Vocabulary
Articles, capitals and plurals, the mistakes that hold good writing at Band 6. With a practice exercise.
The common errors in IELTS writing are not the ones candidates expect. Examiners rarely see essays fail on vocabulary. They see fluent, well-argued essays held at Band 6 by article use, capital letters and singular-plural agreement, repeated across 250 words.
These errors are worth attacking because they are systematic. A candidate who misuses articles gets them wrong twenty times in one essay, and fixing the pattern once fixes all twenty.
The pattern
Six patterns, all of them repeated rather than occasional.
When you mean governments in general, write governments or the government depending on the sentence. Writing a government's responsibility when you mean governments generally is wrong.
Government takes no capital in the middle of a sentence unless you are naming a specific one, such as the New Zealand Government. This error appears in almost every script.
Governments should be held responsible is correct. Government should be held needs the article: the government should be held. Mixing these within one paragraph is common.
Government legislation is correct. Government's laws means the laws belonging to one specific government, which is usually not what the writer meant.
It is the responsibility of governments to collect taxes. Adding the before governments here narrows the meaning to a specific set you have not identified.
The government of Singapore has passed a law. Here the noun is specific, so it needs the article. This is the reverse of the error above.
Method
Six rules that cover most cases in an IELTS essay.
Governments should invest in education. You are talking about all of them, so no article and a plural noun.
The government of Singapore introduced this law. One identified government, so the definite article.
Education is important. Not the education is important, unless you mean a particular system you have named.
A new policy was introduced. The policy has since been criticised.
The United Kingdom takes the. New Zealand does not. There is no rule; these are learned individually.
In your final two minutes, read once looking only at articles. Looking for everything at once finds nothing.
Practice
These are real sentences from candidate writing. Decide whether each is correct.
For each sentence, ask three questions.
Is the noun general or specific? Does it need an article? Is the capital letter justified?
Every sentence below turns on one of those three.
1The Government should be responsible for providing free education to all citizens.
Wrong. Government takes no capital letter in the middle of a sentence unless you are naming a specific one, such as the Australian Government.
2Many people believe it is a government's responsibility to provide healthcare.
Wrong. You mean governments in general, so write it is the responsibility of governments. A government's points at one unnamed government.
3Governments should be held responsible for periods of economic recession.
Correct. A general plural noun with no article. This is the standard way to make a general claim in an IELTS essay.
4The government legislation should be put in place to ensure that all criminals are sent to prison.
Wrong. Remove the. Government legislation as a general idea takes no article, because you have not identified which government.
5The government of Singapore has passed a law requiring citizens to separate their waste.
Correct. One specific, named government, so the definite article is right. This is the mirror image of the previous question.
6It is the responsibility of the governments to collect taxes.
Wrong. Remove the before governments. You mean all governments, and adding the narrows it to a specific set you have not identified.
Almost every candidate whose first language has no article system does, and it is the single most repeated error in IELTS writing.
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Judging six isolated sentences is much easier than catching the same errors inside your own 250 words.
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Article use, capital letters and singular-plural agreement. They are rarely fatal on their own, but they are repeated across an essay, which is what affects the band.
Governments in general takes a plural with no article. A specific, named government takes the. Both are correct in the right place.
Only when naming a specific one, such as the Canadian Government. In the middle of a sentence about governments in general, it does not.
A single slip is treated as a slip. The same error twenty times is evidence about your level, and that is how examiners are trained to read it.
Read your essay once looking only at articles, in your final two minutes. Reading for everything at once finds almost nothing.
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