Task 2
Also called direct questions. The failure mode is simple and expensive. With a worked example and a practice exercise.
An IELTS two-part question essay asks two separate things about one topic, and expects both to be answered. It is sometimes called a direct question or double question essay, and it is the type candidates most often half-answer without realising.
The failure is not a matter of style. Answering one of two questions is answering half the task, and Task Response is capped accordingly however well the half you did answer was written.
The task
Six points, and the first is just reading carefully.
Two question marks, or an and joining two instructions. Why is this happening, and what can be done? Is this a positive development, and how might it change? Two requests, both marked.
The simplest structure that works: introduction, question one, question two, conclusion. Trying to answer both in every paragraph produces an essay nobody can follow.
If you name three causes and then propose solutions unrelated to any of them, the essay is internally inconsistent even though both questions were technically answered.
One half may ask for reasons and the other for your opinion. Each half is written in the shape its own instruction requires, not in a single compromise shape.
Two body paragraphs of similar length. If one question is plainly larger, it can take more space, but a nine-sentence paragraph against a two-sentence one is a partial answer.
No opinion is needed unless one is asked for. Adding an unrequested opinion is a smaller error than omitting a required one, but it still spends words on something that is not being marked.
Worked example
A typical two-part question, with a model introduction and the paragraph answering the second half.
Question. In many countries, people are living alone in greater numbers than ever before. Why is this happening, and what effects does it have on society?
Introduction. Single-person households have grown steadily across most developed countries and now make up a substantial share of the total. This essay will suggest that the trend has two main drivers, later marriage and greater financial independence among women, and will argue that its effects are mixed: a heavier demand on housing, set against a form of independence that earlier generations could not have chosen.
Question one: why. The most direct cause is that people marry later, or not at all, so the years spent living independently before forming a household have lengthened from a few to many. Behind this sits a change that made it possible: women in particular now earn enough to support a household alone, which was not generally true two generations ago. Living alone has moved from a circumstance people found themselves in to an arrangement they choose.
Question two: effects. The clearest effect follows directly from that shift. If the same population divides into more households, more homes are needed to accommodate it, which places pressure on housing supply in exactly the cities where it is already tightest. The social consequences are harder to weigh. Living alone is associated with isolation in older age groups, but for younger adults it more often reflects a level of autonomy that would previously have required marriage to achieve.
The second paragraph builds on the first rather than starting fresh — the effects follow from the causes just given. That connection is what stops a two-part essay reading as two short essays stapled together.
Method
Six decisions, most of them made before you write a word.
Before planning. Two question marks or an and in the instruction line is the signal, and missing it is the whole failure.
One clause each. It commits you to covering both and gives the examiner the shape of the essay immediately.
Clear, controllable, and it makes the balance visible to you as you write rather than only afterwards.
Effects that follow from the causes you named, solutions that address the problems you identified. Consistency across the halves is itself marked under Coherence.
A quick look at the two paragraphs will tell you whether one has run away with the essay while there is still time to fix it.
One sentence each. A conclusion that summarises only the half you found easier draws attention to the half you did not.
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.
1Which instruction is a two-part question?
The third. It asks for causes and then for effects: two separate requests about one topic. The second option has two parts too, but they are a fixed pair with their own standard shape.
2A candidate answers only the first of the two questions, very well. What happens?
Task Response is capped. Both halves are part of the task. Quality in one does not compensate for the absence of the other, and this is the defining failure of the type.
3What is the simplest structure that works?
One paragraph each. It is easy to control under time and it makes the balance visible while you write. Mixing both questions through every paragraph is hard to follow and hard to check.
4You give three causes, then propose solutions unrelated to any of them. What is wrong?
It is inconsistent. The second half should follow from the first. Solutions addressing problems the essay never raised are technically an answer, but the essay no longer holds together.
5The question does not ask for your opinion. Should you give one?
No. An unrequested opinion is not marked, so the words spent on it are words not spent on the parts that are. It is a smaller error than omitting a required opinion, but it is still a cost.
6One body paragraph runs to nine sentences, the other to two. What should you do?
Develop the shorter one. Two sentences is a mention rather than an answer. Noticeably unequal paragraphs are the visible sign that one half of the task has not really been addressed.
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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A Task 2 question asking two separate things about one topic, such as why something happens and what effects it has. It is also called a direct or double question.
Task Response is capped. Both halves are part of the task, and strength in one does not compensate for the absence of the other.
Roughly, unless one is plainly larger. A long paragraph on one and two sentences on the other reads as a partial answer.
Only if the question asks for it. Otherwise the words are better spent on the two things that are being marked.
Four: introduction, one paragraph per question, and a conclusion that covers both in a sentence each.
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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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