Guides / Task 2 essay types
Discuss Both Views and Give Your Opinion: The Three Paragraph Plans That Work
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion. The instruction contains two commands, and candidates reliably obey the first and forget the second. The result is a fair, well organised essay that never says what the writer thinks, which caps Task Response at band 6.
The confusion is usually about placement. Teachers give different advice about where the opinion goes, and all of the advice is defensible, which makes it sound like guesswork. It is not. There are three layouts that work, and each one has a different marking consequence.
This post sets out all three, with the same question written each way, so you can choose one and use it every time.
What the instruction is asking for
Task Response, the criterion that governs this, asks three things of a discuss both views essay.
- Both views are presented, and presented fairly. Presenting one view in four sentences and the other in one is not discussion.
- Your own opinion is stated clearly.
- Your opinion is consistent from the introduction to the conclusion.
Point three is where most essays break. A candidate discusses view A neutrally, discusses view B neutrally, then announces in the conclusion that they prefer B. Technically the opinion is there. But it arrived at the end as an assertion, with none of the essay supporting it, so the position is unsupported rather than developed.
The three layouts below all satisfy the three requirements. They differ in when the opinion appears and how much work it does.
The question we will use
Some people believe that university education should be free for all students. Others think students should pay their own tuition fees. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
Layout one: opinion stated early, held throughout
This is the strongest layout for most candidates, and the one I would use by default.
| Paragraph | Content |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Paraphrase the question, state both views in one sentence, state your opinion |
| Body 1 | The view you disagree with, presented fairly, then the specific reason it does not persuade you |
| Body 2 | The view you hold, with its strongest support |
| Conclusion | Restate your position, no new material |
Introduction. Whether the state or the individual should pay for a university degree divides opinion. Some argue that free tuition is the only way to keep higher education open to poorer families, while others believe graduates should fund a qualification that mainly benefits them. I believe the fairest system is a state funded degree repaid through later taxation, which takes the strongest part of each position.
Why it scores. The examiner knows your position from the first paragraph and can see every later paragraph doing work for it. This is exactly what a clear and developed position means in the descriptors. It also protects you from running out of time, because the position is already on the page before the body paragraphs exist.
The risk. You must genuinely present the opposing view fairly in body one. Announcing your opinion and then dismissing the other side in a sentence fails the discuss both half of the instruction.
Layout two: discuss, then decide
| Paragraph | Content |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Paraphrase, state both views, signal that you will weigh them |
| Body 1 | View A, presented in its strongest form |
| Body 2 | View B, presented in its strongest form |
| Body 3 or long conclusion | Your opinion, with the reason you weighed one above the other |
Why it scores. Done well, it reads as genuine reasoning rather than a template, and it produces the fairest presentation of both sides.
The risk, and it is real. Two things go wrong. First, the opinion arrives late and gets one or two rushed sentences, so it is stated but not developed. Second, the introduction has nothing to commit to, so candidates write this essay will discuss both sides, which is the sentence that most often signals an unclear position.
If you use this layout, protect it two ways. Signal a direction in the introduction without fully resolving it: both positions have force, though the objection about fairness to non-graduates seems to me the weaker one. And give your opinion a full paragraph, not a conclusion sentence.
Layout three: the balanced conditional
Use this when you honestly hold neither view outright.
| Paragraph | Content |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Paraphrase, state both views, state the condition your opinion depends on |
| Body 1 | The circumstances in which view A holds |
| Body 2 | The circumstances in which view B holds |
| Conclusion | Restate the condition that decides between them |
Introduction. I think the answer depends on what a country can afford and on how many of its young people attend university. Where participation is low, free tuition is affordable and worthwhile; where a majority attend, the cost falls on taxpayers who did not go.
Why it scores. This is a clear position, not a fence sit, because the condition is named. A stranger reading the introduction can predict both body paragraphs.
The risk. It looks identical to the fence sit if you leave the condition out. It depends on the situation is not a position. It depends on the participation rate is.
The three layouts compared
| Opinion appears | Best for | Main risk | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Layout one | Introduction | Most candidates, under time pressure | Unfair treatment of the opposing view |
| Layout two | Final paragraph | Confident writers with good time control | Rushed, underdeveloped opinion |
| Layout three | Introduction, as a condition | Genuinely mixed views | Reads as fence sitting if the condition is vague |
The sentences that break each layout
Three sentences appear constantly and damage Task Response wherever they sit.
"This essay will discuss both sides." It describes the essay instead of answering the question. Replace it with your position, or with a signalled direction.
"In my opinion, both views have merit." This is not an opinion about the question. It is an opinion about the opinions. The examiner still does not know what you think about tuition fees.
"In conclusion, I think students should pay, because it is better." New position, no support, arriving after two neutral paragraphs. If your opinion appears for the first time in the conclusion, the essay has not developed it.
A note on fairness to the other side
The most common technical error in this essay type is uneven coverage. Count sentences. If view A gets six and view B gets two, you have not discussed both views, whatever your conclusion says.
A reliable habit is to write the paragraph for the view you disagree with first, while you still have energy and time. Candidates who leave it until last write it thinly, because by then they want to argue rather than explain. Presenting an opposing view in its strongest form is also good argument, because the objection you then raise is worth more against a strong version than a weak one.
What to do today
Take one discuss both views question and write only the introductions, all three layouts, four sentences each. It takes fifteen minutes. Then read each one alone, without the question, and ask whether a stranger could state your position. Pick the layout that produced the clearest one and make it your default, so that on exam day the structure is already decided and your five minutes of planning go into content instead.
When you write the full essay, you can check it with Bandly, which scores each of the four criteria separately and shows the reasoning behind each estimate, so you can see whether the layout change actually moved Task Response. The bands are model generated estimates rather than examiner marks, so use them to compare two versions of your own writing rather than to predict a result.
For the closely related single opinion question, see To What Extent Do You Agree?. For paragraph level linking, see IELTS Coherence and Cohesion.
Find out what this essay would score
Paste your own answer and Bandly returns an estimated band for each of the four criteria, with the sentences that pulled the score down. Under a cent an essay, about six seconds.
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