Task 2
Two questions that look identical and require different essays. With a worked example and a practice exercise.
An IELTS advantages and disadvantages essay comes in two versions, and telling them apart is the single most useful thing on this page. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages asks for balance. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? asks for a verdict.
The words are nearly the same and the essays are not. Writing a balanced answer to an outweigh question is one of the most common Task Response failures in the whole test, and it is entirely avoidable in the ten seconds it takes to read the instruction properly.
The task
Six points. The first two are the ones that decide the band.
What are the advantages and disadvantages? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this. Balance is the answer. No verdict is required, though a brief closing observation does no harm.
Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? This is an opinion question wearing different clothes. You must weigh them and say which side wins, in the introduction and again at the end.
The verdict has to be argued. It is not enough to give three advantages and two disadvantages and announce that the advantages win; the essay has to show why one side matters more.
Far more significant than, outweighed by, a greater concern than, on balance, the decisive consideration is. Without these, a weighing essay reads as two lists side by side.
Introduction, one paragraph of advantages, one of disadvantages, conclusion. For an outweigh question the conclusion delivers the verdict, and the introduction has already signalled it.
An advantage and a disadvantage are not automatically equal. Saying that one drawback outweighs three benefits is a perfectly good argument, provided you explain why it carries more weight.
Worked example
An outweigh question, with a model introduction and the paragraph that delivers the weighing.
Question. More and more people are working from home rather than commuting to an office. Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
Introduction. Remote working has moved in a few years from an unusual arrangement to a normal one for a substantial part of the workforce. There are real costs to it, particularly for younger employees and for the businesses that depend on office districts, but I would argue that the advantages are the greater, chiefly because the time returned to people is time they would otherwise have lost permanently.
The disadvantages, taken seriously. The strongest objection is not the one usually made about productivity, which the evidence does not clearly support. It is that working from home removes the incidental contact through which people new to a profession learn it. A graduate in their first job overhears a great deal that nobody would ever think to explain, and a video call carries none of it.
The weighing. Against this stands a saving that is easy to underrate. A commute of an hour each way is roughly ten hours a week, or more than a working day, returned to the individual rather than absorbed by travel. That gain is universal, immediate and permanent, while the loss of incidental learning applies mainly to a particular group at a particular stage and can be partly addressed by bringing junior staff in more often than senior ones. On balance, then, the advantages outweigh the drawbacks, though the case is stronger for experienced workers than for those just starting.
The final paragraph does not list a fourth advantage. It compares the two sides directly on how many people are affected and for how long, which is what weighing actually means.
Method
Six decisions, most of them made before you write a word.
The difference between discuss and outweigh is one word and one band. Ten seconds spent here is the best-value time in the whole test.
For an outweigh question, the introduction should already say which side you think wins. A verdict that appears only in the last line reads as an afterthought.
A weighing essay is only convincing if the side you reject was worth rejecting. Choose the strongest objection, not the easiest.
How many people are affected, for how long, how reversible it is. Naming the basis of the comparison is what separates weighing from asserting.
Three advantages against two disadvantages proves nothing. One serious drawback can outweigh several minor benefits, and saying so is a stronger argument than arithmetic.
If the question only asks you to discuss both, a long argued conclusion is answering more than was asked. Summarise instead.
Practice
Six questions on reading the task and shaping the answer. Choose the best option.
Every option below could be written in correct English. The question is which one answers the task as it was actually set.
That is what Task Response measures, and it is the criterion candidates lose most often without knowing it.
1The instruction is Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? What does the essay need?
A verdict. The word outweigh makes this an opinion question. Presenting both sides and declining to choose caps Task Response, exactly as it would on an agree-or-disagree question.
2The instruction is Discuss the advantages and disadvantages. What does the essay need?
Balance. This version does not ask you to choose. A long argued verdict answers more than was asked, which is a milder error than the reverse but still a mismatch.
3Which sentence actually weighs the two sides?
The third. It compares the two on a stated basis: how many people, and for how long. The first counts, the second says nothing, and the fourth announces a verdict without supporting it.
4Can one disadvantage outweigh three advantages?
Yes, with an explanation. Weighing is about significance, not arithmetic. A single serious drawback outweighing several small benefits is a strong argument when the reason is given.
5Where should the verdict first appear in an outweigh essay?
Introduction and conclusion. The examiner should know the position before the body paragraphs begin. A verdict that arrives only at the end reads as a decision made while writing.
6Which phrase belongs in a weighing paragraph?
On balance, the decisive consideration is. It signals that a comparison is being made and names the basis for it. The others add items to a list, which is what a weighing essay is trying to avoid.
It is the most expensive mistake in Task 2 and the hardest to catch alone, because a fluent, well organised essay looks right on the page whatever question it happens to be answering.
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Discuss the advantages and disadvantages asks for balance. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? asks you to weigh them and reach a verdict.
Effectively yes. It requires a position, stated in the introduction and supported throughout, exactly as an agree-or-disagree question does.
No. Significance decides the verdict, not quantity, and one serious drawback can outweigh several minor benefits.
A brief closing observation is fine. A long argued conclusion answers more than the question asked, so keep it short.
Four is standard: introduction, advantages, disadvantages, conclusion. On an outweigh question the last body paragraph often does the weighing.
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Grammar and vocabulary can be checked. Whether an essay actually answered the question asked, and held that answer all the way through, is a judgement, and it is the one that most often decides whether a script is a 6 or a 7.
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