To What Extent Do You Agree? How to Answer Without Sitting on the Fence

To what extent do you agree or disagree? is the most common instruction in IELTS Writing Task 2. It is also the one candidates handle worst, because two pieces of advice circulate and they contradict each other.

The first says you must pick one side and defend it completely. The second says a balanced view is more sophisticated. Both are half right, and the half that is missing is the reason so many essays land at band 6 on Task Response.

Task Response is the criterion that asks whether you answered the question that was set, developed your position, and held it throughout. This post shows what holding a position actually looks like, with the same essay written two ways.

The question is asking about degree

Read the instruction literally. To what extent means how much. It is not asking yes or no. It is asking you to place yourself somewhere on a scale and say where.

There are three honest positions.

All three can reach the top bands. What cannot reach the top bands is a fourth option that is not on the list: no position at all. That is the one most candidates accidentally choose.

Partial agreement versus sitting on the fence

These look similar and are completely different.

Partial agreement names the condition. I agree that this is true for large cities, but not for rural areas. The reader knows exactly what you think and can predict your paragraphs.

Sitting on the fence lists both sides and never chooses. There are advantages and disadvantages. Some people think one thing and others think another. Both views have merit. The reader finishes the essay not knowing what you think, because you did not say.

Sitting on the fence is what the descriptors describe as an unclear position, and it caps Task Response no matter how good your grammar and vocabulary are. This is why strong English speakers are surprised by a band 6 in writing. The English was fine. The essay did not answer the question.

The commitment test

After you write your introduction, apply this test. Cover the question and read only your thesis sentence. Can a stranger say in one sentence what you believe?

Here are four introductions to the same question: Some people believe that governments should ban private cars from city centres. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Fails the test. There are many opinions about banning cars from city centres. This essay will discuss both the advantages and the disadvantages of this policy. A stranger learns nothing about your view.

Fails the test. I partly agree and partly disagree with this statement, because there are good arguments on both sides. This announces a degree without naming it. It is fence sitting wearing the clothes of a balanced view.

Passes. I strongly agree that private cars should be banned from city centres, because the health and space benefits outweigh the inconvenience to drivers. Clear, and the two body paragraphs are already visible.

Passes. I largely agree that private cars should be banned from central areas, although this should apply only to cities that already have a reliable public transport network. Also clear, and the condition tells the reader what paragraph two will argue.

The two that pass name a degree, strongly and largely, and give a reason. The two that fail use the language of balance to avoid deciding.

Language for naming a degree

Choose one phrase, put it in your introduction, and repeat the same degree in your conclusion. If your introduction says largely agree, your conclusion cannot say both sides are equally valid. That contradiction is one of the fastest ways to lose Task Response marks, and examiners see it constantly.

The same essay, two ways

The question is the car ban above. Compare the body paragraph.

The mushy version.

On the one hand, banning cars would reduce pollution and make the city safer for pedestrians. Many European cities have done this and their air quality has improved. On the other hand, some people need their cars, especially disabled people and those carrying heavy goods. Shops may also lose customers. Therefore, there are strong arguments on both sides of this issue.

Every sentence is grammatically sound. The paragraph still fails, because it ends where it started. The final sentence adds nothing and quietly withdraws the essay from the question.

The committed version.

The strongest argument for a ban is the amount of urban land that private cars consume. In a typical city centre, roads and parking occupy a large share of public space to move a small share of people, since a car carrying one passenger takes up far more room than the same person on a bus or a bicycle. Removing private vehicles releases that space for pedestrian streets, cycle lanes and outdoor seating, which is why cities such as Oslo have converted former parking areas into public squares. The objections usually raised, that disabled residents and delivery vehicles would be stranded, are real but narrow. Both groups can be granted permits, as they already are in most low emission zones, which means the objection argues for exceptions rather than against the policy.

The second version does something the first refuses to do. It takes the counter argument seriously and then explains why it does not change the conclusion. That is what the descriptors mean by developing a position, and it is the difference between listing opinions and arguing.

A structure that holds the position

1. Introduction. Paraphrase the statement in one sentence. State your degree of agreement and the reason in one sentence. Stop. Do not preview both sides.
2. Body one. Your strongest reason. One idea, explained, then supported with an example or a consequence.
3. Body two. Either a second reason, or the main objection answered. If you chose conditional agreement, this is where the condition goes.
4. Conclusion. Restate the same degree in different words. Add nothing new.

Four paragraphs, about 280 words, and the position appears in paragraphs one, two, three and four. That repetition is not redundancy. It is what a held position looks like on the page.

Three habits to drop

1. **Do not write this essay will discuss.** Discussion is not a position. Say what you think instead.
2. Do not save your opinion for the conclusion. A reader who reaches paragraph three without knowing your view has already read an unclear position.
3. **Do not use I partly agree on its own.** Partly is not a degree until you say which part.

Do this today

Take any essay you have already written for an agree or disagree question. Delete everything except your introduction and your conclusion, and read those two paragraphs together.

If they name the same degree of agreement, your position held. If the introduction commits and the conclusion balances, or the introduction balances and the conclusion commits, you have found the reason your Task Response score is stuck.

Rewrite the introduction with one degree phrase from the table above, then make the conclusion match it. That single change moves more essays than any amount of new vocabulary.

If you want a second view, paste the essay into Bandly for an estimated band on each of the four criteria with the reasoning behind each estimate. The estimates come from software rather than from a human examiner, so use them to locate the weakest criterion rather than to predict your exam result.