Modal Verbs in IELTS Writing: How to Make a Claim You Can Defend

Two pieces of advice circulate about IELTS writing and they look like opposites. The first says to use cautious language, because academic English does not shout. The second says that sitting on the fence loses marks in Task 2.

Both are correct, and they apply to different parts of your essay. Your position must be clear and must not move. Your evidence should be qualified, because a sweeping claim about the whole world is one a reader can refuse in a second. Modal verbs are how you separate the two. Used well, they also add structure variety, which is marked under Grammatical Range and Accuracy, one of the four criteria your writing is judged on.

What a modal verb is

A modal verb sits in front of a main verb and changes how certain the sentence is. The ones that matter here are can, could, may, might, will, would, should and must. Some phrases do the same job without being modals: tend to, be likely to, appear to, is often, in many cases.

Compare three versions of one claim.

The third sentence is not weaker than the first. It is harder to argue with, and it is better English.

Where hedging is wrong

This is the part that gets confused. Hedge the claims inside your argument; never hedge your answer to the question.

An essay that reads there are arguments on both sides and it may depend on the situation in the introduction, repeats it in both body paragraphs and concludes so both views have merit has not answered the question. Task Response, the criterion that measures whether you addressed what was asked, marks an unclear or shifting position down, however good the language is.

So the two layers are:

• Position: no modals. This essay will argue that governments should fund public transport before road building. Not might, not could perhaps.
• Evidence: modals welcome. Cheaper fares are likely to shift some commuters out of cars, although the effect appears to be strongest in dense cities.

A useful test is to read only your first and last paragraphs. If a stranger cannot say in one sentence what you think, your position is hedged and that is the thing to fix first.

The four jobs modals do in an essay

1. Possibility, for a claim you cannot prove. Raising the legal age may reduce consumption among the youngest drinkers. Use may, might or could. This is the safest way to discuss causes, because real causes are disputed.

2. Prediction, for a consequence. If fees were abolished, applications would rise sharply. Use would for a hypothetical, will only for something near certain.

3. Recommendation, for a solution paragraph. Councils should publish the data before approving the scheme. Use should for what you advise and must only where the obligation is genuine, such as a legal requirement. Must used for an opinion sounds like an instruction to the reader.

4. Ability, for what something makes possible. Online courses can reach students in areas with no university. This is the single most useful modal in an advantages paragraph, because can claims possibility rather than universality.

Overhedging, and what it looks like

Caution has a limit. Stacking two or three hedges in one clause does not make the sentence safer, it makes it empty.

Before: It could perhaps possibly be argued that it may sometimes be the case that technology might have some kind of effect on education in certain situations.

Twenty eight words, no claim. There is nothing for a reader to agree or disagree with, and the sentence shows no grammatical range because it is one chain of hedges.

After: Technology has changed how students revise, though it has done less to change what they are taught.

Seventeen words, one qualified claim, one contrast, and a clear meaning. One hedge per claim is enough. Two is usually a sign that you were not sure whether to make the claim at all.

The same rule applies to the words always, never, everyone, all and completely. They are the opposite error: a claim so wide that one exception breaks it. In an essay you have no space to defend them, so use most, many, in general or the majority of instead.

A rewrite, sentence by sentence

A real body paragraph, first as candidates write it, then repaired.

Before: Everyone knows that living in a city is better for young people. All the best jobs are in cities and the salaries are always higher. Village people never get good opportunities, so they must move to the city if they want to succeed in life.

Three absolute claims and one misused must. The ideas are reasonable; the language will not survive a sceptical reader.

After: For many young people, cities offer opportunities that smaller towns cannot. Most specialised jobs are concentrated in urban areas, and salaries in those sectors are generally higher, partly because the cost of living is higher too. Candidates from rural areas may therefore need to move in order to enter certain professions, although remote work is beginning to weaken that link.

The second version keeps every idea from the first. What changed is that each claim is now true as written, and the paragraph uses four different structures rather than three copies of one. That is the part Grammatical Range measures.

Do this today

Take an essay you have already written and mark every absolute word in it: all, always, never, everyone, completely. Each one is a place where a single counterexample defeats your sentence. Replace it with most, generally, tends to or in many cases, then read the introduction and conclusion again to check that your position itself did not soften while you were softening the evidence.

When the two layers are separate, your essay sounds confident about what it argues and careful about what it claims. If you want to see whether the change registers, paste both versions into Bandly and compare the estimated band for each criterion, with the weakest sentences marked in each.