Useful Phrases for Proficiency Essays
Introducing the phenomenon to be discussed
More and more families are
choosing to have only one child.
The trend nowadays is
towards having smaller families.
Over the past ten years or
so the media have frequently carried reports of ...............
Recent research indicates
that the number of teenagers who smoke is increasing.
Hardly a week goes by
without another report of ................. appearing in the media.
This raises the issue of
whether .................
Although most people would
generally agree that ............... few would deny that ................
Stating your opinion
As I see it,
It seems to me that
............ I would also say that ....
I am convinced that
...............
I am inclined to believe that
..................
There is no doubt in my
mind that ..................
One of the drawbacks of
....... is ..........
However, one of the
benefits is that ............
Changing topic
As regards the causes for
this, ..............
Concerning the causes for
this, .........
As for the causes,
...........
Presenting arguments
One justification often
given for ........... is that.................
Advocates/Proponents would
claim that ..................
Those who object to
................. often argue that ...................
Another objection is that
......
However, it should not be
forgotten that ..............
........... are opposed to
................ on the grounds that .................
From the point of view of
.................
According to
....................
Describing causes
One factor which has led to
............ is ..............
One of the factors which
has brought this about is .........
The problem often stems
from ....................
The situation has been
exacerbated by ................
.............. has only
made the situation worse.
One consequence of
................ is ................
Proposing steps and measures
As regards the most
appropriate response to this situation, one suggestion would be to .........
The first step to be taken
would be to ........
To alleviate the situation
people should ...........
In addition they ought to
...............
To begin to tackle this
situation society/individuals/the government need/s to ..........
.............. would
certainly ameliorate the situation.
This can only be dealt with
if ............
To overcome this problem,
..............
Were the government to
..............., the situation would doubtless improve.
Individuals can do a great
deal to ............
The burden of responsiblity
lies in the hands of ........
It is vitally important
that .........
Legislation should be
introduced to control .................
It would be a grave error
if we .................
Concluding
All in all it seems to me
that ...........
The obvious conclusion to
be drawn is that .......................
All things considered,
.............
On balance, I tend to
believe that ............
The world would surely be a
better place to live in if ..............
If people stopped ....ing,
we would have/ we could look forward to a ...............
The prospects for the
future will be bleak/grim unless ...................
Tip
You should have
a few pages safe somewhere where you can keep a record of other useful essay
phrases that you come across in your reading. Note them down and practise using
them in your own writing.
Look out for
more advanced expressions that you can use in place of phrases that weren't
even impressive at the B2 level - phrases like "solve the problem".
Here are a few alternative problem and solution phrases to get you going.:
a crisis in
education which must be addressed
something that must be
tackled / be dealt with
a challenge which
must be met
something must be
done to restore law and order in the inner cities
Sample Advanced Essays
Here are a few essays chosen from the thousands published on the web. They were originally written by American high school students, but they have been edited to shorten them and improve them slightly. The idea is that they are good enough to stand as models of the kind of academic essay writing that is appropriate for both the Michigan ECPE exam and other proficiency-level EFL,ESL English language exams.
Combating the Cult of Thinness
Why would a frightening percentage of American women gladly trade five years off their lives for 10 pounds off their bodies, or prefer to be perceived as thin rather than as kind or intelligent? This obsession with thinness needs to be understood if we are to avoid the consequences, which are often tragic. Beyond this, there are further steps that ought to be taken so that women can have a healthier and more positive sense of themselves.
It is no wonder that American women are obsessed with thinness. From a very young age, it is emphasized to women how important it is to be pretty, and to be pretty by society’s standards means being thin. This blatant message is seen everywhere. Not only do images in magazimes, TV commercials and billboard posters put an exaggerated emphasis on women's bodies, they also hold up an ideal of thinness that is almost impossible to attain. Computer-enhanced photography employs techniques such as airbrushing blemishes and slenderizing the bodies of models. This adds to the creation of an ideal model that women strive to mimic.
American society’s prescription of what it means to be feminine needs a rewrite. Current definitions of femininity are dictated by a social system that gains control over women by defining them primarily in terms of their bodies. In order to see change, women must challenge the industries that feed upon body insecurity. They need to change the messages that women absorb daily. One method would be to stop purchasing the very fashion magazines that have been allowed to define femininity. Large-scale boycotts of these fashion magazines can lead to major change of the feminine ideal.
Another method that can be used to alleviate the emphasis placed on the ideal figure is through education. Women need to realize that the images seen in advertisements and on television sitcoms are not the norm. The average American woman is 5’4â€, a size 12, and 155 pounds. Women with these proportions hardly ever appear in clothing or cosmetic advertisements. Education is needed to stress the new message that women of all shapes and sizes can be beautiful.
Since many American women will go to extraordinary lengths to be thin, the only solution for this growing problem is to attempt to understand why it has become such an obsession. It is clear that media, television, and acquaintances all stress the importance of being thin and beautiful to impressionable young women. If we as a society could only change the emphasis to be on the mind rather than on the body, women would benefit with increased self-esteem, healthier lifestyles, and increased confidence.
Genetic Engineering
Genetic engineering has been one of the most controversial ethical issues since 1997, when the world first heard of Dolly, the first successfully cloned sheep. The news sparked a heated debate not only about genetic engineering generally, but also about whether it would be acceptable to apply some of the same techniques to humans. Although there is support for this among geneticists, there are some powerful moral reasons for opposing genetic engineering in humans.
There is something very objectionable about the idea of parents choosing the genetic make-up of their offspring. Imagine a couple agreeing to make their child tall, peaking somewhere near five feet eleven if female or six feet three inches if male, because dad wants an NFL quarterback and mom wants a super model. Both mom and dad have decided to add the gene for smartness, to take out the obesity gene, the gene that controls the risk of alcoholism, and the ones that predispose people to lung cancer and heart disease. A couple like this would effectively be searching for their ideal child in a catalog, almost as if they were deciding on a mail order purchase; and what would happen if the child, in spite of its genetic advantages, turned out to be a bit of a flop? There seems to be a threat here to the old idea that the parents' love for their child should be unconditional.
Another immoral consequence of genetic engineering in humans is extreme social inequality. Because only the rich will be able to afford expensive genetic interventions, two different classes will emerge in society, one with a vast genetic superiority over the other. This will competely undermine the old ideal of our fundamental human equality and the idea that each individual should have a chance of rising to the top of society. In a modern society it would be unacceptable if someone was born into a social class that they could not possibly rise out of.
For these and for other reasons it is clear that genetic engineering in humans would be immoral. Although there might be a few cases where a very limited form of genetic engineering might be justifiable on purely medical grounds, it is to be hoped that we will never allow parents to start picking and choosing the genetic make-up of their loved ones.
Nation of Immigrants
America is sometimes referred to as a "nation of immigrants" because of our largely open-door policy toward accepting foreigners pursuing their vision of the American Dream. Recently, there has been a clamor to close that door, arguing that immigrants threaten American life by taking jobs from American workers, by using much-needed social services, and by eroding on the "American way of life." While these arguments may seem valid to many, they are overwhelmingly false, and more than likely confused with the subject of illegal immigration.
A common argument among those opposing further immigration is that foreigners take U.S. jobs and cause unemployment among the displaced American workers. That view was highlighted by a recent poll, according to which sixty-two percent of non-blacks and sixty-three percent of blacks agreed that "new immigrants take jobs away from American workers." However, the truth is that immigration does not exacerbate unemployment. Immigrants do take jobs but by raising levels of consumption they help to boost the demand for labor.
Another widely held belief among Americans against immigration is that foreigners "strain social service budgets." According to the same poll, sixty-two percent of non-blacks and fifty-nine percent of blacks agreed "immigrants use more than their fair share of government services, such as welfare, medical care, and food stamps." In actuality, most immigrants are young and healthy when they arrive, and therefore do not receive expensive Social Security. What people need to realize is that immigrants contribute more in taxes than they draw out in welfare services. By putting more into the system than they take out, they are, in fact, raising the quality of life of those dependant of the social services.
Some of those who want to close our borders insist that this is necessary to preserve our nation from foreign influences. This perception of the foreigner as a threat is a common one. However, it needs to be remembered that immigrants bring with them valuable technical knowledge and skills, as well as being fifty percent more likely to have post-graduate qualifications than Americans. Our society is enhanced by their knowledge and education.
The issue of immigration must be dealt with rationally, not emotionally. Facts, figures, and statistics must be studied by both sides in order to reach a decision most beneficial to our nation. The labor situation is improved by the new jobs created by immigrants, the social service funds bolstered by their tax payments, and the valuable technical skills and knowledge brought with them. These benefits far outweigh any negative effects and prove the value of immigrants as they pursue the American Dream in our "nation of immigrants".
