How Yes, No, Not Given questions work
They usually follow an argumentative passage and ask whether statements agree with “the views of the writer” or “the claims of the writer”. Statements follow passage order; each has one of three answers:
- YES: the statement agrees with the writer’s views.
- NO: the statement contradicts the writer’s views.
- NOT GIVEN: it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this.
Find the writer’s voice
Only the writer’s own judgement counts, not facts or other people’s opinions. In “Rooftop farms are often praised as a direct solution to urban food shortages”, the passive hides who does the praising, and it is not the writer.
The writer appears in evaluation words (“unconvincing”, “still valuable”), in advice (“should”) and at turns marked by “yet” or “therefore”. Stance phrases help too:
- “fail to convince”, “leave someone unconvinced”: not persuasive.
- “equally unconvincing”: just as weak as another explanation.
- “struggle to find a causal link”: a cause has not been shown.
- “be entirely sympathetic to a viewpoint”: full support for a position.
No or Not Given: an opposite view or no view
First: does the writer give a view on this exact point? If not, the answer is NOT GIVEN, however sensible the statement sounds. If so, agreement is YES and a clash is NO.
Each card on this page has a recording of its example:
- YES: “Writer: the narrower role is valuable. Statement: Limited urban farming can still be useful.”
- NO: “Writer: complement rather than replace. Statement: Urban farms should replace regional farming.”
- NOT GIVEN: “Writer: no comment on farm jobs. Statement: The writer prefers indoor-farm jobs to rooftop jobs.” Jobs are never mentioned.
Try one: rooftop farms
Read this extract from a practice passage on urban farming, recorded in full on this page.
- “Rooftop farms are often praised as a direct solution to urban food shortages. … Yet the claim that roofs can feed an entire large city is unconvincing.”
Small words that change the answer
Most wrong answers keep the topic and change one limit. The passage concludes: “They should complement, rather than replace, regional agriculture.” A tempting statement: “The writer predicts that urban farms will replace all regional agriculture.” Three links break:
- Negation: “rather than replace” becomes “replace”.
- Certainty: “should” recommends; “will” predicts.
- Scope: “all” stretches a role the writer calls “narrower”.
- Also: “does not guarantee a lower overall impact” is not “does not lower the overall impact”.
Multiple choice and sentence endings use the same test
In single-answer multiple choice, for the writer’s conclusion, “Urban farms have no useful role” is too negative and “Urban farms should replace regional agriculture” too broad; “Urban farms have a valuable but limited role” keeps the writer’s scope.
Matching sentence endings adds a grammar check first; here every ending fits, so meaning decides:
- “Rooftop farms may …” + “strengthen local interest in food production”
- “Indoor farms can …” + “support harvests throughout the year”
- “Shorter transport does not necessarily …” + “guarantee lower overall impact”
- “The writer concludes urban farms should …” + “complement wider food systems”
- The spare ending, “replace all regional agriculture”, is the claim the writer rejects.
Mistakes that cost marks
Give every wrong answer one of these causes:
- Choosing NO because the writer does not mention something.
- Treating a reported view (“is often praised”, “critics argue”) as the writer’s.
- Dropping a limit: “may”, “some”, “rather than”, “not necessarily”.
- Writing TRUE or FALSE when the instruction asks for YES or NO: it is marked wrong.
A 25-minute exam routine
Three or four times a week, with one argumentative practice passage:
- Allow 20 minutes for the passage and its questions.
- Label key sentences: fact, reported view or the writer’s view.
- In each statement, underline the claim, its scope and its certainty.
- After checking, name the first broken link in each wrong answer.
- Sum up the writer’s position aloud, for example “The evidence leaves the writer unconvinced that …”
What comes next
Next, turn the skill around: in an IELTS Writing argument paragraph, state and limit your own claims so “some” never becomes “all”. Writing Task 1 needs the same precision with a line graph. Still mixing up False and Not Given? Revisit True, False, Not Given.