By English Test Coach · Updated
Task 2 · Explain the change, then judge it
A judgement needs an object: what has changed, and for whom? Decide whether that change is beneficial or harmful, explain your reasons, and check whether the question also asks why it is happening.
This guide uses original questions that combine reasons with evaluation. It also distinguishes a pure evaluation question and a reasons-plus-outweigh variant. The plans and samples are unassessed teaching material, not a fixed template or a promised band score.
“Is this a positive or negative development?” asks you to judge the development. Explain the consequences or principles that support your judgement. Background causes may help, but a long account of why it happens cannot replace the evaluation.
“Why does this happen, and is it a positive or negative development?” creates two jobs. Explain a cause, then evaluate the resulting change. A cause answers “What brings it about?”; your evaluative reason answers “Why does that outcome matter?”
Make your overall direction clear. You can recognise a limitation or give a qualified judgement, but “there are positives and negatives” alone does not explain your conclusion. Read the actual wording instead of forcing every question into a both-views or advantages/disadvantages template.
International tourism can sometimes cause local traditions and cultures to become less distinctive. Why does this happen, and is this a positive or negative development?
The named change is that traditions become less distinctive. “Tourism creates jobs” identifies a possible benefit of tourism, but does not yet evaluate the loss of distinctiveness. Explain whether an economic benefit is connected to that particular change and how you weigh it against what is lost.
In an illustrative craft workshop, short group visits might favour a quick, familiar demonstration. If that format becomes the workshop’s main source of income, it may devote less time to teaching the longer local process. The explanation connects visitor demand to a change in what is practised.
The shorter demonstration may earn money that keeps the workshop open. However, if trainees learn only the simplified version, part of the local method may stop being passed on. A mainly negative judgement can explain why preserving that knowledge matters more than the extra convenience for visitors.
These are hypothetical mechanisms, not claims about every community. Adapting a presentation does not automatically destroy a tradition. Identify the condition that makes your judgement persuasive: in this example, the visitor version displaces learning of the local process.
One body paragraph per instruction is a workable option for this plan, not a rule. The important check is whether both answers are developed. If your question asks only for evaluation, organise the body around reasons for that evaluation instead.
“Although a shorter performance can help a workshop earn income, I consider the loss of its distinctive methods mainly harmful when younger craftspeople no longer learn them. Visitor activities are most useful when they finance that learning rather than replace it.”
The concession recognises a benefit without cancelling the judgement. A different position could work if it evaluates the same change and develops relevant support. Read the complete original tourism essay and annotations to trace both parts through a full response.
The subject can stay the same while the instruction changes. Compare these two versions of our original town scenario. The second is a practice variation for this exercise.
Some people with jobs based in large cities are choosing to live in smaller towns while working remotely. Why might they make this choice, and is the change positive or negative for the towns receiving them?
One possible plan: explain why workers choose to move, then evaluate the consequences for the receiving towns. A paragraph about housing preferences, family connections and remote working arrangements can answer the first instruction.
“Some people with jobs based in large cities are choosing to live in smaller towns while working remotely. Is this a positive or negative development for the towns receiving them?”
One possible plan: develop the benefit of regular spending for local services, then examine pressure on housing and explain when the overall balance is positive or negative. The body now evaluates the change for the towns throughout.
Do not carry over a whole causes paragraph simply because it fits the topic. A short explanation of the move may provide context, but the evaluation-only instruction does not ask you to establish the workers’ reasons. Nor does it automatically require equal positive and negative sections: organise the essay around the reasoning needed for your judgement.
Cause-focused extract: “Workers may prefer a larger home near relatives. Remote arrangements allow them to keep a city-based job without travelling to the office every day.”
Evaluative replacement: “New residents with continuing employment may provide regular custom for local shops and services. If they buy groceries locally throughout the year, for example, their spending could help a small shop maintain its opening hours. This is a benefit to the receiving town, although it depends on newcomers using local businesses rather than directing all additional spending elsewhere.”
The replacement names the people affected, explains a mechanism and states a limit. It does not merely insert “this is positive” after the original reasons. A complete essay would still need to justify its overall judgement, including any housing constraint on which that judgement depends.
Draft: “People move because homes may be cheaper, so this is positive for the town.” What is missing between the personal reason and the town-level judgement?
One possible revision: “An influx of households can increase demand for a town’s limited rental housing. If construction and available homes do not keep pace, existing residents may face more competition for places to live. I would judge the change negatively where this pressure outweighs the benefit to local businesses.”
This version evaluates a possible effect on existing residents; it does not claim that every town has the same housing conditions. You could instead defend a positive judgement by explaining why the benefits carry greater weight in the circumstances you describe.
Read the complete answer to the original town question with its instruction in view. Its causes paragraph belongs to the original two-part task; it is not a ready-made body paragraph for the evaluation-only variation.
The town writing task opens with the original question. To practise the variation here, replace its final instruction with the evaluation-only question before drafting.
Some people with jobs based in large cities are choosing to live in smaller towns while working remotely. Why might they make this choice, and is the change positive or negative for the towns receiving them?
Living nearer relatives may explain a worker’s decision. It does not, by itself, show that the move is positive for the receiving town. For that judgement, develop a local effect: regular spending may help a shop remain open, while additional demand for scarce rentals may disadvantage existing residents.
A town-focused revision could be: “The arrival of new households can support local services through regular spending. I consider that beneficial when housing supply and services can accommodate the extra demand without excluding existing residents.”
The revised judgement names the affected community and a relevant constraint. The larger-home point can remain in the reasons paragraph if it explains the move, but it no longer carries the town-level evaluation.
In some countries, people are expected to work until a later age than in the past. What are the reasons for this change, and do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
This question also needs reasons, but it explicitly asks you to compare advantages with disadvantages. Explain the pressures behind later working ages, then weigh benefits such as retained experience against costs for people whose health or work makes continued employment difficult. Counting two benefits and one drawback does not settle their importance.
A qualified judgement must address the change actually proposed. Explain where the balance is favourable and where it is not; do not silently replace an expectation to work longer with a wholly voluntary arrangement and judge only that easier policy. The outweigh guide develops comparative judgement, while the work-topic guide distinguishes career length from weekly hours and location.
International tourism can sometimes cause local traditions and cultures to become less distinctive. Why does this happen, and is this a positive or negative development?
Explain why distinctiveness may decline, then judge that cultural change rather than tourism as a whole.
In some countries, people are expected to work until a later age than in the past. What are the reasons for this change, and do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
This is an outweigh variant: explain the reasons, then compare the importance of the advantages and disadvantages.
Some people with jobs based in large cities are choosing to live in smaller towns while working remotely. Why might they make this choice, and is the change positive or negative for the towns receiving them?
Explain workers’ reasons for moving, then evaluate effects on the towns receiving them.
Some secondary schools are beginning the school day later than they did in the past. Why is this change being considered, and is it a positive or negative development?
Explain why a later start is considered, then evaluate the change with its effects on the wider timetable.
Use the worked Task Response revision to check whether a relevant idea is explained and supported. The instruction-check lesson provides another short practice route.
Choose an original question, make a two-part plan and draft your answer in the free writing workspace. Public AI assessment is currently paused.
Try the tourism question →