Speakout Advanced Writing Reference © Pearson Educación, S.A., 2012
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Speakout Advanced
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Writing a discursive essay
A discursive essay is an essay that explores a particular subject. A discursive essay needs to be
balanced: you should present arguments on both sides in a neutral way before you express your
own opinion.
1 Read the essay and say if these statements are true or false.
1 The author gives a firm opinion on the subject in the introduction.
2 The second paragraph supports the proposition in the title.
3 In the third paragraph the author says that he thinks healthcare and university should be free.
4 The author offers an extreme opinion in the final paragraph.
5 In general, the essay is balanced.
6 There are too many paragraphs in the essay for the content. Two would be enough.
Students, not the state, should pay university tuition fees.
Twenty years ago, if you went to university in the UK, all of your
tuition fees were paid for by the government. Now, however, you
have to pay for them yourself. There is currently a lot of debate about
which of these two situations is better. What is more, there are no
straightforward answers.
In an ideal world, all education would be free, including tertiary
education. Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that we do not
live in an ideal world and there is not an unlimited supply of money.
In addition to this, the more money the government spends, the
more it taxes its citizens, and the less money they have.
On the other hand, it could be argued that in a modern democratic
society, citizens have some basic rights. For example, many people
would agree that universal free healthcare is a basic right: no one
should go without medical attention because they can’t afford it.
Likewise, a significant number of people also think university fees
should be free of charge. After all, they maintain, if healthcare is free,
why shouldn’t university be free, too?
In my own view, university tuition fees should not be totally free. If
they are, many people will go to university just because they don’t
know what to do after secondary school. Obviously, this is not the
purpose of going to university. At the same time, fees should not be
so expensive that they put off people from poor families from
carrying on with their studies. Consequently, the best solution
would be for the government to subsidise tuition fees, but not to pay
for them entirely.
Introduction
Explore one side
of the argument
Explore another
side of the
argument
Your own view
