Discussion essays (discuss both views)

"Discuss both views and give your own opinion" is two instructions, and candidates routinely deliver only one of them.

The three obligations

You must cover view A properly. You must cover view B properly. You must say which you find more convincing. Miss any one and Task Response is capped, regardless of the quality of the English.

"Properly" means developed to roughly the same depth. Giving one view a full paragraph and the other three sentences reads as a disguised opinion essay, and examiners recognise it immediately.

Where the opinion goes

State it in the introduction and confirm it in the conclusion. Some teachers suggest revealing it only at the end; this is riskier, because if you run out of time the opinion disappears entirely and you have failed a stated requirement.

A fourth body paragraph explaining your own position is optional but effective — it separates reporting the two views from judging between them, which is exactly the distinction the criterion is testing.

Presenting a view you disagree with

Write it as its own strongest version, not a straw man. Examiners reward the ability to state an opposing case fairly and then answer it. Phrases that do this well: the case for X is straightforward, proponents of this view point out that, there is real force in the argument that.

Then turn: Nevertheless, this argument overstates, what this overlooks is.

Common structural error

Writing four paragraphs that all say "some people think... other people think..." without ever attributing a view to yourself. The essay ends up describing a debate rather than participating in it, which reads as an incomplete answer.