The percentage of the working day adults spend doing different activities in a country in 1958 and 2008

Working Day Adults Different Activities 1958-2008 Bar Chart - IELTS Writing Task 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

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

Write at least 150 words.

A student's answer to this task, and the feedback on it

Written by an IELTSX user under exam conditions and published unedited and anonymously. Band 8 · 164 words.

The two pie charts compare how working adults allocated their daily time to different activities in a particular country in 1958 and 2008.

Overall, it is clear that working became significantly more dominant over the 50-year period, while time spent on sleeping and going out decreased. Meanwhile, relaxing at home showed a noticeable increase.

In 1958, adults spent the largest proportion of their day sleeping, accounting for 32%. This was followed by working at 19%, and relaxing at home at 8%. Going out with friends or family made up 19%, while commuting and other activities represented relatively small shares, both at around 2–6%.

By contrast, in 2008, working became the most time-consuming activity, rising dramatically to 42%. In comparison, sleeping fell considerably to 25%, indicating a major shift in lifestyle. Relaxing at home also increased significantly, reaching 13%, suggesting that people preferred more indoor leisure activities. On the other hand, time spent going out dropped sharply to 6%, while commuting rose moderately to 8%.

Examiner feedback

This is a high-level response characterized by excellent grammatical control and a very natural use of academic vocabulary. The writing flow is professional and mimics a native-speaker level of coherence. The only reason this is not a Band 9 is a data reporting error in the first chart where figures do not sum to 100%, which affects Task Achievement.

Task Achievement - 7

- The response presents a clear overview that identifies the main trends (increase in work and relaxing, decrease in sleep and going out). - Key features are highlighted and compared across the two time periods. - There is a significant data inaccuracy: the student mentions 'working at 19%' in 1958. In the standard version of this task, work was 33%. Using 19% causes the data for that year to only total 86%, which is a lapse in accuracy, though the trend of 'increasing' remains valid.

Coherence & Cohesion - 8

- Information is logically sequenced with a clear progression from the overview to specific yearly details. - Cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'By contrast', and 'Meanwhile' are used naturally and effectively. - Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the summary from the specific data points.

Lexical Resource - 8

- The vocabulary is sophisticated and varied, using terms like 'allocated', 'dominant', 'proportion', and 'time-consuming'. - Collocations are natural (e.g., 'dropped sharply', 'indicated a major shift', 'relatively small shares'). - Spelling and word formation are error-free.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy - 9

- The response demonstrates a wide range of structures used with full flexibility and control. - Sentences are entirely error-free, utilizing complex structures such as 'accounting for...', 'suggesting that...', and 'indicating a...'. - Punctuation is managed perfectly throughout.

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