Task
The chart below shows how frequently people in the USA ate in fast food restaurants between 2003 and 2013.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Candidate’s Answer
This is written by a candidate who achieved a Band 6.5 score.
The chart visualises how often the US citizens be at fast-food restaurants in the years 2003, 2006 and 2013.
From 2003 to 2006 the percentage of people who have never eaten at a fast food restaurant has fallen by 1%, but on the other hand during the same period the number of clients who eat fast food everyday has also fallen to about 3% of the population. Since 2006, no other changes have occurred in these segments of the chart.
The major changes can be seen in the groups, who eat in a fast-food restaurant on a weekly basis (once or several times a week) and in the groups in which people visit the fast-food restaurants once or twice a month or once a few months. While in 2006 most of the US citizens ate at such facilities at least once a week, in 2013 most of the population did so only once or twice a month. It’s clear that the fast-food restaurants were most popular in 2006 and least popular in 2013. However the number of people who eat in such restaurants only a few times every year didn’t change.
As a whole, with the exception of people who rarely or never eat fast food and in addition, the small part of the population who eat every day, the peak of going to fast-food restaurants was reached in 2006 in contrast with 2013 when most of the population spent time in them only once or twice a month.
Examiner’s Comment
The candidate organises the information well and describes the trends in the various groups, but the lack of data to support the descriptions is a significant omission. There is a clear progression throughout the response, with good management of cohesive devices [percentage of people who | during the same period | in these segments of the chart | the groups in which | such facilities]. Lexis shows some flexibility and precision [on a weekly basis] and there is evidence of less common items [segments | major changes | most of the population | most/least popular | with the exception of], with few errors in word choice [visualises | be | clients]. There is a variety of complex structures used with flexibility and accuracy, but there are also a few errors in grammatical control and in punctuation.
