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Exam guide & reading text

C2 Paper 06 — Essay: Read the two texts about public participation in local decisions — Writing

"C2 Paper 06 — Essay: Read the two texts about public participation in local decisions" 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 propose how public values, local knowledge and specialist expertise should interact in decision-making.

Word limit: 280 words

Input texts

Legitimacy Requires Broad Participation

Local decisions gain legitimacy when people affected by them can influence priorities before plans become fixed. Residents possess practical knowledge about how services and spaces function at different times, including problems that technical assessments may overlook. Participation also makes trade-offs visible and can build acceptance when not every demand is met. The process is imperfect: meetings attract unrepresentative groups and online surveys encourage simplified responses. Even so, authorities should improve participation rather than retreat from it, using multiple methods and explaining clearly how public contributions changed, or failed to change, the final decision.

Consultation Is Not Expertise

Inviting everyone to comment can create the appearance of democracy while obscuring who has studied the consequences of a decision. Complex choices about transport, housing or flood prevention involve evidence, long time horizons and effects beyond the loudest local interests. Officials may collect opinions they cannot reconcile, then either ignore them or adopt popular proposals with hidden costs. Public values matter, but they should define goals and acceptable risks rather than substitute for professional analysis. Better governance combines accountable experts with elected decision-makers, instead of asking consultation exercises to resolve questions they are not equipped to answer.

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.