W r I t I n g this post will clarify what I mean when I advise band 5 candidates to ‘discuss both sides’, and help you to understand when and where to write a counter- argument. I often find my advice about ‘discussing both sides’ being misunderstood or

no matter what the question asks.
Consider this question from Cambridge test book 10:
‘
Countries are becoming more and more similar because people are able to buy the same products everywhere in the world. Do you think this is
a positive or a negative development
?”
As you can see, there is no clear ‘opinion’ in the first statement, so candidates who mistakenly believe that they 
must always write a
paragraph that gives a counter-argument
will struggle here. Remember, you must be able to show ‘flexibility’ in your writing – this means
reacting and responding to the very specific task you are given. The two ‘sides’ of this issue that need to be discussed are whether this
is 1) a negative development or 2) a positive development.
Let us try to interpret this idea of ‘discussing both sides’ in the context of more essay questions.
What do you mean by ‘the different sides’ to a question?
Writing task 2 can take several different forms. There may be one view, or there may be two views on an issue. There may be extra
information included in the question to give you a clear context for the issue you need to discuss (and to make sure you fully understand
it). There may be a description of an issue or of a development. These prompts are followed by one or two questions such as ‘To What
extent do you agree or disagree?’; ‘Discuss the advantages and disadvantages / problems and solutions etc.’; ‘Discuss both views and
give your own opinion.’ ; Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?”
The Task response descriptor tells us that band 6 candidates ‘address all parts of the task although 
some parts may be more fully covered
than others
.’ This is not a problem at band 7. So, if you want to score band 7, you 
MUST
cover all parts of the question 
equally.
This is
what I mean when I refer to ‘discussing both sides’ of the question. If you have read Chapter 7 of