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Fce (b2 first) writing exam (essay) – video.

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In this lesson you can learn how to write an essay for the Cambridge FCE exam , step by step.

You’ll see exactly what to do at each stage in the fce writing essay section, and how to get the best possible fce score ., there are four steps to the writing process. you’ll see what to do at each step, then you’ll learn how the writing is assessed., 1. how to analyse your fce writing essay task.

First, you need to read the FCE writing essay task and identify exactly what needs to be included.

Let’s look at a sample question:

You’ve recently had a discussion in English class about society. Now your teacher has asked you to write an essay. Write an essay using all the notes and give reasons for your point of view.

University should be free for everyone. Do you agree or disagree? Notes 1. Taxes 2. Opportunity 3. Your own idea

So, what do you need to do? Most importantly, you need to say if you agree or disagree that university should be free for everyone.

You also need to use all the notes and give reasons for your point of view. That means your essay needs to include three central ideas: taxes, opportunity, and one other.

It also means that you need to reach a clear, justified conclusion. You can’t just say, ‘I agree’, or ‘I disagree.’ Think of it like this: you need to convince the examiner that your conclusion is correct.

You might think at this point, ‘yeah, obvious, thanks for the help, Kasia!’ Trust me; it’s harder than it sounds. Many FCE essays that we see don’t get these basic things right. It’s very easy to leave something out, or to go in the wrong direction.

Next, you’re writing this answer for your teacher so what style do you think it will be in? Formal or informal?

An essay should be formal. What does that mean?

Formal writing doesn’t use contractions, like ‘I’d’, ‘you’re’ or ‘don’t’. Write the full forms. You should also avoid using slang, colloquial vocabulary, or anything which sounds very conversational.

Next, think: what do you need to include?

You need to talk about taxes, opportunity, and you also need to add your own idea.

Even the ideas which are given to you—taxes and opportunity—are quite vague. That means you need to decide exactly what to talk about.

You also need to think about how to connect your ideas.

For example, with taxes you could say that if you pay taxes, then this should go back into society to benefit everyone. You could add to this by pointing out that having equal opportunities also benefits society. And for your own idea, you could talk about how people with higher education are more likely to be economically productive.

This is just one example, of course! There are many paths you could take.

Let’s talk about that in more detail.

2. How to Plan Your FCE Writing

Here’s what you need to do when you plan your writing for the FCE writing essay.

First, you need to decide what your conclusion is going to be. Are you going to agree or disagree that university should be free for everyone?

Decide your conclusion first, because everything else in your essay needs to lead to it.

Secondly, you need to plan how many paragraphs you’re going to have, and what you’ll put in each one.

Thirdly, you need to make sure your paragraphs are connected to your conclusion.

Let’s see an example:

• Taxes – parents pay taxes so children should get education. Children will pay taxes in the future.
• Opportunity – education creates more equal society. Higher standard of living for everyone.
• Economy – educated workforce helps the economy grow.
• Conc. – agree with statement

Pause the video if you want some more time to read the plan.

You can see that we use the key idea of ‘education’ in the notes for each paragraph. Doing this can help you to stay focused and on-topic, because you’re connecting each paragraph back to the main idea of the question.

When you plan, make sure that each paragraph has a clear focus.

Every good paragraph starts with a topic sentence, which summarises the main point of the paragraph.

The sentences which follow are called supporting sentences. These include reasons and examples to support your topic sentence.

A good exercise during planning is to take a paragraph and think to yourself: “What’s this paragraph about?”

If you can answer that question in one simple sentence, then that’s a good sign. Hopefully, your plan is clear. However, if you can’t answer that question, that shows that your plan isn’t totally clear in your head.

Once you’ve finished your plan, you’re ready to write your answer!

3. How to Write Your Answer

In your candidate answer book, you will now write your essay.

Let’s look at a model answer:

• There are many factors to consider when deciding if the university should be free or not. Among these are taxes, equality of opportunity, and the economy.
• Firstly, a proportion of taxes should go to education. Some might say if you can afford university, then you should pay for it. But, this doesn’t take into account the fact that higher earners pay higher income tax so they are already contributing more.
• Secondly, by making university free for all, it creates more opportunitys for those from low-income backgrounds. Although they may still have difficulty meeting other costs such as accommodation it makes the playing field more level.
• In addition, having an educated workforce is proven to help the economy grow. The more people with degrees there are, the higher the standard of living for everyone. So, more people will be able to pay taxes to fund the education of future generations.
• In conclusion, free university ultimately benefits all members of society.

Pause the video to read, and start again when you’re ready.

First question: have we answered the question?

Yes: the conclusion states that ‘free university benefits all members of society.’ This shows that we agree that university should be free for everyone.

Next: have we used topic sentences?

Yes, we have. The first sentence of the essay tells you what the entire essay will be about.

Then, each paragraph’s topic sentence contains a key word from our plan. We have ‘taxes,’ ‘opportunities’ and ‘economy’.

Also, the topic sentences and paragraphs all reference the idea of ‘education’, either directly or indirectly. This shows that our points are relevant and connected to the task.

So, now you’re finished, right? No–there’s one more step. This answer is not bad, but it could be better.

4. How to Check and Improve Your Answer

The final step is to check your answer.

What type of things do you think you should look for?

Grammar, of course, but what else?

Check for spelling mistakes. Check for style—have you used any conversational language which doesn’t fit the tone of an essay like this?

Check your use of linking words and phrases. Many students overuse them; don’t use a linking word like nevertheless unless you’re sure it fits.

Check for repetition of vocabulary. Could you replace any simple vocabulary with something more advanced?

Look at our model answer again:

• There are many factors to consider when deciding if the university should be free or not. Among these are taxes, equality of opportunity and the economy.
• Secondly, by making university free for all, it creates more opportunitys for those from low-income backgrounds. Although they may still have difficulty meeting other costs such as accommodation * it makes the playing field more level.

The bold words are either mistakes, or they could be improved somehow.

How would you improve this? Pause the video while you read and decide.

The first problem is with grammar. Unless you’re talking about one specific university, you don’t use the.

Okay, what’s wrong with doesn’t? We’ve used a contraction! Don’t use contractions in your essay. So, it should be does not.

The next problem is a spelling mistake. When a word ends in ‘y’, it changes to ‘ies’ in the plural: opportunities .

Next is a punctuation mistake. There’s a comma missing. There are two clauses in this sentence and they need to be separated by a comma.

There’s nothing wrong with people with degrees but it’s quite basic. What else could you say?

You could say educated people, or even highly-educated people, either of which is slightly more elegant.

So is not a mistake, but we used so in the second paragraph already. You want to show the examiner your range of language, so here you could use something more precise like consequently.

Our conclusion is only one sentence, so let’s add an extra point. We’re still under the maximum word count. This could help us to state our opinion more clearly.

Let’s change it to:

• In conclusion, free university should be free for everyone. It makes economic sense and ultimately benefits all members of society.

Here’s the final version of our essay:

• There are many factors to consider when deciding if university should be free or not. Among these are taxes, equality of opportunity, and the economy.
• Firstly, a proportion of taxes should go to education. Some might say if you can afford university, then you should pay for it. But, this does not take into account the fact that higher earners pay higher income tax so they are already contributing more.
• Secondly, by making university free for all, it creates more opportunities for those from low-income backgrounds. Although they may still have difficulty meeting other costs such as accommodation, it makes the playing field more level.
• In addition, having an educated workforce is proven to help the economy grow. The more highly-educated people there are, the higher the standard of living for everyone. Consequently, more people will be able to pay taxes to fund the education of future generations.

At this point, it’s looking good! Next, let’s focus on what you can do to produce a good FCE writing essay which will get a high score in your exam.

5. How to Improve Your Score

Your essay score is made up of four parts. For each part, you get a score from zero to five.

• Content – how well the candidate has fulfilled the task
• Communicative Achievement – how appropriate the writing is for the task
• Organisation – how well the writing is put together
• Language – focuses on vocabulary and grammar

First there’s Content . The mark scheme says this “focuses on how well you have fulfilled the task”. In other words, have you done everything you were asked to do?

This corresponds to step one of our writing process. Analyse the task carefully and make sure you do everything it asks you to. A good tip is to underline the key words in the task to help you identify what you need to do.

Next there’s Communicative Achievement . This “focuses on how appropriate your writing is for the task”.

Have you used the correct register? Have you used contractions? Basically: does your essay look and sound like an essay?

Then we have Organisation . This looks at “how the writing is put together”. Is it logical and organised? By planning your writing carefully, it will already be organised. Remember to plan your paragraphs carefully and write a clear topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph.

You can also use linking words and phrases to make the connections between paragraphs even clearer.

In our essay, we used many linking words, including firstly, secondly, in addition, although, consequently and in conclusion. Look through the essay again, and note how the linking words and phrases are used. Can you find any more examples of linking words in the essay?

Finally, you have Language : vocabulary and grammar. The examiners will be looking for a range of language as well as how accurate it is. In step four, you saw how checking your essay can improve your language.

Are you worried that making mistakes will affect your mark? Of course, making a lot of mistakes will lower your mark, but remember this is only one part of your score.

For B2 level, the Cambridge mark scheme says, ‘Occasional errors may be present but do not impede communication.’ That means you can still score 5 from 5, even with some small mistakes.

But, hopefully, you’ll catch most of them when you’re on step four – checking and improving your answer.

You’ve seen how to write an essay for FCE, but you can use the same process for other Cambridge exams, including the CAE and CPE when you get that far.

Good luck with your exam preparation and let us know when you pass! Thanks for watching!

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B2 First (FCE) Essay Writing Guide

The Cambridge B2 First (FCE) essay is easier to write than you think! Follow these steps to write the perfect essay.

Post Contents

What is the Cambridge B2 First Essay?

• Part 1 of the writing test – there are 2 parts total
• 140-190 word limit
• You have about 40 minutes to plan and write your essay
• You must answer a question using two notes and your own idea
• The topic requires general knowledge only
• The essay is always formal because it is written “for your teacher”

Step One: Look at the Task (1 minute)

To begin, all B2 First essays have a similar format . This is great because you know exactly how to write the essay before seeing the question.

Read the essay question carefully and HIGHLIGHT any keywords you need to write about.

Tip: If you don’t understand the question or notes, DON’T PANIC. Try your best to write the essay. You will still get points for grammar, vocabulary, and structure.

Sample exam test from Cambridge English .

Step Two: Write a plan (5 minutes)

A lot of my students dislike writing a plan. However, a plan helps you organize your thoughts and helps you write a better B2 First essay. Your essay needs 5 paragraphs . We will use the sample task from above as an example:

Paragraph structure for an essay

Introduction.

• Rivers and seas
• Your own idea

Next, to create a plan, write a few words for each paragraph . DO NOT write whole sentences. This takes too much time. Try to focus on keywords and short phrases .

Tip: “Your own idea” DOES NOT mean your opinion. You need to think of another topic related to the question to talk about. Some ideas for this task could be: recycling, agriculture, industry, etc.

Additionally, you can prepare a list of linking words and related vocabulary . Getting these words written down before you start helps you remember to use them.

Look at the example plan below. You can draw something similar on a blank piece of paper.

Tip: Time yourself – see how long it takes for you to write a plan. Try to reduce that amount of time as much as possible.

Step 3: Write your essay (32 minutes)

On the official test, you must write with a pen . No erasable pens or pencils are allowed. I suggest writing your plan and essay with a pen every time you practice .

Let’s take a look at each paragraph of the essay.

The introduction to your essay should be 2-3 sentences long . It introduces the essay topic in a general way .

Tip: DO NOT include your opinion in the introduction. Your opinion goes in the conclusion.

If you are unsure how to write an introduction, try this structure and look at the example :

Structure of the introduction  

• 1 sentence about the topic in general
• 1-2 sentences about the topic more specifically, including a question if you like.

Example Introduction

On every continent, the amount of trash and waste is increasing each year. Rubbish causes damage to ecosystems all over the world. Is there a way for countries to reduce their carbon footprint and save our planet?

Body of the essay

The body of the essay has three paragraphs . These paragraphs talk about one idea with supporting examples .

For each paragraph, you need to write a topic sentence. A topic sentence is the main idea of the paragraph . DO NOT copy the notes. Instead, try to rewrite the idea in your own words. This is called “paraphrasing.” 

Your paragraphs should be 3-4 sentences .

Tip: Start each paragraph with a linking word .

Structure of a body paragraph

• Linking word and topic sentence
• Supporting sentences

Example body paragraph

Firstly, countries can decrease pollution and environmental stress by offering more public transportation. Cars and other vehicles which require petrol produce toxic fumes. If more electric buses and trams were available, fewer people would need to drive their cars.

Follow the same structure for each body paragraph.

Tip: Remember that “your own idea” is NOT your opinion . Write about an additional topic related to the question that you wrote down on your plan.

Finally, you get to say your opinion! In the conclusion, you need to summarize the topic and give your opinion on the question. A conclusion should be 1-2 sentences long.

Structure of the conclusion

• Transition word and a sentence summarizing the topic
• A sentence that gives your opinion

Example conclusion

To sum up, countries around the world must make changes in order to protect the environment. In my opinion, offering more public transport, reducing overfishing, and creating recycling programs are necessary for a cleaner planet.

Step Four: Review your writing (2 minutes)

This is another important step that students often miss. Take two minutes after writing your essay to check for spelling and grammatical errors.

Since you wrote in pen, simply cross out the incorrect word or words LIKE THIS and rewrite them.

How can I get a higher mark on the FCE essay?

Now that you know how to write an essay for the Cambridge B2 First exam, let’s look at how to get the best mark possible .

Increase your mark on your B2 First essay

• Include 5-8 linking words – these words introduce paragraphs and connect ideas
• Use a variety of grammatical structures – you should have both simple and complex forms. Try to use perfect and future forms, conditionals, comparatives, relative clauses and passive
• Use formal vocabulary – do not use slang or simple words like “good, big, small, bad.” Also, do not use contractions. Write “cannot” instead of “can’t”
• Make the essay interesting to read – the examiners read hundreds of essays so make yours easy to read and engaging
• Use the correct amount of words (140-190) – it’s ok to be a few words over the limit, but not too many

Final Advice

The best way to improve your writing skills … is to write! Try to write a few essays each week and ask your teacher for feedback . I have had students who entered my class with very poor writing skills and with practice, they were able to pass the exam after only 10 weeks!

I help students prepare for the FCE exam with private lessons via Zoom. Email me at [email protected] or check out my private lessons page to learn more.

If you want more practice for the B2 First , try these Speaking exam tips , free writing checklist , and Reading part 1 practice.

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Breakout English

B2 First (FCE) Writing Part 1 – Improve an Essay

Writing is the part of any English exam where you should aim to get a high score and B2 First FCE Writing Part 1, an obligatory essay, is no different. It’s also the most trainable part of the exam in a classroom. While other skills often take lots of time, effort and practice, writing can be taught through models, which learners can then take and replicate. Of course, it’s important to write your own material, but the format and many expressions are transferable for essays regardless of the topic. With this material, we aim to demonstrate areas where B2 First candidates often go wrong with writing an essay. With a few tweaks, you should be able to reproduce a high quality essay every time.

Essays may not be fun, but they are important. The Cambridge B2 essay might be the first time you need to write an essay for an exam, but it won’t be the last. This task continues to be obligatory at C1 and C2 levels. If you are doing a Trinity or IELTS exam, you’ll also need to write an essay. Basically, there is no escape. You either learn to write a good essay or you don’t pass your writing exam (I recommend learning it).

The challenge with essays is not only the style, which should be formal and academic. Exam candidates also often have issues with content in First (FCE) Writing Part 1. The B2 essay question is always the same, and it’s not particularly complex, but sometimes it still causes issues regarding what content points to include. At the same time, an uninspiring question can easily lead to an uninspired answer. That becomes a problem when your essay isn’t interesting to read. Keep in mind that whoever corrects your essay has probably read 95 other essays on the same topic, so it a good idea to stand out!

The Materials

With this activity, you analyse a sample essay contrasting living in a city vs the countryside. To use it in the classroom, have students discuss the issues with the essay in pairs. You can even have them use the Cambridge writing scales to give it a mark. Then, feedback in open class and finish with your students writing their own improved version. I like to do this task just after receiving a round of previously assigned essays from students as a sort of extended test-teach-test activity.

Check here for more First Certificate essay questions to use in class.

EXAM PART: First (FCE) Writing Part 1 – Essay

EXAM SKILLS: Improving content and communicative achievement in essay writing

TOPIC:  Lifestyle (living in the city vs living in the countryside)

TIME: 30 minutes + 45 minutes writing (in-class or for homework)

PREPARATION: One copy of the worksheet per student

How to Write an Essay for B2 First (FCE) Writing

Luis @ kse academy.

• noviembre 24, 2019

As you probably know already, Cambridge English exams usually have some or all of the following parts: Reading, Writing, Use of English and Listening. In this post I am going to talk about the FCE Writing B2 part and, more specifically, about how to write an essay for FCE Writing . We will see a good example of an essay for FCE and you can check out a full FCE Writing Guide where you can find more examples of emails , letters and other types of writings.

Essay Sample Answer

Este artículo también está disponible en castellano.

What are the parts of the FCE Writing?

The First (FCE) Writing has only two parts. For each part, you must write a composition which will depend on the instructions you receive for each task. For the  first part , you will always be asked to  write an essay , as it is the only option provided. However, in the  second part , they allow you to choose one out of 3 options. These include  different types of writing , which are : letters/emails ,  articles ,  reviews and  reports . Each piece of writing must have between 140 and 190 words , approximately.

Since they are different types of writing , the language and structures to use will also differ. But that’s what I’m here for, to explain to you exactly how to write each part. And today, I’m starting with  how to write an essay .

How to Write an Essay for FCE Writing

An  essay is an opinion writing with which we analyse a topic , a situation or an issue from different points of view , providing different arguments and expressing our opinion about it. For this reason, an  essay must have the following features:

• Purpose: What we usually do with an essay is to analyse and assess a topic, situation or issue which, in some way, is interesting or controversial. It is normally set as a writing task after a class debate. In the exam, you have to imagine the debate, obviously.
• Tone and style: Given that you’re writing about a  serious or controversial issue , an essay is written in a formal style, so we must stick to an objective tone and style . Our language must be formal, thus avoiding words that are simply too common or generic (E.g.:  things, stuff, get,   etc.) and contractions (E.g.:  can’t, don’t, won’t,  etc.).
• Structure: Like every piece of writing,  an essay must present a defined structure . For starters, we can choose either to give it a title or not. Personally, I would say that it is more appropriate to have an essay with title . Then, the body must be divided into introduction, idea 1, idea 2, idea 3 and conclusion. This means that, in general,  essays must have 5 paragraphs ,   although it is not entirely necessary.
• Opinion:  There are countless ways of expressing your opinion in an essay, so you must choose the one that suits you best. However,  it is advisable to remain impartial throughout your writing and give your opinion only in the last paragraph , as a conclusion. But, as I say, it is optional. The most important thing is that you justify everything you say in your essay.
• Coherence: Coherence is essential in every type of writing, but especially in an essay. As it tends to be an argumentative text, you must avoid writing incoherent paragraphs that have nothing to do with one another. Your ideas must  follow a logical order and be well connected with appropriate linkers .

FCE Writing Essay Example

Now that we are familiar with the  characteristics of an essay for First (FCE) Writing , let’s take a look at an  example of an essay at B2 level , both at the task and at a sample answer.

Instructions of an Essay

In the following image you can see the instructions of an essay which involves a typical topic, that of the environment:

In these instructions, we must pay attention to the following:

• The  first paragraph introduces the topic: … different ways in which you can protect the environment.
• The  second sentence is usually the same in every task:  Write an essay using  all the notes…
• In the box , you are given the main topic as a question and they give you something to talk about:  recycle, using bicycles and walking, your own idea . As you can see, you have to come up with the third idea, something connected to the topic which is not provided in the exam task.

Given the model task above, each paragraph will correspond to a different idea, apart from the introduction and conclusion. Again, it is only natural to have 5 paragraphs. So, the best way to know how to write an essay for FCE Writing is to take a look at an  example of an actual essay for FCE Writing :

At first sight, the essay has  a title and 5 paragraphs (introduction + idea 1 + idea 2 + idea 3 + conclusion). And if we stop to read the essay more carefully, we’ll notice the following things:

• The paragraphs are visual and well defined , which is very important.
• The title summarises the topic  of the essay. Another option is to use the question ( What can people do to help protect the environment? ) as title. However, it usually tends to be too long, so I prefer to summarise it into a shorter heading.
• Introduction: it introduces the topic in a general way and it leads to the second paragraph (first idea).
• Paragraph 2: it deals with idea 1.
• Paragraph 3: it deals with idea 2.
• Paragraph 4: it deals with idea 3.
• Conclusion: we express our opinion to conclude and summarise the essay.
• It uses connectors to define the development of the essay:  firstly, second, finally, etc.
• It doesn’t use many contractions or pet words.
• One of the things that
• In the last few decades,
• For this reason,
• First, / Second, / Third,
• By doing so,
• For example,
• In conclusion,

This is a good example of an essay for FCE Writing . By the way, you must bear in mind that it has been written to simulate a strong B2 level, without reaching C1.

FAQ: Do I get penalised for writing over 190 words?

This is the most typical question in this part of the exam and the answer is « yes and no «. Let me explain myself. Cambridge English examiners don’t count the number of words and penalise you based upon that fact alone. There’s a rumour going around among teachers and pupils that says that for every 10 words over 190, they take «this many» points off, but it is not true. However, think about this: if you’ve written 50 or 100 words more than asked, you are probably including irrelevant information to the task , right? Now that’s a reason for losing points. In the same way that if you  write under 140 words you are probably missing essential information , don’t you think?

For this reason, I always recommend writing up to 10 or 20 words over the limit. In this way, you won’t lose any points for including irrelevant information.

FCE Writing Guide with examples (pdf)

Although I intend to write more posts on how to do each piece of writing for FCE, if you don’t want to wait any more, simply download the official KSE Academy FCE Writing Guide . In this guide you will learn:

• How to write an essay  and 3 examples.
• How to write an article  and 3 examples.
• How to write a review  and 3 examples.
• How to write a report  and 3 examples.
• How to write an email or letter  and 3 examples.
• Over 300 useful expressions for every FCE Writing .

Would you like to see a sample of this guide? Here it is!

Did you find this useful?  Why not share it with other teachers and students of English? Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter and to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, y YouTube. 🙂

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Cambridge english: b2 first (fce) writing.

Difficulty level : B2 /Upper Intermediate

What is the B2 First (FCE) Writing test like? The test has two sections and takes about 80 minutes:

• Part 1 - write an essay based on prompts
• Part 2 - write one from a choice of 3 questions: an article , an essay , a letter, a report , a review , a story

Scoring Each of the two writing parts are marked out of 20. There are five marks for each of the following: Content, Communicative Achievement, Organisation and Language. You must write 140-190 words for each part.

How to prepare for the B2 First (FCE) Writing test

• Choose a question that you are interested in. You will write better if you know the subject.
• Read the instructions carefully before you start. Make notes. You must include all the points from the instructions in your writing .
• Make a plan before you start writing. Decide what information to put in each paragraph.
• Think about who you are writing to and use an appropriate style of language.
• Try to use a range of complex language.

Read this explanation of how to write an article for FCE Writing part 2.

First (FCE) Writing tests

• Writing part 1 (essay)
• Writing part 2 (review)
• Writing part 2 (article)
• Writing part 2 (email)
• Writing part 2 (report)
• How to write an article
• Writing essay introductions
• Brainstorming ideas for essays
• Answer the question!

First (FCE) Sections

• Cambridge First (FCE)

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B2 First - Writing Practice

First certificate in english (fce).

• B2 First quick links:
• Use Of English
• Back to the B2 First main page

On this page, you will find example writing tests to help you prepare for the Writing part of the First Certificate exam.

The speaking section is divided into two parts and involves many types of writing: essay, email, review, report and article.

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test One Essay / Report / Review / Email Exercise Number: FCE115

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Two Essay / Email / Report / Article Exercise Number: FCE116

• Try to choose questions that require you to write about something that is interesting to you.
• Always write a brief plan before each of the compositions.
• Think about the target reader and write in a suitable register and tone.

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Three Essay / Review / Article / Email Exercise Number: FCE117

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Four Essay / Review / Article / Report Exercise Number: FCE118

• Ensure all your points and paragraphs link together well.
• Avoid repeating phrases. Learn expressions that will help you write more naturally.
• Leave enough time at the end to re-read each composition and check for errors.

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Five Essay / Report / Email / Article Exercise Number: FCE119

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Six Essay / Review / Article / Report Exercise Number: FCE120

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Seven Essay / Email / Article / Review Exercise Number: FCE121

Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing - Example Test Eight Essay / Email / Report / Review Exercise Number: FCE122

Best B2 First Certificate Books For Students

Use of English: Ten practice tests for the Cambridge B2 First | See in UK

FCE Writing Masterclass (Writing B2: FCE Cambridge) | See in UK

Listening First: Ten practice tests for the Cambridge B2 First | See in UK

Cambridge English Qualifications: B2 First Volume 1 Practice Tests Plus with key | See in UK

Cambridge English First 1 for Revised Exam - Student's Book with Answers: Authentic Examination Papers | See in UK

Reading and Use of English for First (FCE) | See in UK

Common Mistakes at First Certificate and How to Avoid Them | See in UK

Gold Experience 2nd Edition Exam Practice: Cambridge English First for Schools (B2) | See in UK

• iOS/Android App
• First Words
• Grammar Guide
• Pre-Intermediate
• Intermediate
• Grammar Exercises

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Listening exercises.

• Business English

Vocabulary Exercises

• Picture Quizzes
• NEW B1 Preliminary
• C1 Advanced
• C2 Proficiency
• Phrasal Verbs
• Phrasal Verbs Definitions

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• Pronunciation Exercises

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• Aprender Español
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Cambridge B2 First (FCE): How to Write an Essay

Essay writing is easier than you think

The very first reaction I usually get when I want to practise essay writing with my students is wild panic. Everybody around me starts rolling on the floor crying and screaming. I try to calm them down, but there is no way of doing it and eventually all of them quit and tell me that they will never be able to pass the FCE exam.

Of course, this was a little bit of an exaggeration, but it is true that most students get stressed as soon as they here the word essay when, actually, there is no real reason for that. In fact, essay writing might be the easiest type of writing in Cambridge B2 First because there is a plan that you can follow every single time you sit down with pen and paper to practise as well as in the exam itself.

So, let’s look at essays, how they are organised and what exactly you have to be careful with in order to pass easily and get the high marks you deserve.

What a typical essay task looks like

Looking at different essay tasks, the first thing that students often realise is that all tasks look the same. Their structure doesn’t change, which gives you the advantage of being able to plan a strategy before you even take the exam. Every time you practise is like the real exam.

Above there is a typical essay task. As you can see there is not a lot of information, but we still have to look at it carefully and decide what we are asked to do exactly.

The first step is always to underline the key points in the task so you know what to do and what information to include in your essay.

In the image above I underlined and circled the most important information for you. When you look at a writing task – and I mean every kind of writing task, not only essays – you should think about two things: what you have to include in your text and who is going to read it.

While the first point seems obvious students often forget about the second one and miss out on higher marks. In our example your English teacher is going to read the essay. What does that mean for you when you write it? Think about the style and tone of the language you are going to use. Does your English teacher expect informal language like in a text message to your best friend or should it be rather formal? I think you understand what I mean.

Choosing the correct register and tone (formal English) for your essay will earn you higher marks so don’t forget about it.

The second point we need to consider is what we have to write about. In every essay task there are a situation/topic (problems with pollution and damage to the environment), a question for you to answer (Do you think these problems can be solved?) and three topic points (transport, rivers/seas, your own idea).

You must deal with all these things if you want to pass with high marks. If something is missing you will lose marks. That includes your own idea. I see it all the time that students write about the two ideas given in the task, but they ignore the fact that they have to add a third topic on their own. Don’t make the same mistake. Always write about all three topic points.

With this flood of information the next step is to think about how we can organise our essay. Luckily, there is a plan that works and I’m going to share it with you.

The 3 main parts of an essay

Looking back at our example from before we can see that there are three topic points which we need to deal with: transport, rivers and seas as well as your own idea.

I think it is not difficult to see that we can turn these three topics into three paragraphs, one for each idea. These three paragraphs are called the body of the essay. However, an essay wouldn’t be an essay without an introduction at the beginning and a conclusion at the end. All together that’s five paragraphs and we could structure it like this:

• Introduction
• Rivers and seas
• Your own idea

With an introduction, body and conclusion every essay has three main parts. You can follow this for any essay question in the FCE exam and it works every single time.

Yeah, it sounds good to me too. 🙂

But what exactly do we have to include in these different parts? Let me give you an overview so you get a better idea.

When I read the introduction to an essay I can often tell immediately if the essay is going to be great or if the student needs to work more on it. Think of the introduction as an appetizer before the meal begins. It gives you an idea of what to expect so you don’t want to disappoint the reader from the start.

Your introduction should always put the topic in the context of today’s world and paraphrase the question of the essay. It is also a good idea to include your opinion so the reader knows from the beginning what you think.

Let’s have a look at an example introduction for an essay about the above topic:

More and more countries and cities struggle with dirty air and water and while it is difficult to find a solution to these issues, I believe that there are ways to improve the situation and to protect the environment.

In this introduction all the key elements are covered. The topic is put in context (“More and more countries and cities struggle with…”), the question is paraphrased (“…while it is difficult to find a solution to these issues,…”) and the candidates opinion is clear (“I believe that…”).

All you need to do is to memorise this formula and use it in every essay you write. The examiner and you will be happy. 🙂

The body is like the meat in a hamburger. It’s the best part and you want it to be full of flavour. For your essay it means the following:

Each paragraph of the body starts with a topic sentence which introduces the main idea of the paragraph. After that, you add reasons, examples and you can even acknowledge other points of view.

A great topic paragraph in the body doesn’t just talk about advantages and disadvantages. Think about how you can support the message in your topic sentence to convince the reader.

Here is an example for you.

Firstly, congestion on roads not only in major cities, but also in smaller towns causes a lot of pollution and noise and even though this situation seems to get worse and worse many countries are trying to encourage people to use alternatives like electric cars, which is a good first step to deal with this kind of challenge.  

In this example paragraph the candidate simply followed the formula from above. The first sentences states what the problem is. After that, she acknowledges that the issue seems pretty bad, but then she explains different alternatives to cars that could improve the situation.

Also, notice the different linking expressions she uses in this paragraph (Firstly, not only…but also, and even though, which is). Examiners like a variety of linking words and phrases to connect your ideas so try to include them in your essay.

That’s really all you need to do. Repeat the same process for the other two topic points and you should be able to impress and achieve great marks.

Last but not least, a good essay is rounded off with a nice conclusion. Here, it is your job to tie everything together like a Christmas present. You don’t want the gift wrapping paper or the bow on the present to be ugly so make sure that you conclusion is on point.

In a good conclusion you should summarise the essay in one sentence and clearly state your opinion on the question one last time.

I told you above that the introduction is there to make a good first impression on the reader. The conclusion plays the role of giving a good last impression. You don’t want the examiner to be happy until the end and then read a conclusion that is only average. Make sure that every part is great.

To sum up, our environment needs our help and although the air we breathe as well as waterways in many parts of the world are heavily polluted I strongly believe that we can solve these issues if governments and the people work together.  

The first part of this conclusion summarises the problem one last time and in the second half the candidate clearly states her opinion and that’s it. Don’t make your life harder than it already is and instead focus on the criteria that really matter.

Plan before you write

Earlier we had a look at the different paragraphs in an essay and I told you that five is a good number. A lot of students take this information and jump straight into writing as soon as they see the task.

Stop right there! When you plan to improve something around your house or in your apartment, do you just run to the store and buy five buckets of paint or do you think about the size of the room and how much paint you need, what colour you want and what kind of brushes and paint rollers you will have to get?

Treat your essay like a home improvement project and make a plan before you start writing. It only takes five minutes, but, in the end, it can save you time because once you start, you don’t have to worry about ideas any more…it’s all there in your notes.

To create a plan make a list of the five paragraphs of your essay. As we said before this could be something like this:

Now, all you have to do is to add a few words to each point so you won’t forget what you want to write about. I thought of a few things for our example task:

• Introduction – problems with pollution, is there a solution?
• Transport – -: CO2 emissions, noise +: electric cars
• Rivers and seas – -: sea life and plastic +: projects to clean oceans
• Animal agriculture – -: CO2 emissions, excrement +: vegan/vegetarian lifestyles, sustainable farms
• Conclusion – summary, it’s a big problem but there is hope

It took me about three minutes to write this and if I wanted to write the full essay, I would have all the ideas I need already in front of me. The next step would be to add more information to each point and voilà, the essay is done.

How your essay is marked

Marking FCE writing tasks is like a science and for a lot of students it feels as if there is this big mystery and nobody really knows how it works. Actually, there are very clear rules that the examiners have to follow and the criteria are publicly available.

While it is possible to find all the information on your own I thought it would be a good idea to put everything together in an article for you. Check out how your writing tasks are marked by clicking here .

Practice makes perfect

I hope that my article is going to help you with your essays. As you saw you can analyse and structure every task the same way. With all your new knowledge the only thing you have to do is start practising. If you put in the time and work, essay writing will become quite easy and you can focus on other areas of your English that need more improvement.

Lots of love,

Teacher Phill 🙂

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How to Write a Band 5 Essay for FCE B2 First 2021

Introduction

In part 1 of the Cambridge English B2 First (FCE) Writing paper we have to write an essay, it’s compulsory. So in order to get top marks, it’s essential to be able to write a good one.

Luckily, we can do a lot to prepare and make sure we get our highest marks possible.

• Spend approximately 40 minutes on the essay ; the Writing paper is 1 hour 20 minutes in total both parts are worth the same points.
• The word limit is 140-190.
• According to Cambridge English, the essay should: “Focus on agreeing or disagreeing with a statement, giving information, giving opinion, giving reasons, comparing and contrasting ideas and opinions, drawing a conclusion.”

What do I have to do?

Let’s look at an example question:

Write 140 – 190 words in an appropriate style.

In your English class you have been talking about education. Now, your English teacher has asked you to write an essay.

Write an essay using all the notes and giving reasons for your point of view.

‘The role of schools should be to prepare students for a working career.’ Do you agree?

• learning valuable skills
• ………………………… (your own idea)

The question always starts with the phrase “ In your English class you have been talking about… ” and a topic, e.g. the education.

Then, we have a statement about the topic and question:

Often, the question is “Do you agree?” , sometimes it’s more specific. In any case, you are asked to give an opinion.

Finally, we have some notes with three prompts. The first and second are always provided and the third is always “your own idea”.

In our essay, we must answer the question and refer specifically to the 2 given prompts and our own idea.

The 5 Paragraph Formula

This is a very simple five-paragraph formula you can use to structure any B2 First (FCE) essay:

Paragraph 1: Introduction

Introduce the topic in our own words. This demonstrates to the examiner that we have understood the question. Say whether we agree or not with the statement. Two sentences are sufficient.

Paragraphs 2-4: Prompts

Give each prompt its own paragraph. The first sentence should introduce the prompt. Then, we should explain why it supports our opinion and give examples why.

Paragraph 5: Conclusion

We should summarise the essay briefly in different words and repeat our opinion in a clear way.

This isn’t the only way you can structure your essay, but it’s easy to follow so I recommend it (as well as most teachers).

“ If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. ” ― Benjamin Franklin

Planning your essay before you start is important. Think about:

• if you agree or disagree with the statement (if the question asks you).
• detail and examples for prompt 1 and 2
• your own idea for prompt 3.
• high-level vocabulary related to the topic

Example Answer

Here’s an example essay for the question above:

It is widely accepted that our education system should give students the best chance for future employment. However, it is my opinion that schools should provide much more than this.

Firstly, we can not deny that examinations are unimportant. However, putting too much focus on testing can leave students feeling overstressed, and often does not provide space for them to develop their creativity. Furthermore, it makes the experience of learning boring.

Secondly, schools absolutely should teach students useful skills which they can use throughout life. But they should focus on a range of skills, not just work-related ones. For example, if students learnt about finance and health they would benefit in other areas of their lives, outside of work.

Finally, the importance of social interaction in education must not be forgotten. For many young people, schools provide an opportunity for students to form relationships which will serve them throughout their entire lives. A person with strong social skills will not only do well in their careers but will be happier too.

In conclusion, while it is important to give students good job opportunities, schools also have a responsibility to make learning enjoyable, relevant and creative. Life is not just about work, and education should reflect this.

Tone and register

Your essay should have a formal or neutral tone, never informal. Here are some ways to make your writing more formal.

Avoid contractions

❌ It’s widely believed… ✅ It is widely believed…

❌ We’ve seen… ✅ We have seen…

Avoid personal stories and information

Only refer to yourself when giving your opinion about the question. Avoid talking personally otherwise. Don’t use personal experiences as examples.

❌ Whilst I was travelling last year… ✅ It is my opinion that…

Phrasal verb alternatives

Phrasal verbs often have a more formal alternative; for example:

❌ They took part… ✅ They participated…

❌ People are finding out that… ✅ People are discovering that…

Avoid exclamation marks

❌ Furthermore, it makes the experience of learning boring! ✅ Furthermore, it makes the experience of learning boring.

Use the passive voice

If you haven’t included a passive example, think about sentences where you can:

✅ We must not forget the importance of social interaction in education. ✅ ✅ ✅ The importance of social interaction in education must not be forgotten.

How is the Essay assessed?

There are four areas that examiners focus on when assessing your essay:

• Content – focuses on how relevant your writing is to the task and if you have answered the question
• Communicative Achievement – focuses on how appropriate your writing style is
• Organisation – focuses on how well you have constructed the essay
• Language – focuses on your range of grammar and vocabulary

Each area is marked on a scale of 0 to 5.

Here are some main points to remember in order to get top marks:

Answer the question!

Often, students lose easy points because they write more than necessary about irrelevant things, or they forget to completely answer the question and prompts. It doesn’t matter if you write better than Shakespear, if you don’t answer the question correctly you can’t get full marks.

The most important things to remember are to:

• clearly give your opinion to the statement and question
• introduce each of the 3 prompts and give details and examples

Improve your conditionals

Here’a a good tip: if you find yourself writing a conditional sentence with ‘if’, see if it’s possible to change it to a second conditional. If so, do it. This is an easy way to demonstrate a higher lever.

Compare these sentences:

For example, if students learn about finance and health they will benefit in other areas of their lives, outside of work. ✅

For example, if students learnt about finance and health they would benefit in other areas of their lives, outside of work. ✅ ✅ ✅

Both sentences are correct for an essay and express the same idea. But the second sentence will get more points because it uses more complex grammar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it matter if i write more than 190 words.

Not exactly, a few words over the limit won’t make a difference, so don’t waste time counting words. It’s not a strict rule. However, if you write much less than the limit then you probably aren’t covering all the points with enough detail. If you write much more than the limit, you’re likely including irrelevant information. In both cases, you would lose points for Content.

Does my spelling have to be perfect?

One or two small errors won’t matter but if your errors make the essay hard to understand you could lose points.

Do I have to include a title?

No, but you can if you want.

Should I use British or American English?

It does not matter which you use, but you must be consistent. Don’t change between the two.

Common B2 First Essay Topics

Here are some common B2 First (FCE) essay topics; make sure you have a good range of vocabulary for each:

• Environment
• Entertainment
• Young people
• Advertising

Tools, Links and Downloads

• Write and Improve – Free tool that marks writing in seconds.
• Sample Writing Paper – Computer Based (Cambridge English)
• B2 First Teachers Handbook (Cambridge English)
• Google Docs – Excellent grammar and spelling checker.

I hope you find this guide for the B2 First (FCE) Writing essay helpful. Practice makes perfect so make sure to write as often as you can. Use the comments below to leave your answer to the sample question above.

Really clear and easy to follow easy planning – thanks

Thanks Lucy 👍

Actually very clear and useful! Thanks a lot!!!

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Privacy Overview

The Climate Change Problem

Practice for part 1 of the writing paper in the Cambridge B2 First (FCE) exam with this sample question about climate change.

Try and use some of the vocabulary below in your answer where possible:

Useful Vocabulary

Write your answer in 140 – 190 words in an appropriate style using all the notes and giving reasons for your point of view.

Write about:

• ………………..(your own idea)

Check Out Another Lesson

Mother Teresa

Learning English

Cooking At Home

Main navigation

B2 first exam format.

B2 First is a test of all areas of language ability.

The exam is made up of four papers developed to test your English language skills. You can see exactly what’s in each paper below.

The Speaking test is taken face to face, with two candidates and two examiners. This creates a more realistic and reliable measure of your ability to use English to communicate.

The formats below are the same for both the paper-based and computer-based exams and digital exams. Please note, during March 2024 we will be moving from our current computer-based exam delivery to Cambridge English Qualifications Digital, which will offer you even more benefits. Information on the switch and what this means for you can be found on our Cambridge English Qualifications Digital page.

• openbook Reading
• compose Writing
• playlist Listening
• megaphone Speaking

openbook What’s in the Reading and Use of English paper?

The B2 First Reading and Use of English paper is in seven parts and has a mix of text types and questions.

For Parts 1 to 4 , you read a range of texts and do grammar and vocabulary tasks.

For Parts 5 to 7 , you read a series of texts and answer questions that test your reading ability and show that you can deal with a variety of different types of texts.

Part 1 (Multiple-choice cloze)

Part 2 (Open cloze)

Part 3 (Word formation)

Part 4 (Key word transformations)

Part 5 (Multiple choice)

Part 6 (Gapped text)

Part 7 (Multiple matching)

compose What’s in the Writing paper?

In the two parts of the B2 First Writing paper, you have to show that you can write different types of text in English.

Part 1 (Compulsory question)

Part 2 (Situationally based writing task)

playlist What’s in the Listening paper?

The B2 First Listening paper has four parts. For each part you have to listen to a recorded text or texts and answer some questions. You hear each recording twice.

Part 1 (Multiple choice)

Part 2 (Sentence completion)

Part 3 (Multiple matching)

Part 4 (Multiple choice)

megaphone What’s in the Speaking paper?

The B2 First Speaking test has four parts and you take it together with another candidate.

There are two examiners. One of the examiners asks you questions and gives you the booklet with things to talk about. The other examiner listens to what you say.

Part 1 (Interview)

Part 2 (Long turn)

Part 3 (Collaborative task)

Part 4 (Discussion)

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Evaluation of vegetable green logistics in lanling county of china based on dematel-anp-fce model provisionally accepted.

• 1 Qingdao Agricultural University, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Introduction: Due to the problems of greenhouse gas emissions, noise pollution, and vegetable waste pollution during the transportation of vegetables, it is not conducive to the sustainable development of the environment. To mitigate the pollution of the environment during transportation, vegetable green logistics plays a pivotal role in promoting both environmental sustainability and high-quality economic development. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the development of vegetable green logistics.Methods: This research builds a DEMATEL-ANP-FCE model to scientifically assess the development of vegetable green logistics in Lanling County. In the first place, the model uses DEMATEL to verify the relationship and degree of influence between the primary indexes. In the second place, the ANP approach with Super Decisions software to determine the weights of the indexes at each level. Lastly, evaluating and scoring vegetable green logistics in Lanling County based on FCE.Results and Discussion: The results of the study show that there is an interaction relationship between the primary evaluation indexes, and its evaluation score is low, the vegetable logistics in Lanling County has not reached the degree of greening. Accordingly, the evaluation results obtained by the DEMATEL-ANP-FCE model in this work are in line with the actual situation of vegetable green logistics in Lanling County, which verifies that the model has good applicability. Moreover, managerial contributions for promoting the development of vegetable green logistics in Lanling County are put forward in response to the evaluation situation. expecting to enhance the greening level of vegetable logistical development and advance agricultural sustainability. Finally, all four questions raised in this paper are well addressed. This study also provides a new perspective and evaluation model for future related research.

Keywords: Lanling County1, vegetables2, green logistics3, DEMATEL-ANP-FCE model4, evaluation5

Received: 08 Mar 2024; Accepted: 26 Apr 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Liu, Lu and Cui. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Prof. hongzhi Wang, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China Miss. Zhaoli Liu, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China Dr. Hailong Cui, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China

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Guest Essay

Government Surveillance Keeps Us Safe

By Matthew Waxman and Adam Klein

Mr. Waxman served in senior national security roles in the George W. Bush administration. Mr. Klein served as the chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from 2018 to 2021.

This is an extraordinarily dangerous time for the United States and our allies. Israel’s unpreparedness on Oct. 7 shows that even powerful nations can be surprised in catastrophic ways. Fortunately, Congress, in a rare bipartisan act, voted early Saturday to reauthorize a key intelligence power that provides critical information on hostile states and threats ranging from terrorism to fentanyl trafficking.

Civil libertarians argued that the surveillance bill erodes Americans’ privacy rights and pointed to examples when American citizens got entangled in investigations. Importantly, the latest version of the bill adds dozens of legal safeguards around the surveillance in question — the most expansive privacy reform to the legislation in its history. The result preserves critical intelligence powers while protecting Americans’ privacy rights in our complex digital age.

At the center of the debate is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Originally passed in 1978, it demanded that investigators gain an order from a special court to surveil foreign agents inside the United States. Collecting the communications of foreigners abroad did not require court approval.

That line blurred in the digital age. Many foreign nationals rely on American providers such as Google and Meta, which route or store data in the United States, raising questions as to whether the rules apply to where the targets are or where their data is collected. In 2008, Congress addressed that conundrum with Section 702. Instead of requiring the government to seek court orders for each foreign target, that provision requires yearly judicial approval of the rules that govern the program as a whole. That way, the government can efficiently obtain from communication providers the calls and messages of large numbers of foreign targets — 246,073 in 2022 alone.

Since then, Section 702 has supplied extraordinary insight into foreign dangers, including military threats, theft of American trade secrets, terrorism, hacking and fentanyl trafficking. In 2022 intelligence from 702 helped the government find and kill the Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, one of the terrorists responsible for Sept. 11. Almost 60 percent of the articles in the president’s daily intelligence briefing include information from Section 702.

Although Section 702 can be used only to target foreigners abroad, it does include Americans when they interact with foreign targets. Not only is such incidental collection inevitable in today’s globalized world; it can be vital to U.S. security. If a terrorist or spy abroad is communicating with someone here, our government must find out why.

Some of what is found via Section 702 is therefore sent from the National Security Agency to the F.B.I. The F.B.I., which investigates threats to national security in the United States, can then check that database for Americans under investigation for national security reasons.

We agree that those queries raise legitimate privacy concerns. And those concerns are especially acute for public officials and journalists whose communications with foreign officials and other potential intelligence targets may be sensitive for political or professional reasons.

It is also true that the F.B.I. has broken the rules around these 702 database checks repeatedly in recent years. Agents ran improper queries related to elected officials and political protests. The wiretaps of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, also involved numerous violations of FISA rules. The Page wiretaps involved traditional FISA orders, not Section 702, but the bureau’s many errors there raised understandable doubts about whether it can be trusted to comply with other FISA rules.

Fortunately, there are ways to prevent abuses of Section 702 without compromising its critical national security value. The bill passed by Congress contains numerous reforms that will dramatically improve compliance. It sharply limits the number and ranks of F.B.I. agents who can run 702 queries, imposes strict penalties for misconduct and expands oversight by Congress and the courts.

Some of the bill’s critics argued that the F.B.I. should be required to obtain a warrant from a special FISA court before using the information collected under 702 when investigating Americans who may be involved in terrorism, espionage or other national security threats. But requiring such a warrant would have been unnecessary and unwise.

Getting a FISA court order is bureaucratically cumbersome and would slow down investigations — especially fast-moving cybercases, in which queries have proved especially useful. It would cause agents to miss important connections to national security threats. And because this information has already been lawfully collected and stored, its use in investigation doesn’t require a warrant under the Constitution.

Another problem is that the probable cause needed for a warrant is rarely available early in an investigation. But that’s precisely when these queries are most useful. Database checks allow an agent to quickly see whether there is a previously unnoticed connection to a foreign terrorist, spy or other adversary.

Balances struck between security and privacy need continual refinement. Recent years have shown Section 702’s great value for national security. But they have also revealed lax compliance at the F.B.I. The latest reauthorization boosts privacy without blinding our country to threats in today’s dangerous world.

Matthew Waxman is a Columbia University law professor who served in senior national security roles in the George W. Bush administration. Adam Klein is the director of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas, Austin, and served as the chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from 2018 to 2021.

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