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Exam guide & reading text

C2 Paper 02 — Essay: Read the two texts about remote work and organisational culture — Writing

"C2 Paper 02 — Essay: Read the two texts about remote work and organisational culture" 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.

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How should I approach this C2 writing task?

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.

Task prompt

Write an essay summarising and evaluating the key points in both texts. Integrate the arguments rather than discussing the texts separately, and use your own ideas to assess what organisations should preserve, change or deliberately create when work is partly remote.

Word limit: 280 words

Input texts

Autonomy as a Cultural Asset

Remote work is sometimes blamed for weakening organisational culture, as though culture depended mainly on shared buildings and spontaneous conversation. In reality, giving employees greater control over where they work can communicate trust more powerfully than slogans about collaboration. It also forces organisations to make expectations, decisions and access to information more explicit, reducing the influence of informal networks that exclude newcomers. Social connection still requires attention, but compulsory presence is a crude solution. A healthy culture should be visible in fair practices and purposeful relationships, not measured by how often people occupy the same room.

What Distance Conceals

Formal processes cannot fully replace the minor encounters through which colleagues notice uncertainty, exchange unfinished ideas and learn how others exercise judgement. Experienced employees may function well at a distance because they already possess networks and contextual knowledge, while junior staff struggle to acquire both. Scheduled online meetings tend to focus on immediate tasks and leave little room for observation or informal challenge. Organisations therefore risk becoming efficient at completing known work but less capable of developing people or generating unexpected insights. Regular shared time is not nostalgia; used selectively, it is infrastructure for learning and renewal.

Assessment criteria

  • Content: All points addressed with relevant detail and examples.
  • Communicative achievement: Appropriate register and tone for the target reader.
  • Organisation: Clear paragraphing with cohesive devices linking ideas.
  • Language: Wide range of vocabulary and structures used with control and accuracy.