📈 IELTS Writing Task 1: What mistakes do you see first? 📈

Take a look at this paragraph written by a student. This is a body paragraph describing the task in IELTS 9 Test 4. What mistakes do you see first?

📝 "When it comes to the renewable sources, namely nuclear, solar/wind and hydropower, the consumption was equal at the beginning. The trend took place for about 5 years before it changed, with nuclear sources starting to grow, solar/wind sources starting to fall, and hydropower remaining at almost the same level. From 2010 to 2025 all the numbers stayed the same, with nuclear sources being the highest, solar/wind coming second and hydropower being the lowest."

When I showed this paragraph to my students, they immediately pointed out some awkward phrasing like "The trend took place for about 5 years" or "From 2010 to 2025 all the numbers stayed the same." And this phrasing is indeed awkward or even wrong.

But before I see or even care about any of this, I see a different mistake - there is no data in this paragraph at all, not a single piece! This is a major Task Achievement blunder.

Russian teachers (and my students are mostly teachers) are very good at spotting grammar and vocabulary mistakes, but when it comes to TA or CC - less so. But these criteria are as important as, or even more than, grammar and vocabulary. Can't overlook them.

Pop quiz:

Without looking at the band descriptors, can you say the TA descriptor for what band contains the following sentence: "There may be no data to support the description."?