The five Writing Task 2 question types

Writing Task 2 looks like an open essay, but it is not. Every prompt belongs to one of five recognisable types, and each type has a job it wants done. Answering a discussion prompt as though it were an opinion prompt will cost you marks under Task Response no matter how good the English is.

The five types

1. Opinion — "To what extent do you agree or disagree?" You are asked for a position and evidence for it.
2. Discussion — "Discuss both views and give your own opinion." Two views must be covered properly and you must state where you stand.
3. Advantages and disadvantages — sometimes with "Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?" attached, which turns it into a judgement rather than a list.
4. Problem and solution — also framed as causes and solutions. You explain why something happens, then what would actually help.
5. Two-part question — a statement followed by two distinct questions. Both must be answered, and candidates routinely answer only the first.

How to identify the type in under a minute

Read the instruction sentence, not the topic sentence. The topic tells you what the essay is about; the instruction tells you what to do with it. Underline the instruction verb — discuss, agree, outweigh, what problems, why — and the type follows almost automatically.

Then check whether an opinion is being requested. "Discuss both views" without "give your own opinion" is rare but does occur, and adding an unrequested opinion is not penalised, whereas omitting a requested one is.

Why this matters more than vocabulary

Task Response is one of four equally weighted criteria, so it is a quarter of your Writing score. It is also the one criterion you can fail completely through a planning error rather than a language limitation. A candidate with Band 8 English who answers the wrong question is capped well below Band 8.

Spend the first two minutes identifying the type and deciding your position. It is the cheapest mark in the exam.