A C1 Advanced Writing Part 2 task asks you to write about a local arts centre. Depending on the option, you might report on its current services, propose improvements, or review a recent event.
A weak answer uses the same language for all three:
"The centre has a big problem. A new café is possible and will fix it. The last event gave people good feelings."
The meaning is vague, but the deeper problem is purpose. A report assesses what exists. A proposal recommends what should happen. A review describes and evaluates an experience for a reader. The same fact must do a different job in each text.
Cambridge's current format describes Part 2 as a situationally based task. You choose one of three questions and receive a context, topic, purpose, and target reader. The task types can include a letter or email, proposal, report, or review. There is no magic list of "report words" and "review words." The lexical decision is how your wording serves the reader and purpose in the prompt.
One fact, three purposes
Suppose the centre's main hall has poor sound, and management is considering an upgrade.
- Report: "The poor sound system is a substantial shortcoming, especially during spoken events."
- Proposal: "Replacing the speakers is feasible within the current closure period and may offer a viable long-term remedy."
- Review: "The intimate hall evoked a small club, but the uneven sound weakened the performance."
The topic has not changed. The verbs and adjectives have because the communicative move has changed: diagnose, recommend, or recreate and judge.
1. Substantial vs. big: measured weight, not decoration
Substantial means large in amount, degree, importance, or effect. It is useful when a report must show that an issue or benefit is not minor.
"Attendance rose by a substantial amount after evening classes were introduced."
"The centre makes a substantial contribution to youth arts provision."
Unlike the loose intensifier very, substantial should attach to something that can reasonably have scale or weight: a cost, increase, body of evidence, contribution, change, or obstacle. It does not simply make any noun sound formal. A substantial colour and a substantial happiness are not natural.
Significant often stresses importance or a meaningful difference. Considerable stresses size or degree. Substantial can carry both ideas and sometimes suggests solidity. In a report, the evidence should justify it. If the survey shows a rise from 100 to 103 visitors, calling that substantial would overstate the result.
2. Feasible vs. viable: can we do it, and can it last?
These near-words overlap, so they are not a strict either-or pair. In proposals, however, they often lean toward different questions.
Feasible means practically possible under the stated limits: time, money, staff, technology, or rules.
"Installing acoustic panels during the two-week closure is feasible."
Viable means capable of working successfully or continuing over time.
"A volunteer-only café is unlikely to be viable throughout the year."
A plan can be feasible but not viable in the long-term sense. The team may be able to open the café next month, yet the café may not attract enough customers to keep running. The reverse can also occur: the business model may look viable in the long term, but the current budget makes its launch infeasible. Still, dictionaries allow viable to mean feasible, so context—not a rigid rule—must carry the distinction.
Possible is broader and says little about practical constraints. Workable suggests a plan can function, even if it is not ideal. A strong proposal names the constraint:
"A full rebuild is not feasible within this year's budget. A smaller acoustic upgrade is both feasible now and viable as a three-year solution."
Do not use viable as a grander replacement for available. A room can be available on Friday; a service or strategy is viable if it can succeed or endure.
Understanding is only the first step.
Lyra Practice helps you retrieve and use high-value workplace expressions in realistic situations until they feel natural.
Start a practice session →3. Shortcoming vs. drawback: a failure or a trade-off?
A shortcoming is a weakness or failure to meet an expected standard.
"The chief shortcoming of the current programme is its lack of evening events."
A drawback is a disadvantage of an option or situation. It may be an unavoidable trade-off rather than a failure.
"The main drawback of evening events is the added staffing cost."
The distinction changes a report. Calling limited parking a shortcoming suggests the centre falls below a reasonable expectation. Calling the cost of staying open late a drawback simply identifies the downside of that choice.
Flaw is stronger and often points to a defect in design or reasoning. Limitation is more neutral and marks a boundary on what something can do. Reports become more credible when they calibrate criticism instead of calling every weakness a serious flaw.
The usual patterns are a shortcoming of/in something and address or overcome a shortcoming. Avoid shortcoming point or a shortcoming disadvantage; the word already contains the idea of weakness.
4. Remedy vs. fix: an answer tied to a problem
As a noun, a remedy is an action or measure that corrects or relieves an undesirable situation.
"A booking system would be a practical remedy for overcrowded workshops."
As a verb, it means correct that situation:
"Better signs would remedy the lack of clear directions."
Fix is broader and more conversational. It can name a repair, a solution, or the act of making something work. Remedy is more formal and normally needs a clearly identified problem. A vague proposal such as This will remedy the centre is wrong: you remedy a defect, shortage, imbalance, or problem, not the whole organisation.
Address is weaker. It means take action on an issue without claiming the action will solve it. If the evidence is limited, address may be more honest:
"Longer opening hours would address complaints about access, but they may not remedy low attendance on their own."
That distinction keeps a proposal from promising more than its recommendation can deliver.
5. Evoke vs. describe: the effect on the audience
To evoke is to bring a feeling, memory, image, or response to mind.
"The bare stage and close seating evoke the atmosphere of a small jazz club."
This verb suits reviews because it names an effect on the audience. It does not mean simply show or mention. A timetable does not evoke the opening time; it states it.
Describe tells the reader what something is like. Suggest can point toward an idea or create an impression. Elicit usually means draw out an observable response from a person: the comedian elicited laughter. Evoke focuses on calling the feeling or image to mind.
Keep invoke separate. Invoke means call on a rule, authority, principle, or power: the manager invoked the safety policy. A performance evokes a memory; it does not invoke one in ordinary use.
In a report or proposal, evoke is less common because the goal is usually diagnosis or recommendation. It can still fit when audience response is the evidence: The old branding evokes a period the centre is trying to leave behind.
Weak vs. precise: three openings
Weak report opening:
"The centre has some big good points and some bad points. The bad sound is a drawback and needs a fix."
Precise report opening:
"The centre provides substantial value through its low-cost classes. Its main shortcoming is the hall's sound system, which fails to provide clear speech beyond the first rows."
Weak proposal opening:
"It is possible to add many new things. A café would fix the problem and be viable."
Precise proposal opening:
"A full café is not feasible within the present budget. A weekend kiosk is a more viable option: it requires less staff while still addressing the lack of refreshments."
Weak review opening:
"The concert was nice and gave a strong feeling. There were some problems, but it was good."
Precise review opening:
"The close seating evoked an intimate club, and the singer used that atmosphere well. The sound balance was a substantial shortcoming, however: the piano often covered the quieter vocals."
Each revision gives the reader what that text needs. The report identifies and supports a finding. The proposal tests a recommendation against constraints. The review recreates an effect and gives a clear judgment.
Common mistakes
- Changing register by adding long words. Change the communicative move, not just the word length.
- Using substantial as a general intensifier. It needs a defensible amount, degree, importance, or effect.
- Forcing feasible and viable into an absolute split. They overlap. Feasible focuses on practical doability; viable often adds successful or continuing operation.
- Calling every disadvantage a shortcoming. A shortcoming falls below an expectation; a drawback can be a normal trade-off.
- Promising that a step will remedy an issue when it only addresses it. Match the verb to the evidence.
- Confusing evoke and invoke. Feelings and images are evoked; rules and authority are invoked.
Quick check
1. The centre can start a course cheaply, but too few students will keep it running. Which description fits?
A. Feasible but probably not viable. B. Viable but impossible. C. Substantial but evocative.
2. Which sentence distinguishes a failure from a trade-off?
A. "Unclear signs are a shortcoming; the cost of replacing them is a drawback." B. "Unclear signs are feasible; their cost is viable." C. "Unclear signs evoke a remedy."
3. Which review sentence is natural?
A. "The lighting invoked a childhood memory." B. "The lighting evoked a childhood memory." C. "The lighting remedied a childhood memory."
Answers: 1-A, 2-A, 3-B. Practical possibility does not guarantee long-term success. A missing basic feature can be a shortcoming while the cost of correcting it is a drawback. A sensory detail can evoke a memory.
Practice prompt
A community library wants to attract more young adults. Its study room is popular, but events are poorly attended and the building closes early.
Write three short paragraphs about the same facts: one for a report, one for a proposal, and one for a review of a recent event. Use shortcoming in the report, contrast feasible with viable in the proposal, and use evoke in the review. Use substantial or remedy only where the evidence supports the claim.
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