levelled off; a set of shares is described with accounted for, the largest share, roughly two thirds, by contrast — and the difference is worth marks under lexical resource.

It also changes what you are allowed to say. A share falling does not mean a number falling. Nothing in this data tells you whether the city has more households than it had in 2005, so an answer that says fewer homes now use gas has claimed something the figures do not support. That trap is written into the key points on purpose, because it is the commonest way a competent Task 1 answer loses task-achievement marks on proportional data.

The rest of Task 1 is the same discipline as always: an overview sentence before any figures, the falling categories grouped and the rising ones grouped rather than five rows described in the order they were given, and no invented explanation for the shift — no subsidy, no policy, no price change. The figures do not say, and guessing costs marks.

Task 2 is a to-what-extent question about spending on public transport rather than new roads, not a discuss-both-views essay. The difference matters more than it looks. This prompt asks for a position and a degree — largely agree, agree with one exception, disagree in a particular case — visible from the introduction, not arrived at in the last sentence. The classic failure here is an essay that gives two paragraphs to each side and picks a winner at the end; it is a good discuss-both-views answer submitted to the wrong prompt.

You print the sheet, write on it, photograph the pages and upload them. The check goes task by task against the four criteria an examiner uses, with length first. It names what your answer did not do rather than issuing a band, and the useful next move is to write the same task again.

All figures are invented. No IELTS material is reproduced and no real city or statistical source is being described.

• Describe a set of proportions with the language of share — accounted for, the largest share, roughly two thirds — rather than the language of trend
• Avoid the inference from shares to quantities: a falling share is not a falling number unless the data says so
• Open Task 1 with an overview sentence that names the overall pattern before any individual figure
• Group the categories that move together instead of walking down the rows in the order given
• Describe data without inventing a cause for it
• Recognise a to-what-extent prompt and answer it with a position and a degree, stated in the introduction
• Acknowledge and answer the strongest objection to your own position instead of leaving it out
• Budget sixty minutes between a task worth one share and a task worth two

The figures below show how the households of one city heated their homes in 2005 and in 2023. Each column adds up to 100 per cent of households. Mains gas — 2005: 68%; 2023: 41%. Electricity (direct heaters) — 2005: 19%; 2023: 12%. Electric heat pumps — 2005: 1%; 2023: 27%. Oil — 2005: 9%; 2023: 3%. District heating — 2005: 3%; 2023: 17%. Describe what these figures show. Pick out the main patterns and make the comparisons that matter.