Writing Task 2: Two-Part (Direct) Question Essay: Question 1
Syllabus W.task2
In many countries, a growing share of clothing, furniture and household electronics is now bought second-hand rather than new, through dedicated resale shops, charity shops and online marketplaces.
Why is this happening? Is it a positive or negative development?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
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Worked solution
Examiner notes: why this is a band 9 response
Task Response
The introduction paraphrases the trend and directly previews the answer to both questions: the reason (cost and online platforms) and the opinion (a “clearly positive development”). The first body paragraph is devoted entirely to the reasons question, developed with a specific example (the resale platform Thriftloop’s tripling of local listings. The second body paragraph is devoted entirely to the opinion question, developed with a different, equally concrete example) the second-hand washing machine bought from Fernbridge Reclaimed, so both questions receive full, separately developed answers rather than a single blended discussion.
Coherence & Cohesion
Each body paragraph opens with a sentence that signals which question is being answered (“The most immediate reason is financial…”, “I regard this trend as strongly positive…”), so the two-part structure is unmistakable to the examiner. Reference chains such as “this shift” and “choices like this” tie later sentences back to the point just made without repeating it.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is precise and topic-appropriate: “resale platform”, “repair-and-resale shop”, “raw materials used in manufacturing”. Near-synonyms avoid repetition of “buy” and “second-hand” (e.g. “second-hand items”, “still-usable goods”), and collocations are accurate (“household budgets”, “everyday choice”).
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
The response shows varied complex structures: a colon introducing an explained cause (“The most immediate reason is financial: as new furniture, clothing and electronics have grown steadily more expensive…”), a non-defining relative clause (“a repair-and-resale shop called Fernbridge Reclaimed”), and a participle clause (“Multiplied across millions of similar purchases…”). There are no errors of tense, agreement or word form anywhere in the response.
Common pitfalls specific to this task
See commonMistakes above: the most damaging is fully answering the “why” question while leaving the “positive or negative” question implicit or unstated. A band 9 two-part response must give each question its own clear, developed answer.