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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 graphs describing unemployment rates and average earnings by level of education

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The graphs below show unemployment rates and average earnings according to level of education.

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

Write at least 150 words.

Unemployment and Average Earnings by Educational Level 2016

Unemployment rates and average earnings by level of education

Answer

Two bar graphs describe the data from 2016 regarding the percentage of unemployed and average weekly income by different levels of education.

The first graph shows unemployment rates in 2016 in four different groups. Looking at people who only completed high school we can see that 5.5% were out of work. It is evident that the percentage of unemployed gradually decreased as the level of education rose. The proportion of unemployed was the lowest among those with a graduate degree, at only 1.2%

The second chart is showing the relationship between education level and weekly earnings. Those with only high school diplomas earned the least amount of money per week ($600). People who studied at college for some time earned a slightly higher amount of $675 per week, but college or graduate degrees owners overtook them by earning $1,100 and $1,500 a week, respectively.

All in all, it can be seen that people with higher level of education are more likely to have a job and higher income.

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IELTS Letter, topic: Resigning from a part time job

You have just finished your master’s degree and need to leave your current part-time job to search for full-time employment.

Write a letter to your current employer. In your letter:

– explain why you will not be able to pursue a full-time job in his/her company
– say why you’ve enjoyed working for him/her
– tell him/her how much longer you will continue to work for him/her.

Answer

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to inform you of my resignation in order to seek a full-time position at another company.

I will be unable to continue to work at your company as I have decided to pursue a career in Marketing. Being an international student, I was working here to support myself and fund my education. However, now that I finished my master’s degree in Marketing, I would like to start working in my profession.

I greatly enjoyed my time working as a retail associate in your company. Not only did I have an opportunity to meet new people, but also it helped me polish my English speaking and listening skills.

I can continue working here for the next 2 weeks. After that, I would like to dedicate all of my time to the application process for the companies I would like to work at.

I hope that I was a valuable employee to you, and would appreciate a reference letter from you to my future employer.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,
Rowena Marti

This letter covers all the bullet points from the task statement. The information is organised in a logical way and cohesive devices are used appropriately. The range of vocabulary is adequate for the purpose of this letter. Sentence structures are varied and the grammar is well controlled. Overall this letter seems to be worthy of IELTS Band 8.

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