This is the third sample article that conforms to the writing section requirements of the ECPE (Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English) of the University of Michigan.  Reading a variety of articles will help candidates and ESL students acquire a better understanding of what such types of writing involve. As mentioned in the first post to deal with articles , there are a number of points candidates need to bring to the table when it comes to writing. The main ones are: argumentation organization of paragraphs development of one's reasoning wide range of grammatical structures  lexical range  authorial voice Creating a solid piece of writing that will combine all these points requires a lot of hours spent reading

"Powder" is a short story intended to quickly state the obvious - a father's bond to his son is always a difficult thing to forge when parents aren't on good terms with each other. The level of difficulty in achieving this increases as fathers aren't used to explicitly explaining to their sons that they are trying to forge a stronger bond at a particular moment in time to begin with. Accordingly, the complications the father in this particular story is required to overcome are not only the time constraints the mother has placed on the trip as a whole or the mistrust towards her husband she has allowed her son to bear witness to which the father feels he must compensate for, but also the disparity in character traits that father and son exhibit. Having read the story for the first time, students predominantly respond to the query "What was the story about?" either with "I didn't get it. Some father and son skiing" or "S...

When you read Paley's "Mother" for the first time, you think, "Okay, so why would anyone give this to students to read when there's so much more that can be squeezed out of other short pieces of writing?" Why not give them Lawrence or Joyce to help analyze 159 facets of human relationships? Slap them with some Chopin or Woolf, both of whom produced slightly longer short stories through which you'd be able to demonstrate how a short story works and get a nice discussion going about relationships to boot. Meanwhile, after reading "Mother" for the first time, the main aspect that stays with readers is an overwhelming sensation of nostalgia and sadness bordering on melancholy. Whyever would any author write something this condensed to simply express despondency over a deceased parent? Can this story be that over-simplified? And then you re-read Paley's piece (because you have to give students some information on it so they don...

Shirley Jackson is a genius. She had many problems to deal with  throughout her life and it is possibly these very same problems that made her the writer of great stories, memorable stories. Snubbed by her mother who wanted a slender, socialite, comme il faut daughter, she struggled with her own demons as well as those her community nourished in her. Instead of your average American of the day, Jackson married Stanley Edgar Hyman in 1940, an American Jew whom the FBI had been investigating in the late 1940s -1950s, suspecting him of being a Communist. In an era of antisemitism and fear of the Reds (cf. House Un-American Activities Committee and McCarthyism), Jackson managed to push all the wrong buttons in her New England community . S he sm o ked and drank heavily, was interested in witchcraft and voodoo, and a ccording to accounts , yelled at her children 's teachers . Such a n unconventional woman was unwelcome in a small provincial town with everything that this mi...

If you haven't already done so, before you read this sample essay please read What do I do with the sample writing found on this blog? Sample C2 level Essay The following is a sample essay based on the Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English (ECPE) writing section. The question can be found on page 112 of the ECPE Book 1 Practice Examinations textbook published by the Hellenic American Union. In most countries in the developed world there is concern over the amount of advertising aimed at children. Should this kind of advertising be regulated and if so, what measures should be implemented? Discuss, giving reasons for your answer.

Writing at C2 level (Proficient User) on English language examinations is the same no matter the awarding body when it comes to writing essays. If you are a candidate giving an exam in English (IELTS, CPE, ECPE, CELP, LRN, ESB, TOEFL), make sure you read my earlier post What do I do with the sample writing found on this blog? to get the most out of the sample essays provided on Argute Legacy .     The topic of this essay is to discuss what the responsibilities of parenting are. If you are not taking an exam but need to discuss this topic, then read on and note down what you deem useful. If you intend to use this essay as part of an assignment, remember to paraphrase so as not to plagiarize. The topic is similar to what candidates expect in any other C2-level examination in that examiners want to see a well-organized, coherent and cohesive discussion of the issue with arguments and examples written in approximately half an hour. Whether or not you ...

  If you haven't already done so, before you read this sample essay please read What do I do with the sample writing found on this blog? Sample C2 level Essay    The following is a sample essay based on the Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English (ECPE) writing section. The question can be found on page 52 of the ECPE Book 1 Practice Examinations textbook published by the Hellenic American Union. In the future, genetic engineering may allow parents carrying congenital illnesses to produce healthy babies and for wealthy couples to “design” their children. Should doctors be permitted to interfere with the genetic makeup of infants, and if so, to what extent? Discuss, giving reasons to support your answer.