Government investment in the arts, such as music and theatre, is a waste of money. The government must invest this money in public services instead. To what extent do you agree with this statement?
Sample Response
In some countries, the higher tax incomes come from arts such as movie industry, music or theatre business. In this regard, arts are beneficial investments for the government. On the other hand, arts, such as music are the food for soul and government should patronise this sector.
Moreover, in big countries like America and United kingdom arts are one of the biggest earning sources for those countries. The fact that, many people want to come to these countries because their arts are famous and the best in the world. Due to the fact movie industries, music or theatre has been encouraged the government for tax. Indeed, it can help the government to invest some money to public services as well. Hence, those countries are famous for music and movies and its imposing in the world and have become destiny for many people around the world for gaining their passion in arts.
Undoubtedly, in the United States of America, we can see that musician, an actor or an actress have higher incomes but they should taxable for the government that is a policy not only in this country but also in some countries that have good arts too. For this reason to develop some areas, for instance, healthcare, public transportation, etc. The government should encourage the artists and arts. Clearly, to give excellent service for American civil society, arts should not be ignored. Furthermore, taxpayers awareness among arts industries are higher and which is rapidly changing the economic growth of America.
Arts are the important media to give profits for the USA whereas in the UK too. Arts represent the identity, uniqueness, heritage and reflection of a nation. In brief, investing in arts is by means a waste of money, rather it is a good investment both for economic growth and cultural enrichment.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use the correct term Original: the higher tax incomes Suggested revision: higher tax revenues Why it matters: Governments receive tax revenue, while income usually refers to money received by people or businesses.
- 2. Add the article Original: come from arts Suggested revision: come from the arts Why it matters: The established field of artistic activity takes the definite article here.
- 3. Use formal wording Original: movie industry Suggested revision: the film industry Why it matters: The replacement is more natural in formal academic writing.
- 4. Fix agreement and articles Original: arts, such as music are the food for soul Suggested revision: art forms such as music are food for the soul Why it matters: The revision supplies the needed article and creates grammatical agreement.
- 5. Add the article Original: government should patronise Suggested revision: the government should support Why it matters: A specific national government requires the definite article, and support is clearer here.
- 6. Fix capitalization Original: United kingdom Suggested revision: the United Kingdom Why it matters: The country name requires the article and a capital letter in Kingdom.
- 7. Use a natural phrase Original: arts are one of the biggest earning sources Suggested revision: the arts are among the largest sources of revenue Why it matters: The revised phrase expresses the economic meaning idiomatically.
- 8. Fix the preposition Original: to Suggested revision: in Why it matters: The verb invest takes in before the funded area.
- 9. Clarify the meaning Original: its imposing in the world Suggested revision: their influence worldwide Why it matters: The original phrase is unidiomatic and has an unclear singular pronoun.
- 10. Choose the right noun Original: destiny Suggested revision: destinations Why it matters: Destination refers to a place people travel to, whereas destiny does not.
- 11. Fix the phrase Original: for gaining their passion in arts Suggested revision: to pursue their passion for the arts Why it matters: The revised infinitive and preposition form an idiomatic expression.
- 12. Use the possessive form Original: taxpayers awareness Suggested revision: taxpayers' awareness Why it matters: The plural possessive needs an apostrophe after taxpayers.
Suggested Rewrites
- the higher tax incomes higher tax revenues
- come from arts come from the arts
- movie industry the film industry
- arts, such as music are the food for soul art forms such as music are food for the soul
- government should patronise the government should support
- United kingdom the United Kingdom
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response presents a clear defence of arts funding and offers relevant economic and cultural reasons, with paragraphing that makes the broad direction easy to follow. Its main limitation is that ideas are repeatedly expressed through unclear or loosely connected sentences, while the comparison with spending on public services remains underdeveloped. The highest-priority improvement is to build two distinct arguments with precise explanation and grammatically controlled supporting examples.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
A clear position is maintained and relevant economic and cultural arguments are offered, though their development is uneven and repetitive.
Explain explicitly why arts investment remains justified when governments also need to fund essential public services.
Coherence and Cohesion
Paragraphing provides a visible structure, but progression within paragraphs is weakened by fragments, repetition, and unclear logical links.
Give each paragraph one controlling idea and connect every supporting sentence directly to that idea.
Lexical Resource
The response shows some range in discussing taxation, culture, identity, and public services, but frequent collocation and word-choice errors reduce precision.
Prioritise accurate common combinations such as tax revenue, cultural industries, and taxable income over less secure ambitious phrasing.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Some complex structures are attempted, but frequent errors in sentence formation, agreement, articles, and verb forms often disrupt clarity.
Practise writing complete subject-verb clauses and checking agreement and verb patterns before adding subordinate detail.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Government investment in the arts, such as music and theatre, is a waste of money. The government must invest this money in public services instead. To what extent do you agree with this statement?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.