Short answer: a discussion essay asks you to examine two views and give your own opinion. Cover each side fairly in its own body paragraph, make your opinion clear (usually stated in the introduction and developed alongside the side you favour), and restate it in the conclusion.
✍️ Open Typehush and practise discussion essays on real questions →The tell-tale wording is "Discuss both these views and give your own opinion." You're given two opposing positions and asked to do two jobs: present each fairly and state what you think. The most common mistake is doing only the first job — describing both sides but never committing to an opinion. The prompt explicitly asks for your view, so an essay without one can't score well on Task Response, however balanced it is. Read the instruction carefully: "discuss both views" alone is rare; almost always it's paired with "and give your own opinion," and that second clause is not optional.
| Paragraph | Content |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Paraphrase both views, then state your own opinion |
| Body 1 | The view you agree with less — explained fairly |
| Body 2 | The view you agree with more — explained, and tied to your opinion |
| Conclusion | Restate your opinion, summarising why you favour that side |
Handling the view you disagree with first lets the essay build naturally toward the side you support.
State your opinion in the introduction so the examiner knows your position from the start, then reinforce it as you develop the side you favour, and restate it in the conclusion. This "opinion throughout" approach is cleaner than hiding your view until the final paragraph, because it keeps the whole essay coherent. An alternative is to give each view a neutral body paragraph and devote the conclusion to your opinion — but that back-loads your position and risks an underdeveloped view. Stating it early and developing it alongside your preferred side is the safer, higher-scoring habit.
Even though you favour one side, present the other fairly and seriously — a straw-man version you knock down easily reads as weak reasoning. Give the opposing view its strongest honest argument, then explain why, on balance, you still find the other side more convincing. This balance is exactly what "discuss both views" is testing: your ability to engage with an idea you don't hold. Candidates who dismiss the opposing view in a single sentence lose Task Response marks for under-developing half the task.
Three recurring errors: no clear opinion (the most damaging); unbalanced coverage, where one view gets a full paragraph and the other gets two lines; and contradiction, where the opinion in the introduction doesn't match the one in the conclusion. Avoid all three and you have a solid discussion essay. A quick pre-submit check: can a stranger read your essay and state, in one sentence, which view you hold and why? If not, your opinion isn't clear enough yet.
One more subtlety: don't confuse "balanced" with "neutral." A discussion essay is balanced in that it treats both views fairly, but it is not neutral, because you are required to land on one. Some candidates over-correct — so worried about seeming one-sided that they never commit, and end with a wishy-washy "both views have their merits." That reads as an incomplete answer. Fairness to the other side and a firm opinion are not in tension; the best discussion essays do both at once, presenting the opposing case generously and then explaining, with a reason, why they still come down where they do.
The discussion essay's difficulty is holding balance and opinion at once — fair to both sides, yet clearly committed. You internalise that by reading and typing high-band discussion models, seeing how they present an opposing view generously and still land a firm opinion. On the computer test, a clean two-sides-plus-opinion structure is quick to plan and type, protecting your 40-minute pacing. Drill enough of them and the balancing act becomes routine instead of a tightrope you walk fresh each time.
Type all 156 Cambridge Band 6–8 model essays with live word count →Yes, when the prompt says "give your own opinion" — which it almost always does. An essay that describes both views but never states a position cannot score well on Task Response.
State it in the introduction, develop it alongside the side you favour, and restate it in the conclusion. Stating it early keeps the whole essay coherent.
Usually the view you agree with less, so the essay builds naturally toward the side you support and your opinion lands with more weight.
Present both fairly, giving the opposing view its strongest honest argument. Dismissing one side in a sentence loses marks for under-developing half the task.
Typehush — practise typing high-band IELTS model essays for the computer-based Writing test. Start practising · Model-essay library · Opinion essay · Task 2 structure