Task prompt
Read the two texts below. Write an essay that summarises and evaluates their key points. Express the ideas in your own words as far as possible and include your own views on the issue. Write 240–280 words.
Word limit: 280 words
"Public Behaviour and Social Norms" is a C2 Proficiency Writing practice task (essay). Cambridge assesses content, communicative achievement, organisation and language on a scale from 0 to 5 per criterion. Plan before you write: identify the target reader, the required register and the number of points you must address. At C2, examiners expect sophisticated vocabulary used accurately, varied sentence structures and clear paragraphing.
Plan the essay before writing, address every prompt point, keep the expected register, respect the word limit, and use feedback to improve content, organisation, grammar range, and vocabulary precision.
Read the two texts below. Write an essay that summarises and evaluates their key points. Express the ideas in your own words as far as possible and include your own views on the issue. Write 240–280 words.
Word limit: 280 words
Many disagreements about public behaviour are described as clashes between generations, yet they may be better understood as clashes between expectations. A phone conversation on a train, for example, can seem inconsiderate to one passenger and entirely normal to another. Social rules change because technology and habits change, but this does not mean that every new practice deserves automatic approval. People should be willing to explain the standards they value rather than dismissing those who have learned different ones. Listening does not require people to abandon their preferences, but it can prevent ordinary differences from becoming moral accusations.
Calls for individuality can be just as limiting as calls for conformity when they imply that concern for others is merely weakness. Social conventions allow strangers to share workplaces, streets and institutions without constant conflict; they are not simply obstacles to originality. The challenge is to distinguish conventions that protect mutual respect from those that preserve needless exclusion. A healthy society should leave room for unconventional choices while recognising that freedom is meaningful only when people consider the consequences for those around them. The most useful norms are therefore open to challenge, especially when they silence people simply for being unfamiliar or different.