Grammar
How to argue a position without claiming more than you can support. With an error correction exercise.
Modal verbs in IELTS decide how strongly you commit to a statement, and that judgement is worth marks in Task 2. A candidate who writes that a policy will completely solve a problem has claimed something no reader believes, and the overclaim weakens the argument rather than strengthening it.
Cautious language is not weak language. It is the register academic writing uses, and it is one of the clearest differences between a Band 6 essay and a Band 7 one.
The rules
Six points, from form to the register Task 2 expects.
Will is certain, is likely to is probable, may and might are possible, could is possible in principle. Choosing accurately along that scale is a skill examiners can see.
Tend to, appear to, in most cases, generally and it seems that all soften a claim. Mixing these with modals avoids repeating may in every sentence.
Must and have to state necessity; should and ought to give advice. Task 2 recommendations almost always want should, since you are advising rather than commanding.
Overclaiming costs more than it gains. This will completely eliminate poverty invites disagreement; this may go some way towards reducing poverty is defensible and reads as more expert.
No to after a modal: can do, not can to do; must be, not must to be. And modals have no third-person s: he can, never he cans.
Might have, could have and should have discuss what was possible or advisable in the past. These belong mainly in speaking Part 3.
Method
Six ways this earns marks under Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
Be clear about what you think and cautious about what will happen. I believe this may reduce is confident about your position and honest about the outcome.
Four sentences in a row containing may reads as a tic. Alternate between a modal, an adverb and a verb such as tend to.
Keep will and must for the one or two places where you genuinely mean them. They carry weight only if they are rare.
A conclusion that overclaims undoes a careful essay in two sentences. Restate the position firmly and the outcome cautiously.
Will can and might could do not exist in standard English. Use will be able to instead.
An essay in which nothing is asserted has no position, and Task Response penalises that. Caution applies to predictions, not to your own view.
Practice
Each sentence contains one error. Choose the correction.
Read the whole sentence before you choose. Every option below is a real form of English, so the question is not which word exists but which one this sentence needs.
This is how examiners see your writing: not as rules broken, but as sentences that do or do not work.
1Correct the error: Governments must to invest more heavily in renewable energy.
Must invest. Modal verbs are followed by the bare infinitive, with no to. The same applies to can, may, might, should and will.
2Correct the error: She can to speak four languages fluently.
Can speak. Same rule again, and this version is very common in speech. Modals also take no third-person s, so she cans is impossible.
3Correct the error: In future, robots will can perform most routine tasks.
Will be able to perform. Two modals cannot sit together. Be able to supplies the meaning of can in any tense where the modal itself will not fit.
4Which version is better in a Task 2 conclusion?
Is likely to reduce the problem considerably. It commits to a clear position while staying defensible. The first and fourth overclaim, and the third stacks three hedges on top of each other, which reads as having no view at all.
5Correct the error: If the scheme had been funded, it might succeed.
Might have succeeded. The situation is in the unreal past, so the modal needs have plus the past participle. Might succeed points at the present or future instead.
6Correct the error: Students should to be encouraged to study a second language.
Should be encouraged. The modal takes the bare infinitive, which here is the passive be encouraged. This pattern is the standard way to make a recommendation in Task 2.
That is normal, and it is the whole problem with grammar study. Recognising an error in a sentence someone has told you contains one is far easier than finding it in your own essay, where every sentence looks correct because you wrote it.
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Choosing the right option from four is not the same as producing the structure accurately under time in an essay.
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Softening a claim so that it is defensible, using modals such as may and might or phrases such as tend to and in most cases. It is standard academic register rather than weak writing.
Not if you hedge the prediction rather than the opinion. State your position clearly and be careful about what you claim will happen.
Yes, but sparingly. Reserve it for outcomes you genuinely regard as certain, otherwise it reads as an overclaim.
Usually. Should fits a recommendation better, since you are advising a reader rather than issuing an instruction.
Modal verbs are followed by the bare infinitive, so no to appears. They also take no third-person s and cannot be doubled up.
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