I nte r nati o nal e n g LI s h lan g uag e testi n g syste m

ow

 

to

 

write

 

a

 

discussion

 

essay

There is a chance you will be asked on your exam question to analyze, critique or 

discuss a topic.  These types of questions are difficult to fit into the argument essay 

format and thus must be responded to in a different manner.

The first thing to understand is exactly when an essay question requires a discus-

sion-style answer.  Recall from section 1.3 that essay questions can be understood by 

identifying three things: keywords, qualifying words and action words.  However, to 

identify what type of essay to write, the student needs only look at the action words.  

To illustrate, please have a look at the task description of our original IELTS ques-

tion: