How to answer IELTS Task 2 questions that ask two things

Many Task 2 questions contain a second question that is easy to skim past. Candidates who write a good answer to the first and a sentence or two on the second are not short of English. They are missing half of the task.

This guide shows how to recognise a question with two parts, what answering both involves, and a plan you can adapt. For the whole Writing test, see the guide to the Writing test format for Task 1 and Task 2.

What IELTS publishes, and what it does not

IELTS.org’s Academic Writing format page says Task 2 gives you a point of view, argument or problem to respond to, and asks for at least 250 words in about 40 minutes. The General Training page describes the same Task 2 as a point of view, argument or problem you need to discuss. Neither page lists kinds of question.

The shapes you meet in practice material, such as agree or disagree, discuss both views, advantages and disadvantages, problem and solution, and two-part questions, are a way of sorting questions that people have found useful. They are not a category IELTS publishes, and IELTS publishes nothing on how often each shape appears. The four criteria apply to all of them: Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. IELTS.org’s scoring page adds that the criteria are weighted equally and that the score on a task is their average.

So the useful question is not “which type is this?” but “what exactly am I being asked to do?”. With two parts, the answer is two things.

How to recognise a two-part question

Read the whole prompt slowly and count the questions. Three invented prompts show the usual forms.

• “More and more people now work from home. Why is this happening? Is it a positive or negative development?” A reason question and a judgement question.
• “In many countries, fewer young people read books for pleasure. What are the reasons for this? What can be done to encourage them?” A cause question and a solution question.
• “Museums are changing the way they present their collections. Why is this, and do you think it is a good idea?” Two parts hidden in one sentence, joined by “and”.

The signals are two question marks, two question words (“why”, “what”, “how”, “do you think”), or a single sentence with “and” joining two demands. Underline each demand before you write a word. If you are unsure whether there are two, treat it as two: an extra paragraph of well-judged content does less harm than an unanswered question.

What answering both parts means

The site’s Writing band descriptors page paraphrases the Task Response descriptors, and they speak plainly about this. At band 5, part of the question is dealt with and part is left untouched. At band 6, every part receives an answer, but one part can be given far more room than the other. At band 7, every part is answered, and the step up from 6 is that each part gets its fair share and the main points are taken further with reasons or examples.

That gives you three tests for each part of your essay:

1. Is it answered at all?
2. Is it answered in about the room it deserves, not a single sentence?
3. Are the points explained or illustrated, not just listed?

A “why” question is not answered by one reason stated and dropped. A “positive or negative” question is not answered by describing the development without ever saying which it is.

A paragraph plan

IELTS publishes no required number of paragraphs, so this is a plan, not a rule. It follows the four-paragraph shape in our post on Task 2 essay structure.

• Introduction. Rephrase the topic in your own words. If the second part asks for your view, state it here in one sentence.
• Body paragraph 1: part one. One topic sentence that names what this paragraph does, then two reasons or points, each explained and, where you can, given a concrete example.
• Body paragraph 2: part two. A topic sentence that answers the second question straight away, then the reasoning behind it.
• Conclusion. One or two sentences that return to both questions. Add no new argument.

When the two parts are closely linked, as with “reasons” and “what can be done”, let the second paragraph answer the first: a solution should aim at one of the reasons you gave. That link is a good source of coherence, and the guide to problem and solution essays covers it in more detail. For a pros-and-cons question, see advantages and disadvantages essays.

An invented prompt, an outline and a paragraph

The prompt below is invented for practice. It is not a past paper.

More and more people now work from home rather than in an office. Why is this happening? Is it a positive or negative development?

An outline, which is a plan you would write in a minute or two, not a text to memorise:

• Introduction: working from home is increasing; I will give the main reasons and say it is mostly positive.
• Body 1 (why): technology makes office tasks possible anywhere; employers see that many jobs do not need a daily commute; people now expect more control over how they spend the day.
• Body 2 (positive or negative): mostly positive, because of time and flexibility; one real drawback, isolation, with a way to reduce it.
• Conclusion: the shift has clear causes and, on balance, benefits people, provided they keep contact with colleagues.

One invented sample of the second body paragraph, to show the shape and not a model answer that scored a band:

The second question asks whether this change is positive or negative, and on balance I believe it is positive, provided people keep in contact with colleagues. Working at home gives employees control over their day: a parent can be present when children return from school, and someone who lives far from a city can take a job there without moving. The main risk is isolation, since conversations that happen naturally in an office must be arranged on purpose at home. Even so, regular video meetings can reduce that problem, so it is a reason for care and not a reason to reject the arrangement.

Notice what it does. The first sentence answers the question, so a marker never has to search for the position. The drawback is admitted and handled, so the position holds from start to finish.

Traps

Answering only one part

An essay gives four sentences of reasons and one sentence of opinion, or the reverse. Fix it at the planning stage: write the two questions at the top of your plan and tick each one when it has its own paragraph. If time is running out, shorten the stronger part instead of dropping the weaker.

Mixing the two

Reasons and judgement arrive in the same paragraph, so neither is complete. A reader cannot tell where the explanation ends and the evaluation begins. Keep one job per paragraph and let the topic sentence say which job it is.

No clear answer to the second part

The essay answers “why” well and then ends with “There are advantages and disadvantages, so it depends.” A positive-or-negative question wants a judgement. You may say it is both, but say how: “mostly positive, with one condition”, for example. Hedging until nothing is said reads as an unfinished answer.

A second part answered with the first part’s material

If asked “What can be done?”, writing more about why the problem exists leaves the question untouched. Check that your second paragraph contains the verbs of the second question: things that can be done, steps, changes.

Using your time

A two-part essay needs a plan more than most. Two or three minutes, with the two questions written out and one idea under each, saves you finding at the end that part two is thin. Our guide to managing time in IELTS Writing gives a suggested split of the 40 minutes.

Checking your own answer

After a practice essay, test it with the three tests above. Mark the sentence where each part is answered. If you cannot find it in ten seconds, a marker may not find it either. IELTS Mentor AI marks a Task 2 answer with an overall Writing band, the four criterion bands and an Examiner’s Summary, which is a quick way to see how your Task Response was read; the explorer at Writing band descriptors shows the criteria in plain language if you want to mark one yourself.