Task 2 asks you to argue. Forty minutes, 250 words minimum, and two thirds of your Writing score. The essay that does well is rarely the cleverest one — it is the one whose argument the reader never has to reconstruct.
Start by reading the question twice and deciding which of the four it is: do you agree or disagree; discuss both views and give your opinion; advantages and disadvantages; problem and solution. Answering a discuss-both-views question with a one-sided essay caps your task response no matter how good the English is.
Then this shape:
- Introduction (2 sentences). Rephrase the question in your own words, then state your
- position. Plainly. "In my view, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks" is worth more than an
- elegant sentence that leaves the reader guessing.
- Body 1. One idea. State it in the first sentence, explain why it holds, then give one
- concrete example. One idea developed properly beats three mentioned.
- Body 2. The second idea, same shape. If the question asked for both views, this is where
- the other side goes — and then you say why your position still stands.
- Conclusion (1–2 sentences). Restate the position. Add nothing new.
Two things that cost marks silently. Under-length — below 250 words you are penalised, and most students under-run because they planned nothing and stalled at paragraph two. And examples that are not examples: "for example, many people think this" is an assertion wearing a label.
Spend the first five minutes planning. Write the position and the two ideas as fragments before you write a sentence of prose. Those five minutes are why a planned essay finishes and an unplanned one runs out of time in the third paragraph.