A Government Has a Responsibility to Its Citizens to Ensure Their Safety – IELTS Writing Task 2 Argumentative Essay

In IELTS Writing Task 2, you are asked to respond to a particular statement or question with a clear argument and justify it through organized thought. One such topic is ‘A Government Has a Responsibility to its Citizens to Ensure Their Safety’, where you would have to clearly state and support your opinion.

With consistent practice, you can improve your ability to think critically, plan well, use accurate vocabulary, and clearly understand the format of writing for this task. Before diving into the sample answers, find out write the essay and improve your skills to achieve a band 8+.

Tips to Attempt IELTS Writing Task 2 Argumentative Essay Topic ‘A Government Has a Responsibility to Its Citizens to Ensure Their Safety’

To get a higher IELTS Band Score, you need to make sure that you analyze the sample essays carefully to pinpoint the factors which will help you in your preparation. When you have learned the tricks and practiced diligently, you can confidently attempt the essay with ease. Let’s look at the following tips, which can guide you as you prepare for IELTS Writing Task 2 with the argumentative essay topic, ‘A Government Has a Responsibility to its Citizens to Ensure Their Safety’.

• You should allocate some time for planning before you start writing your essay. Spend around 4–5 minutes generating ideas as well as the essay’s outline.  
• It is recommended to practice in real time since in the actual IELTS exam, you will only have 40 minutes to complete writing an essay for which you should be aware of the Timing and Word Length in IELTS Writing Module. While practicing, you can use a timer not only to get used to the IELTS exam's time constraints, but also to ensure that your essay goes beyond the 250-word minimum. 
• For the argumentative essay questions, knowing the type of question is critical. If it says, “Do you agree or disagree?”, then you will need to either fully agree or completely disagree. However, if the question is “To what extent do you agree or disagree?”, you can choose the third opinion of partial agreement. This is suitable for a more balanced argument where both sides can be explored before the conclusion.  
• To get familiar with the IELTS Vocabulary, you should have a personal book with topic-specific words and phrases. Make sure to revise them regularly so that some of these words can be useful in multiple IELTS topics.  
• Your ideas will be better and more logically organized if you use a wide range of cohesive devices and linking words in your writing. The flow of the essay will not be abrupt and will not have sudden shifts from one point to another.  
• Reserve the last 4–5 minutes of your writing time to closely analyze your essay’s clarity, punctuation, verb tenses, and sentence structure to ensure that all errors can be rectified.
• To enhance the precision of your writing, it is essential that you strengthen your grammar fundamentals now by revisiting the topics covered in the IELTS Grammar section.

Check out the video below to know more on How to write IELTS Agree-Disagree Essay in 10 Minutes?

Question -  IELTS Writing Task 2 Argumentative Essay Topic ‘A Government Has a Responsibility to its Citizens to Ensure Their Safety’

Structure Breakdown for IELTS Writing Task 2 Argumentative Essay Topic ‘A Government Has a Responsibility to its Citizens to Ensure Their Safety’

Organizing your thoughts should be the first step before reading through sample answers or trying to write them. This method would give you an immense amount of clarity so that your thoughts can be arranged in a logical flow. It is important to make an outline to avoid using repetitive words or ideas when you write the essay. As you dive into the Agree Disagree Essays in IELTS, you need to be aware of the specific format to gain a higher band score in task achievement. Below is the breakdown of the structure for the topic, 'A  Government Has a Responsibility to its Citizens to Ensure Their Safety.'

Band 8 Sample Answer for  IELTS Writing Task 2 Argumentative Essay Topic ‘A Government Has a Responsibility to its Citizens to Ensure Their Safety’

The fundamental responsibility of the state is to safeguard its residents from many threats. As a result, some suggest that the government should allocate a large portion of its financial resources to the defense industry while cutting back on social welfare spending. However, I disagree with this idea, and in the following paragraphs, I shall elaborate on my viewpoint.

Military investment cannot come at the price of social spending since social welfare is just as important for a country’s survival as a military force. The government is responsible for ensuring that everyone has access to fundamental human necessities such as food, housing, and health care. The state should improve its people’s living conditions and make them happy and satisfied by assisting the most vulnerable segments of society through different initiatives.

If healthcare funding is reduced, life-saving procedures and treatments will become unaffordable. Additionally, the most vulnerable members of society would suffer without social benefit programs such as retirement plans, disability assistance, or subsidized housing. This can breed discontent among the socially disadvantaged and spark a social movement against the state. Moreover, people pay taxes to the government and feel that they are entitled to benefits which impacts both the poor and middle-class residents.

However, governments can ensure that their populations live peacefully and harmoniously by increasing defense spending. Rising defense spending will improve military infrastructure and supply soldiers with high-quality weaponry. As a result, foreign nations will think twice before invading their neighbors.

To recapitulate, the state should prioritize residents’ well-being as much as their protection, and cutting social welfare spending to increase military spending is necessary. Still, it would do more harm than good.

Band 9 Sample Essay for IELTS Writing Task 2 Argumentative Essay Topic ‘A Government Has a Responsibility to its Citizens to Ensure Their Safety’

Learning is very crucial in safeguarding the population. Some people consider that the government should emphasize spending a budget on national defence rather than spending on social welfare. In this essay, I partially agree with the viewpoint and these should be symmetrically examined.

To begin with, there should be more emphasis given to national defence policies and that it should be given more expenditure. This is predominantly important because there is a major concern that the country may get involved in international conflict. For instance, there are some countries that are seriously at war where an amount has to be allocated for national defence. Thus, the issue of national protection should first be given the first priority as well as consideration.

In contrast, social welfare facilities might also be an existing problem due to the rapid population growth. In brief, the elderly become more dependent on their younger ones for family and financial support. Due to this, they are at times being neglected since the cost of looking after them is huge and they become a burden. Thus, allocating funds for the social community for a better life can also result in long-term success. 

In conclusion, I opine that social welfare and national defence are equally important issues and should be given an equal budget for the development of countries.

Vocabulary for Sample Answer on Essay Topic ‘A Government Has a Responsibility to its Citizens to Ensure Their Safety’

• Allocate

Meaning (verb): distribute (resources or duties) for a particular purpose.
Eg: The manager allocated the funds for the improvement of working conditions.

• Vulnerable

Meaning (adj): exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.
Eg: Children are vulnerable to skin diseases.

• Initiative 

Meaning (noun): the ability to assess and initiate things independently.
Eg: The initiatives taken by the government to curb covid cases are commendable.

• Breed 

Meaning (noun): a stock of animals or plants within a species having a distinctive appearance and typically having been developed by deliberate selection.
E.g.: A new breed of athletes is expected to join the team.

• Entitled

Meaning (adj): believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.
E.g.: Nobody is entitled to physically abuse anyone.

• Ensure 

Meaning (verb): make certain that (something) will occur or be the case.
E.g.: Please ensure to keep the environment clean.

• Harmoniously

Meaning (adverb): with harmony of sound; tunefully.
E.g.: Development programs are being conducted in the company to ensure employees work harmoniously.

• Invading

Meaning (verb): (of an armed force) enter (a country or region) so as to subjugate or occupy it.
E.g.: She hesitated, a dark thought invading her apology.

• Prioritize 

Meaning (verb): designate or treat (something) as being very or most important.
E.g.: The team leader asked the team to prioritize client deliverables at the next meeting.

• Recapitulate 

Meaning (verb): summarize and state again the main points of.
E.g.: After a head argument, John started to recapitulate his actions.

Remember to focus on self-analysis to continuously improve your writing skills so that you can achieve a band 8+ in the IELTS Exam. It is crucial that you acquire the skills to identify the different types of questions so that you can build a solid structure before you start writing your answers. So, keep practising with as many different topics and essay types as you can.

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