In the minds of ESL exam candidates, e ssay writing is one of the most daunting tasks they are required to complete, regardless of the level of the exam, the administering body or the ease with which they themselves use the language. The same applies to students who are asked to write an essay by their teachers at school. In the previous sample essays posted on the blog, the main point I stress is the need to become acquainted with this form of writing (as opposed to writing a letter, review or report, for instance), to get a feel of what authorial voice is and how to organize and progressively express the arguments you wish to make in a coherent manner. Unfortunately, the best way to prepare for exam writing or learn how to write good essays for school is to read as many essays from as many sources as possible, then write as
This is the fifth sample article candidates of the ECPE examination (Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English of the University of Michigan)
My first post to deal with articles, explains what needs to be present in this type of piece of writing. As stated, examiners are looking for articles that elaborate on ideas and have solid arguments; are well organized; make use of a wide lexical and grammatical range; have an original ring to them (in other words, readers are able to distinguish the author's unique "voice").
Before
reading, take a look at the following post if you haven't already done so. It
will help you focus on the vital aspects you need to be aware of while
reading the article and what you should make sure to use when you write your own.
The question appeared in Practice Tests for the ECPE Book 1 (revised 2021 version) and is accompanied by the following three writing prompts:
- a statement based on a recent news report: 60% of Americans believe news on social media is inaccurate.
- a pie chart with the heading "% of Adults Who Get News on Social Media" broken down into the following segments
- Often 29%
- Sometimes 35%
- Rarely 21%
- Never 15%
- a quote: "How do you know what's real and what's fake?" - a social media user
Here's the question:
Everyone can post on social media. Recently however, a popular social media site decided to ban several people from posting because of concerns they were spreading “fake news.” Write an article for a local news website expressing how you feel this will affect social media and your opinion about the policy. Include at least one piece of information given above to support your viewpoint.
Note: This is a long sample. It goes without saying that candidates might not be able to reach the number of words in the 45-minute time limit allowed on the exam, and this would be perfectly normal. The goal of these sample articles is to provide arguments, useful phrases and vocabulary words to build candidate's competency.
Fake News Monitoring or Online Gag Orders?
Staying up to date with current events as well as technological developments or cultural trends is of paramount importance in this day and age, wouldn’t you say? With everything that’s going on around us, though, who can state without a shadow of a doubt that what we’re reading out there in this vast second home of ours we know as cyberspace isn’t a figment of someone’s imagination? Ask your average social media user and they will say, and I quote, “How do you know what’s real and what’s fake?” In answer to this, a particular social media site, whose name for legal reasons will remain safely hidden, decided last week to brusquely oust several of its users because they were suspected of spreading fake news. This, in my view, is the beginning of the end of free speech on the internet and I say this for two reasons.
The first reason why closing down user accounts on social media is wrong, when there has been no criminal transgression, that is, is that we need to realize that such an act is tantamount to censorship. There may be grounds to arrest someone who has publicly urged others to commit a crime or is spewing obscenities and hate rhetoric, but who will be the judge of what is deemed real or fake in statements made online? If a citizen denounces a government official on their personal social media account and through pressure placed on the administrators of that site the account holder is blocked from ever posting anything there again, then it must be seen as a form of censorship. This kind of censorship is expected in countries whose regimes are totalitarian, so in fact, we would be turning cyberspace into a dictatorship. In other words, if social media websites start playing judge, jury and executioner, how can people express themselves freely? And who is to say that statements are fake news to begin with? Because internet users have no means of verifying neither the credentials nor the vested interests of those who do the fact-checking on behalf of social media sites, it is impossible to know for sure if statements slapped with a “fake news” label on them are just that.
What must also not be forgotten is that social media accounts are private accounts. If you discover that an 18-year-old has hacked your Facebook account, you can sue them because they violated your privacy and either impersonated you or stole sensitive information. All this is possible because the account itself is considered private, so it is reasonable to extend that privacy to the ideas expressed by an account user, meaning that someone else should not censor what you say or ban you from using the site simply because they disagree with the truth of what you are saying. Imagine Twitter closing down accounts because a Christian posted something about God or a Hindu about Lakshmi. The same can be said about scientific data discussed online: one expert might disagree with a peer about recent findings. Would it be fair to ban the expert with the less popular views when science is a dynamic field based on theories that change as new findings emerge?
In short, we must not lose sight of our basic rights, especially freedom of speech. Monitoring what is posted online is an extremely delicate issue, especially when 60% of Americans believe news on social media to be inaccurate according to a recent news report. But what would happen if I questioned the veracity of this last statement as a whole or accused those who spoke about the inaccuracy of social media news of spreading fake news themselves? Would it not be better for us all to let each person decide what is true or false instead of gagging them?
For more help with the writing section of an exam or essay topics in general, click on the image below.
