IELTS Writing Task 1 Plan: Ashcombe University Campus Expansion

The two plans below show the campus of Ashcombe University in 2010 and 2024. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

Ashcombe University campus in 2010

The campus was bounded by the River Ash to the south and Faraday Avenue to the north. The Main Library stood at the centre of the campus. Immediately to its north, fronting Faraday Avenue, stood the Arts Building, the oldest building on campus. To the east of the Library was a single Science Building, housing all the science departments together. To the west of the Library lay a large open playing field, used for sports. Along the southern edge of the campus, beside the river, stood a row of three student residence halls. A small car park lay between the Science Building and the eastern boundary of the campus. The only entrance to the campus was from Faraday Avenue, beside the Arts Building.

Ashcombe University campus in 2024

The Arts Building, north of the Library, is unchanged. The Main Library has been extended, with a new wing added on its southern side. The single Science Building east of the Library has been replaced by two larger buildings standing side by side on the same site: a new Science Building and a new Engineering Building. The playing field west of the Library has been reduced in size, with a Student Centre and a Sports Hall built on its eastern half, so that the playing field now covers only the western half of its former area. The row of three residence halls along the southern edge, beside the river, has been extended with two additional halls, continuing eastward along the riverbank. The car park that stood between the Science Building and the eastern boundary has been relocated to a new multi-storey car park on the eastern boundary of the campus, beyond the new Engineering Building, and a second entrance has been added on the eastern boundary, next to the new car park, in addition to the original entrance from Faraday Avenue.

Examiner notes: why this is a band 9 response

Task Achievement

The overview names three distinct trends (building replacement/expansion, new facilities replacing sports space, and improved eastern access) giving the marker a clear summary before the detail. Every plan feature is reported accurately, including the precise detail that one Science Building became two separate buildings, and that only half the playing field was lost.

Coherence & Cohesion

The response moves outward from the central Library (north, east, west, south) before finishing with the eastern-boundary changes to parking and access, a logical spatial order that matches how the plans are laid out. The two additional residence halls are explicitly linked to the original three (“along the riverbank”), avoiding ambiguity about their location.

Lexical Resource

A wide range of academic and spatial language is used accurately and without repetition: “given over to”, “on the same site”, “relocated to”, “further halls”. Precise quantities (“half the playing field”, “two further halls”) replace vague comparatives, which strengthens the reporting of data-like detail even on a non-numerical plan.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy

Simple past fixes the 2010 plan (“stood”, “lined”, “lay”), while past perfect passive accurately reports changes completed by the 2024 viewpoint (“had been extended”, “had been replaced”, “had been given over to”, “had been relocated”), used consistently and without error throughout.

Common pitfalls specific to this task

See commonMistakes above: the most damaging is failing to report the playing field’s reduction in size, since it is the plan’s clearest example of land being reallocated between competing uses.