By English Test Coach · Updated
Task 2 · Three original technology questions
IELTS technology essays: name the use before judging its effects
Technology is too broad to be a complete argument. Identify the activity, the people using it and the decision the question asks you to make. An explanation of outdoor-play habits needs a different plan from an opinion about automated feedback or a comparison of online-class benefits and drawbacks.
These original questions and hypothetical teaching examples connect to complete English Test Coach answers. They are not recalled exam questions, predictions or examiner-scored scripts. The examples explain essay reasoning; they do not evaluate a particular device or AI product.
Separate the subject from the instruction
Live online evening courses
A community education centre plans to move all of its evening adult courses from classrooms to live online lessons. Do the advantages of this change outweigh the disadvantages?
Planning focus: Weigh the complete move to live online lessons.
All evening adult courses would move online. Live lessons still have scheduled times; do not assume recordings or access whenever a learner chooses. Compare travel savings with practical access and course requirements before deciding whether the benefits are greater.
Advantages and disadvantages: learn how to weigh the two sides →
Children and technology
Children now spend more time using digital devices than playing outdoors. Why is this happening, and what can be done to encourage outdoor activity?
Planning focus: Explain the change, then address its causes.
The question describes children spending more time on devices than outdoors. Explain possible reasons and ways to encourage outdoor activity. It does not ask whether every use of a device is harmful or whether all technology should be banned.
Problems, causes and solutions: match the response to the question →
Automated feedback in education
Schools and universities should use automated systems to give students feedback on all written assignments. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Planning focus: Judge the proposed coverage of a feedback system.
The proposal applies automated feedback to all written assignments. Decide whether every assignment should receive it or whether use should be selective. The question does not say that automated comments must be the only feedback students receive.
Opinion essays: choose a position and develop your reasons →
For the online-course question, weigh the complete change. For the children question, plan causes and corresponding responses. For the feedback question, choose the extent of your agreement and develop the reasons. Avoid a generic essay listing the advantages and disadvantages of the internet.
Develop a cause that leads to a practical response
“Children like technology” repeats a preference without explaining why a device might win over an outdoor alternative. In an illustrative situation, a child can join friends in an online game immediately, while meeting outside requires a place, a time and someone to organise it. This comparison suggests a specific cause: one social activity is easier to begin.
An original cause–response paragraph
“A child may choose an online game because friends are already there, while no outdoor activity has been arranged. Simply asking that child to put the device away removes the convenient option without providing another way to spend time with the same friends. Families could agree on a regular outdoor game and arrange the meeting in advance. The response would address the planning barrier, although it would depend on a suitable place and adults being able to organise the activity.”
The paragraph explains one possible mechanism, then makes the response address it. It does not claim that every child uses devices for the same reason or that a single activity solves every family’s difficulty.
Availability and practical access are different
A park may exist but be difficult for the family in your example to reach. If the identified barrier is distance or supervision, a rule about switching off a device does not remove that barrier. A nearby supervised activity could be relevant, provided your explanation names who would organise it and when it would be available.
Keep the action proportional to the cause. If you explain a lack of an appealing alternative, develop that alternative. If you explain an access problem, address access. Compare the complete outdoor-play answer, which brings household routines and local opportunities together.
“All assignments” does not mean “only automated feedback”
The feedback question contains a statement about coverage: every written assignment would receive automated feedback. It does not specify that teachers stop giving comments, that software awards the final grade or that schools dismiss staff. Those would be additional claims.
Faithful interpretation
“Should schools and universities use an automated feedback step for every written assignment?”
This preserves the universal coverage. Human comments can still exist alongside the proposed step.
Changed interpretation
“Should teachers be replaced by software that marks every assignment on its own?”
This adds replacement, grading and exclusive control. An essay rejecting those additions may never decide whether automated feedback should be used on all assignments.
A concern about teacher responsibility can support your reasoning, but explain how it affects the actual proposal. Arguing that teachers should remain involved is compatible with several positions on universal use. Your reader still needs to know whether you support coverage of every assignment.
The opinion-essay guide develops full and qualified positions. The paraphrasing lesson shows why preserving limiting words matters before you start the argument.
Make your reasons support the coverage you choose
A position supporting universal use needs to explain why an automated step would be useful across the range of written assignments. A position supporting selective use needs to identify both a worthwhile use and a reason to omit or postpone it elsewhere. Neither position is established by saying that technology is modern.
- Define a useful role: in a hypothetical report draft, a bounded check could flag repeated spelling errors for the writer to inspect before the next class.
- Explain the benefit: the writer can revise those items and bring more focused questions to the teacher.
- Test another assignment: a personal reflection may be intended to start a conversation about a learning experience. Explain whether a surface-language check helps at that stage or distracts from that purpose.
- Reach the judgement: if you favour selecting the feedback method for each task, state that this differs from requiring automated comments on every assignment.
These are proposed uses in an essay, not claims that a particular system detects errors reliably. A developed answer would explain any required checking or teacher involvement while keeping its position on coverage clear.
Use a counterexample for the right job
One assignment where an automated step adds little value can support an objection to a universal requirement. It does not establish that automated comments are useless everywhere. Equally, one helpful spelling check does not establish a benefit for every kind of writing.
Read the complete automated-feedback essay for one selective-use argument. You can take a different view, provided your reasons address the same proposal and your conclusion follows from them.
Live online lessons change location, not necessarily timing
A learner who can avoid travelling across town may find an evening class easier to attend. A learner working during the lesson still has a scheduling conflict. The new question specifies live online lessons, so a claim that everyone can study whenever they want would add a feature the proposal does not provide.
Keep the coverage clear too: every evening course would move. A discussion class and a practical workshop may have different needs. In an illustrative workshop, a demonstration on screen would not itself provide shared tools or a suitable place to work. Explain that limitation before judging whether travel savings are more significant.
The complete online-learning answer judges the disadvantages greater for the proposed move of all courses, while acknowledging useful online provision in selected cases. A different judgement is possible, but it must address the same scope and limits. Use the question and planning notes to build your own comparison.
Use technology vocabulary to make the distinction clear
- A practical alternative
- An option that the people in your example can actually use.
A planned outdoor game can provide a practical alternative to an online activity.
Name the place, timing or support that makes the alternative possible.
- Access barrier
- A condition that makes an activity or resource difficult to reach or use.
A supervised session nearby could address an access barrier for some families.
Explain the particular barrier; it may concern distance, timing or available help.
- Selective use
- Applying a tool in chosen situations rather than every situation.
The writer supports selective use when the feedback method fits the assignment’s purpose.
Specify the selection rule so that selective does not mean arbitrary.
- Human oversight
- Review or supervision by a person.
Human oversight could accompany automated comments on either some or all assignments.
This describes who checks the process. It does not, by itself, decide its coverage.
- Universal requirement
- A rule that applies to every case within the stated group.
The essay challenges a universal requirement for written assignments, rather than rejecting every use of software.
Identify the group. Do not extend the claim to other tasks the prompt never mentions.
Repair a position that answers an added claim
Consider this opening: “I disagree that teachers should be replaced by computers because students need human help.”
Rewrite it for the original automated-feedback question. State your view on every assignment versus selected assignments, then name the principle behind that view. Preserve the possibility of human comments alongside automation.
Compare one scope-preserving position
“I support automated feedback where a defined check helps students revise, but I do not think it should be required on every written assignment. Teachers should choose the method according to the task’s learning purpose and the kind of response the writer needs.”
This states a selective-use position and explains the selection principle. A complete essay would still need examples showing both a helpful use and a case for a different method. A view supporting universal use could also retain teachers; the prompt does not force a choice between them and software.
- Have you named the specific digital activity or feedback use?
- Does each response address the cause you explained?
- Have you preserved “all” without adding “only”?
- Does your example support the scope of your conclusion?
- Are hypothetical uses clearly separate from claims about real products?
For another scope exercise, use the lesson on answering the exact question.
Write a technology argument with a defined scope
Choose one original question, plan its required response and write at least 250 words in about 40 minutes. Public AI assessment is paused; the free workspace provides a planner, timer and word count without an account. The rule-based demo is not an AI score.