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.