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  4. An opinion essay

An opinion essay

An opinion essay

Learn how to write an opinion essay.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.

Preparation

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Reading text

Information will soon be so easy to find on the internet that people will not need to remember anything. Do you agree?

Nowadays all the information we could ever need is available online and some people say that means the end of having to learn anything.

It is true that these days everything you want to know is a few clicks away as long as you have internet access. However, not everyone has working internet all the time, for example in certain buildings or remote locations, so we do need to be able to remember information. Moreover, it takes time to look up everything you need to know online, whereas remembering something is immediate. The human memory is a much more efficient system.

Another problem is the quality of the information online. How do we know if it is accurate or reliable? We need to think about other facts we know and remember how to compare information from different websites. Knowing (and remembering) how to find certain information will be more important than knowing the information itself.

Finally, the internet is a good tool but it is not a useful replacement for our brains. If we did not remember anything, we would all spend even more time on our phones and computers than we already do, which is not good for society.

In conclusion, the internet offers us many things but it is still important to use our knowledge and memories. We need our memories to function without the internet and we also need to know how to use the internet properly.

Tips

  1. Read the question carefully. Respond to all ideas in it or all parts of it.
  2. Plan your ideas first and then choose the best ones.
  3. Introduce your essay by restating the question in your own words.
  4. Show understanding of both sides of the argument.
  5. Use linking words to connect your ideas.
  6. Draw your conclusion from the main ideas in your essay. Don't introduce new ideas at the end.

Task 1

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Task 3

Exercise

Discussion

What do you think about the question? Would it be better or worse if we never learned anything and just used the internet instead?

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Language level

B2 Upper intermediate
Average: 4.4 (29 votes)
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Submitted by Cristy67 on Sat, 18/01/2020 - 13:54

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The advantage of having technologies like the Internet nowadays should not take off our strengths as humans. The Internet is a great tool to improve how we function. For example, our basics skills as reading and writing should grow to the next level of analysis and comprehension. Nowadays, information is accessible for most of us and that gives us the responsibility and the advantage to use the resource, to filter the sources and ponder the information in order to share with others our conclusions. Our current interaction with technology advancements always will represent an opportunity to improve or deprive our human status; the Internet is not an exception. The opportunity to get information from the Internet can shape (get fit) in a positive way our minds when we exercise our reading and analysis skills, or it could end shaping our minds in a negative way when we only repeat what others say or choose information according to our mind biases. It is important to work responsibly with the advancements of our time; the Internet offers us a great opportunity to improve our minds. Let's exercise our basics human skills looking to help not only ourselves but also our communities in general.

Submitted by dan on Mon, 08/07/2019 - 06:15

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First of all, thank you for this helpful courses. We must need to improve our knowledge with classic learning. The internet help us but we must to continue to learn reading, writing like 30 years ago. The school is important because it offers us the membership in society.

Submitted by Eliana Pereira on Thu, 04/04/2019 - 04:04

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In my opinion, it would be worse if we never learned anything and just used the internet. We have an amazing brain that gives us the capacity to think. If we just used the internet and never used our mind, this will be damaged. We would be wasting the ability to produce knowledge and to think, which is our main characteristic such as humans being. If we used the web to look up everything we need to know, we will be more passive and lazier every day. Moreover, the information online is not always trusty. For instance, it is very common to find fake news and mistaken information on the internet so, we have to be careful and critic when we were searching on the web. Finally, although the internet is an excellent tool, it should be a complement of our own capacity to learn and not a replacement for this.

Submitted by Asaph on Thu, 28/03/2019 - 05:18

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In order to respond to our reading and use the internet, we need to construct our responses and new ideas. Then, if we want to try taking our learning further we must approach the internet with our new ideas so that we may ask appropriate questions as a means to search for answers and more information. Thus, it is very important we are learning before going to the internet.
Reading, writing are very basic things to know- I mean to be literate. Only a literate person can browse internet to be more informative, if necessary. If a person selects a subject or a topic to learn about it he has to read it first in a book and in course of his study if he needs more informations he should go to internet to gather more knowledge- going through different reliable websites. Needless to say, the saddest part of internet is that it is used widely without any sufficient purpose. To use internet properly one must have sufficient ability to run a computer and net surfing ,otherwise one may be trapped in suspicious sites.