Task 2
Two views, both taken seriously, and an opinion that is not optional. With a worked example and a practice exercise.
An IELTS discussion essay asks you to present two opposing views and then give your own. The instruction is almost always the same words — discuss both these views and give your own opinion — and both halves of it are compulsory.
The characteristic failure is forgetting the second half. A candidate discusses both sides carefully, runs out of words, and finishes without ever saying what they think, which caps Task Response no matter how good the discussion was.
The task
Six points, and the opinion is the one people leave out.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion. Occasionally consider both sides or discuss both points of view. If the words your own opinion appear, an opinion is required.
Roughly equal treatment. A paragraph of five sentences for one view and two for the other is a balance problem the examiner can see at a glance.
The view you disagree with should be given its strongest form, not a weak version that is easy to knock down. A weak account of it makes your own case look weaker, not stronger.
And it should appear in the introduction as well as the conclusion. Holding it back until the last two lines gives the examiner three paragraphs with no idea where the essay is going.
View A, view B, then your opinion. Or view A with your response, view B with your response. The first is easier to control under time; the second reads better when you can manage it.
Discuss both views is not the same as do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. This one wants two positions people hold; that one wants a weighing of consequences. The essays are different shapes.
Worked example
A typical discussion question, with a model introduction and the paragraph presenting the opposing view.
Question. Some people think that children should begin formal education as early as possible. Others believe children should not start school until they are at least seven. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Introduction. The age at which formal schooling should begin varies widely between countries, and both of the usual arguments are serious ones. Those who favour an early start point to the years of learning that are otherwise lost, while others argue that young children learn more through play than through instruction. I take the second view, though with an important qualification about what a later start assumes.
The opposing view. The case for beginning early rests on the fact that young children acquire language and number with a speed adults cannot match, and that leaving those years unstructured wastes them. There is also a practical argument that is rarely stated but matters a great deal: school provides supervision, and in households where both parents work, a later start is only affordable to families who can pay for the alternative.
My view. Even so, I would place the balance later. The evidence from countries that begin at six or seven does not show those children falling behind by adolescence, which suggests the lost years are recovered rather than lost. The qualification is that this only holds where good early-years provision exists, and where it does not, an early school start may genuinely be the better of two imperfect options.
The opposing view is given its strongest form, including an argument the writer’s own side finds inconvenient. That is what a fair discussion looks like, and the essay is more persuasive for it.
Method
Six decisions, most of them made before you write a word.
One clause is enough: I take the second view, though… The examiner then reads the discussion knowing where it is heading.
Dealing with the view you disagree with early leaves your own position in the stronger final position, and it stops the essay drifting.
Those who favour… argue that…, Supporters of this position point to… This keeps other people’s views clearly separate from your own.
If one view gets twice the words, the balance the question asked for has gone, whatever you intended.
Not I agree with the second view and nothing more. Say why, and preferably say what the other side gets right before you set it aside.
Introduction, view A, view B with your response, conclusion. Five is possible; six under time is usually four short paragraphs and a rushed ending.
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 says discuss both these views and give your own opinion. What is required?
Both, and an opinion. The instruction has two parts and both are marked. Discussing both views beautifully and never giving an opinion caps Task Response.
2Where should your opinion first appear?
Introduction and conclusion. Stating it early tells the examiner where the essay is going. An opinion that appears only at the end leaves three paragraphs looking directionless.
3How should you present the view you disagree with?
In its strongest form. A weak version of the other side makes your own argument look weaker, not stronger, and it also fails the instruction to discuss both views.
4Which is a discussion essay instruction?
The second. The first weighs consequences, the third asks for problems and the fourth asks only for your position. Only the second asks you to set out two views people hold.
5One view gets a nine-sentence paragraph, the other gets three. What is the problem?
The balance has gone. The instruction asks you to discuss both. Unequal treatment reads as one view being covered and the other mentioned, which is a partial answer.
6Which opening sentence for the second body paragraph is best?
The third. It attributes the view and states its substance in one sentence. The others announce that a paragraph is happening without saying anything.
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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Recognising the right approach in a multiple choice is not the same as holding it for forty minutes and 250 words.
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Yes, whenever the instruction says give your own opinion. Discussing both views without stating one caps Task Response.
Only if you say which one you favour on balance. A refusal to choose reads as no opinion at all.
Usually the one you disagree with, so your own position occupies the stronger later position and the essay builds towards it.
A discussion essay presents two positions people hold. An advantages and disadvantages essay weighs the consequences of one thing. The shapes are different.
Roughly equal space. Noticeably unequal paragraphs read as one view discussed and the other mentioned.
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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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