IELTS Writing Task 2 is assessed equally across four criteria — Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy — and reaching Band 7 or above depends less on vocabulary sophistication than on choosing the correct essay structure for the specific question type and developing every part of the question fully.
The Four Essay Types and How to Recognise Them
Nearly every Task 2 prompt falls into one of four recognisable types, and choosing the wrong structure for the type asked is one of the most common reasons a well-written essay still scores below Band 7 on Task Response:
1. **Opinion (agree/disagree)** — the prompt states a view and asks whether you agree or disagree. Your essay needs a clear, consistent position stated in the introduction and maintained throughout, not a balanced discussion of both sides. 2. **Discussion (discuss both views and give your opinion)** — the prompt presents two views and explicitly asks you to discuss both before giving your own opinion. Unlike the opinion essay, this type genuinely requires a body paragraph addressing each view, in addition to your own position. 3. **Problem–Solution or Advantages–Disadvantages** — the prompt describes an issue or trend and asks you to identify problems and solutions, or to weigh advantages against disadvantages. Each named element generally needs its own clearly developed section. 4. **Two-part (direct question) essays** — the prompt asks two related but distinct questions. Both must be answered directly and given roughly proportional development; answering only one thoroughly and the other briefly limits your Task Response score regardless of how well the first part is written.
Matching Structure to Question Type
A Band 6 essay is frequently a well-written response to the wrong version of the question — for example, treating a discussion prompt as a simple opinion essay and never genuinely engaging with the second viewpoint. For each type:
- **Opinion essays** work well with an introduction stating your position, two body paragraphs each developing one supporting reason with a specific example, and a conclusion restating your position. - **Discussion essays** need a body paragraph genuinely representing the first view with realistic support, a body paragraph genuinely representing the second view with realistic support, and your own opinion clearly stated — either woven through both paragraphs or given its own final paragraph before the conclusion. - **Problem–solution essays** typically use one body paragraph identifying and explaining problems and a second proposing realistic, directly related solutions — solutions that don't address the specific problems raised undermine Task Response even when each paragraph is well written individually. - **Two-part essays** generally work best with one body paragraph per question, each developed with comparable depth.
The Four Assessment Criteria in Practice
Each of the four criteria is weighted equally (25%), which means a serious weakness in any one of them caps your overall band regardless of strength elsewhere:
- **Task Response** — does your essay address every part of the specific question asked, with a clear position and sufficiently developed, relevant ideas (not just restated points)? - **Coherence and Cohesion** — does the essay progress logically, with clear paragraphing and natural (not mechanically overused) linking language connecting ideas? - **Lexical Resource** — do you use a sufficiently wide range of vocabulary accurately and naturally, including some less common words and collocations used correctly, rather than only high-frequency, general vocabulary? - **Grammatical Range and Accuracy** — do you use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures accurately, rather than either staying safely simple throughout or attempting complexity that introduces frequent errors?
Common Band 6 Errors That Block Higher Scores
The gap between Band 6 and Band 7 is usually made up of several small, specific issues rather than one large weakness:
1. **Partial task coverage** — addressing only one part of a two-part question, or writing an opinion essay in response to a discussion prompt, capping Task Response regardless of language quality 2. **Generic, prompt-independent examples** — supporting points that could be pasted into almost any essay on any topic, rather than examples clearly tailored to the specific question asked 3. **Overreaching grammatical complexity** — attempting long, complex sentences that introduce frequent errors, when a mix of controlled complex and accurate simple sentences would score better on Grammatical Range and Accuracy 4. **Mechanical overuse of linking words** — stacking transition phrases ("Furthermore," "Moreover," "In addition") without the underlying logical connection they claim to signal, which Coherence and Cohesion specifically penalises as unnatural 5. **Position drift** — starting with one clear opinion and gradually hedging or shifting it across body paragraphs, undermining the consistency Task Response expects in an opinion essay specifically
Building Toward Band 7 Systematically
Improving Task 2 scores reliably means practising each essay type separately until you can identify the correct structure within the first minute of reading a new prompt, then writing full-length responses under real 40-minute timing so structural planning and language accuracy both hold up under pressure. Reviewing completed essays against all four criteria individually — rather than judging an essay as simply "good" or "not good" — is what turns vague self-assessment into targeted improvement.
Practise all four essay types under timed conditions using EnglishHub's IELTS Writing practice sets, and use our AI-scored feedback, broken down by Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy, to see exactly which criterion is holding your band score back.
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EnglishHub.io Team