IELTS Writing Task 1 Map: Farm Converted into a Country Park

The maps below show Hollow Elms Farm in 1985 and the same site, renamed Hollow Elms Country Park, in 2015. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

Map 1 (1985): Hollow Elms Farm occupies a rectangular plot of land bordered by a stream along its southern edge. The farmhouse stands in the north of the plot, with a group of barns and a farmyard immediately to its east. A single farm lane enters through a gate in the north boundary and runs south past the farmhouse to the barns. To the south of the farmhouse and lane, most of the southern half of the plot is arable land, used for growing crops. In the western half of the plot is a grazing field for animals, with a small pond in the centre of this field. A strip of woodland runs along the eastern boundary of the farm.

Map 2 (2015): By 2015, the farm had been converted into Hollow Elms Country Park. The farmhouse had been turned into a visitor centre and café, and the barns to its east had been demolished and replaced by a car park. The farm lane had been resurfaced as the main access road leading from the north gate to this car park. The arable land in the south had become open grassland, with a children's playground and picnic tables added. In the west, the pond had been enlarged into a lake, with a boardwalk trail built around its edge. The woodland along the eastern boundary remained in place, and a nature trail had been added running through it, connecting the car park to the lake.

Examiner notes: why this is a band 9 response

Task Achievement

The overview identifies the single biggest pattern in the data, buildings and farmland converted to leisure use while the underlying layout is kept, before the report moves into the buildings, then the fields, in a clear, selective order rather than listing every map label.

Coherence & Cohesion

The response moves logically through the site (farmhouse and barns, then the southern field, then the western field and eastern woodland), with linking devices (“previously arable land”, “left in place”) that connect the 1985 state directly to its 2015 outcome without repeating the full noun phrase each time.

Lexical Resource

Simple but accurate change-of-state vocabulary is used throughout (“converted”, “demolished and replaced”, “enlarged”), paired with precise location phrases (“in the west”, “along the eastern boundary”) appropriate to a foundation-to-mid-range band 9 map answer.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy

Passive voice is used consistently and correctly to describe changes made to the site (“had been turned into”, “was enlarged”, “was added”), and past perfect is used appropriately to show the 2015 state as the result of change from the 1985 starting point.

Common pitfalls specific to this task

See commonMistakes above: the most damaging is blurring the arable field and the grazing field into one generic “farmland” area, which makes it impossible to state accurately which part became grassland and which part became the lake.