Office Floor Plan Before and After Redesign
A complete IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 question with a model answer of 204 words, plus a breakdown of the sentence structures, cohesive devices and vocabulary that answer uses. Write your own version first, then compare.
Written by Manish Sharma · CELTA and DELTA qualified · 8 years teaching IELTS
Score my answer to this questionThe question
You have 20 minutes. Write at least 150 words.
The two maps below show the floor plan of a small company's office in 2018 and after a redesign in 2024 to support hybrid working. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words. [Map description — 2018] The office occupies one rectangular floor. Entering from the south, visitors arrive at a reception desk. To the left of reception is a large open-plan area filled with rows of fixed desks for around forty staff. To the right of reception sits a single meeting room labelled 'Boardroom'. Along the north wall are a manager's private office, a small kitchen, and a stationery cupboard. A printer corner is in the north-east, and toilets are accessed from a corridor on the east side. [Map description — 2024 redesign] Reception remains in the same position. The large open-plan desk area on the left has been reduced and converted into a smaller 'hot desk zone' for twelve people, with the remaining space turned into a 'quiet pods' area of four enclosed individual booths. The single Boardroom on the right has been split into three smaller bookable meeting rooms of varying sizes. The manager's private office on the north wall has been removed and replaced with a larger 'collaboration lounge' with sofas and a video-conferencing wall. The kitchen has been expanded into a 'café-style hub' covering the old stationery cupboard. The printer corner and toilets remain unchanged.
How to approach it
- 01Open with an overview sentence that captures the overall shift — from fixed desks to flexible space
- 02Group changes by zone (west wing, meeting rooms, north wall) rather than walking around the entire floor twice
- 03Mention what has NOT changed once, briefly — the unchanged features matter to Task Achievement
- 04Use change vocabulary: 'has been converted into', 'replaced by', 'expanded over'
- 05Use compass directions and relative position rather than vague phrases like 'over there'
- 06Refer to the rough capacity (forty desks vs twelve hot desks) to add specific support
Model answer
204 words in 4 paragraphs. Read it after you have written your own, not before: the point of a model answer is to show you what you missed, and you cannot miss anything you have not attempted.
The two maps illustrate the floor plan of a small company's office in 2018 and after a 2024 redesign intended to support hybrid working.
Overall, the office has been reorganised away from rows of permanent desks and a single large meeting room towards flexible spaces for collaboration, focused work, and informal socialising. The reception, printer corner, and toilets are the only areas that have remained untouched.
The most striking change is on the west side of the office. In 2018, the area to the left of reception was dominated by an open-plan zone of fixed desks accommodating around forty employees. In the redesigned plan, this section has been almost halved into a 'hot desk zone' for twelve people, and the freed-up space has been converted into four enclosed 'quiet pods' for individual focused work.
The meeting and management areas have also been transformed. The single boardroom on the right has been replaced by three smaller bookable meeting rooms of differing sizes, while the manager's private office along the north wall has been removed altogether to make way for a 'collaboration lounge' with sofas and a video-conferencing wall. The original kitchen has expanded over the former stationery cupboard to become a larger café-style hub.
What this answer actually does
Measured from the text above, and compared against the other 38 answers of the same type in this library. These are counts, not band scores: they describe what the writing does, which is the part you can copy.
3.5 fewer than the median answer for this task type
9 words at the shortest, 44 at the longest
3 fewer than the median answer for this task type
carry a subordinate or relative clause
Sentence rhythm
Sentences average 22.7 words and vary by 10.7 words either side of that, running from 9 words to 44. Variation is the point. Grammatical Range and Accuracy rewards a mix of simple and complex sentences, and an answer where every sentence is the same length reads as flat no matter how correct it is. 2 of the 9 sentences here carry a subordinate or relative clause.
The cohesive devices it uses
2 in total, spread across 2 different functions. Range matters more than count: an answer that opens every paragraph with a sequencer signals its structure but never signals a relationship between ideas, and Coherence and Cohesion is marked on both.
while
overall
Vocabulary and repetition
Ignoring grammar words, 87 per cent of the content words in this answer are distinct, and 77 per cent appear exactly once. Lexical Resource is where repetition costs the most marks, and the usual cause is not a small vocabulary but reaching for the same noun every time the topic is named.
The longest run of words copied straight from the question is 13 words. That is long enough to notice. Copied wording is discounted from your word count, so a run this size is doing less work than it looks like it is doing.
What you are marked on
All four criteria carry equal weight, and your Writing band is their average rounded to the nearest half band.
Task Achievement
Cover the main changes and unchanged features across both maps with a clear overview and meaningful comparison.
Coherence & Cohesion
Organise by zone or theme with paragraph-level structure and clear positional linking.
Lexical Resource
Use accurate vocabulary for spatial description, change, and modern workplace concepts.
Grammar
Use the present passive accurately to describe changes and contrast tenses for the two time points where helpful.
You have read one model answer. Now get one marked.
Paste your own attempt at this question and get a band for each criterion, with the exact sentences costing you marks.
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