Southwest Airport Redevelopment Plans

The plans below show the site of an airport now and how it will look after redevelopment next year. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Cambridge IELTS 16 Academic Test 3 Writing Task 1 visual

Annotated response

5 correction notes

Showing 5 correction notes.

The provided plans present how the Southwest Airport looks now, and what it will look like next year, after the renovation work.

Generally speaking, the airport will be developed, expanded and improved to provide more , and more gates, new facilities for the departing and arriving passengers at the airport.

As the maps suggest, the airport now has eight gates, and two entry and departure points. The passengers use a moving walkway to get to their boarding gate areas. After the renovation of the airport, it will have a bigger concourse area with eighteen gates to serve more passengers at a time. Moreover, the walkway will be replaced by a sky train to offer faster movement for passengers.

The departure area is on the left, and the arrival is on the right of the airport. Upon departing, security and passport control can be seen straight ahead. Shops will be built in areas where people will access A bag-drop facility will also be included in the departure hall, and the check-in counters will be relocated to make the new bag-drop area bigger. Moreover, the café will be closer to the passport control area, and the arrival hall, which has no amenities now, will have a cafe, ATMs and car hire facilities.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The response's strongest aspect is its thorough and well-organised coverage of the map comparison, accurately reporting the gate expansion, sky train, and new facilities. The main limitation is occasional imprecision in spatial details, such as describing the shops' location relative to security, alongside slightly mechanical paragraph transitions.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Achievement

7.0

The response covers the key changes, including gates increasing from eight to eighteen, the walkway becoming a sky train, bag drop, cafés, ATMs, and car hire, with a clear overview, though a few spatial details are slightly imprecise.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas are logically sequenced across clear paragraphs with a range of cohesive devices, although linking is at times somewhat mechanical, for example repeated use of 'moreover'.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is sufficiently flexible for the task, using appropriate terms such as 'concourse', 'bag-drop facility', and 'amenities', with only occasional awkward phrasing like 'entry and departure terminals'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A variety of complex structures, including relative clauses and future forms, is used with good control, and errors are minor and do not impede meaning.