Writing — Formal & Informal Tasks (Part 2) for the CAE Exam

Common failure modes

These are the patterns that cause most candidates to lose marks on this topic. Recognising them in advance is half the work.

• !Writing a report in informal register (must be formal and impersonal)
• !Confusing a proposal with a report — proposals recommend future actions; reports analyse past events
• !Reviews that summarise plot instead of critically evaluating strengths and weaknesses

Study tips

• 1Learn the distinct format for each task: proposal (To/From/Re headers + recommendations + justification), report (subheadings + findings + recommendations), review (descriptive + evaluative + recommendation).
• 2Proposals use future modals: "It is recommended that...", "This would result in...", "The following measures should be adopted...".
• 3Reviews use evaluative language: "The author's treatment of X is particularly effective because...", "A notable weakness is...".

Sample CAE Writing — Formal & Informal Tasks (Part 2) questions

These sample items mirror the format and difficulty of real CAE questions. Practice with thousands more on the free Koydo question bank.

1. 1

   A CAE Writing Part 2 proposal should end with:

   • AA summary of everything already said
   • BA strong recommendation section with reasonsCorrect
   • CA personal opinion about the topic
   • DAn apology for any limitations
   Why this answer?

   A proposal's primary purpose is to recommend a course of action. The final section should be a clear, justified recommendation that synthesises the proposal's arguments into a concrete call to action. Summarising without recommending misses the genre purpose.