These are official writing samples from IELTS. I’ve colour-coded the errors based on their seriousness, i.e. based on how much they affect your score.
- Yellow = Awkward language/minor grammar issue
- Orange = Moderate language/grammar issue
- Red = Serious language/grammar issue
Even without reading them, you can tell the difference from a distance.
Band 5
The examiner gave this a Band 5 for the following reasons:
- It’s too short and low on detail. There are no specific references to the data.
- Overall, it’s difficult to understand.
- There are major sentence structure problems (highlighted in red).
Band 6
The examiner gave this a Band 6 for the following reasons:
- Some information is missing.
- Some information is inaccurate.
- Cohesion problems: connections between some ideas are unclear.
- Awkward language
- Lack of sentence structure variety
Band 7
The examiner gave this a Band 7 for the following reasons:
- Lack of sufficient detail in the general overview
- Awkward expressions
- Minor issues with word forms
