Positive or negative essays: more people living alone
You can give a clear verdict on a positive or negative development question and keep every paragraph behind it.
Some Task 2 questions describe a change in society and ask one thing about it: is this a positive or a negative development? The question wants a verdict, a judgement you make and then defend.
An essay that lists good points and bad points, and stops there, leaves the examiner without an answer. The band 7 descriptor for Task Response asks for more: a clear and developed position is presented.
Warm-up
Which sentence gives a verdict?
The question is about the rise in people who live alone. Read three opening sentences.
Which sentence answers the question?
How it works
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
In many cities, the number of people who live alone is rising.
Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
Planning the essay
- 1Name the development
Say in a few words what is changing: more people in cities live alone. Your essay judges this trend, and nothing wider.
- 2Choose your verdict
Positive, negative, or mainly one with some of the other. Pick the side you can support best.
- 3Find your reasons
One or two reasons for the verdict, each with an example: a kind of person, a situation, a result.
- 4Answer the other side
Note the strongest point against your verdict, and one sentence on why it does not change your mind.
- 5Put the verdict in one sentence
This sentence closes your introduction. Your conclusion says it again, in different words.
Describing or judging
Living alone has advantages, such as privacy, and disadvantages, such as loneliness. The reader still does not know what you think.
Living alone can be lonely, but for most people it is a choice they are glad to make, so I see it as mainly positive. One side is weighed against the other, and a verdict comes out.
The shape of the essay
The parts, in order
The development in your own words, then your verdict and its main reason.
Your main reason for the verdict, explained, with an example.
The other side, and why your verdict still stands. Or a second reason.
The verdict again, in new words.
Watch me do one
My plan, step by step. The development: more people in cities live alone. My verdict: mainly positive, because I can support that side best.
Reason: it usually reflects choice. Examples: a young engineer renting a flat of her own, and older people who stay in their own homes for longer.
The other side: loneliness, and one-person homes push up the demand for housing. My answer: living alone is not the same as being isolated. Cities can also build for it, for example with small flats that share a kitchen and garden.
My verdict as one sentence: mainly a positive development, because it usually reflects choice and independence, and its drawbacks can be reduced.
Everything in the plan points one way. The negative points are there, but each one is answered.
A model answer
In many cities, the number of people who live alone is rising. Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
In many cities today, more and more people live on their own. Although this trend brings some problems, I believe it is mainly a positive development, because it usually reflects choice and independence, and its main drawbacks can be reduced. The main reason I see it as positive is that most people who live alone do so because they can. A generation ago, many young adults stayed in their parents' home until they married, often because they could not afford anything else. Today, a young engineer in a large city may rent a small flat of her own, which gives her privacy and the freedom to organise her life as she wishes. Older people benefit too. Many widows and widowers now stay in their own homes for years, close to their friends and the shops they know, and move in with their children only if they need care. It is true that living alone can lead to loneliness, especially for older people who have lost a partner. One-person households also need more homes for the same population, which puts pressure on rents. However, living alone is not the same as being isolated, and cities can respond to both problems. Some have built blocks of small flats with a shared kitchen and garden, where residents have their own space but see their neighbours every day. Buildings like these also use land more efficiently than streets of family houses. In conclusion, I consider the rise in people living alone to be a positive change on the whole. It shows that more people can afford the life they want, and with careful housing design, its costs for individuals and for cities can be kept low.
- TaskThe verdict and its reasons, at the end of the introduction.
- CoherenceThe topic sentence ties the paragraph to the verdict.
- TaskA concrete example of the reason, set against a generation ago.
- CoherenceIt is true that admits the other side before answering it.
- TaskThe answer to the other side, so the verdict still stands.
- VocabularyPrecise wording for a planning argument.
- TaskThe same verdict as the introduction, in new words.
Coloured text shows what the examiner is looking for.
A verdict is easier to check when another person reads your essay. If you'd like a teacher's eye on yours, Kriti and Christine read students' essays in their classes.
Practice with Elita6 questions
Four short questions about verdicts come first. The last two ask you to plan a new question and write its opening paragraph.
A phrase for a verdict
Complete the phrase with one word. The phrase means after weighing both sides.
On , I believe the rise in one-person households is a positive change.
Write no more than 1 word.
Opening the first body paragraph
The verdict is mainly positive. Pick the sentence that should open the first body paragraph.
Which sentence should open the paragraph?
Which verdict?
Read this introduction sentence. Which verdict does it give?
While more people living alone can lead to loneliness, the trend mostly reflects greater freedom, so I believe it is largely positive.
The sentence that changes sides
The writer's verdict is mainly positive. One sentence from the essay contradicts it. Choose it.
Which sentence contains the error?
Your plan
You have five minutes to plan this one. Notes are fine: a few words per box.
In many cities, streets in the centre have been closed to cars. Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Your introduction
Write two sentences to open that essay. Make the second one your verdict, with its main reason.
Introduction for this question: In many cities, streets in the centre have been closed to cars. Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
0 / 35 words
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Words to keep
A change, or a new situation. The rise in one-person households is a recent development.
After thinking about both sides. On balance, I see it as a positive change.
Being able to live and decide things without help. A flat of her own gave her independence.
Cut off from other people, with few visitors or friends nearby. After losing a partner, an older person can become isolated.
A disadvantage. The main drawback of city life is the cost of rent.
Be more important than. For most people, the benefits of living alone outweigh the drawbacks.
Before you go
Give your verdict in the introduction: positive, negative, or mainly one of them.
Make every body paragraph support that verdict, including the one that deals with the other side.
If you bring in the other side, answer it in the same paragraph.
Finish by giving the verdict again, in fresh words.
Next: Next, Academic candidates describe two maps of a harbour district, then and now. General Training candidates go on to Unit 7, about travel, which opens with past tenses for telling stories.