Essays

• Give a general introduction in the first paragraph.
• Think carefully about the first sentence of each paragraph to help the reader follow what you are saying.
• Use formal or semi-formal language.
• Give reasons to support your arguments.
• Give your personal opinion in the last paragraph.

Useful language

Supporting one point of view:

• In the first place…
• Furthermore…
• In addition…
• Moreover…
• A final point…

Explaining why:

• Because of this…
• For this reason…
• As a result…
• Therefore…
• Due to…

Expressing contrast:

• On the other hand…
• In contrast…
• However,…
• Nevertheless,…
• Although…
• While…

Explaining someone else’s opinion:

• According to…
• It is said that…
• Some people say that…
• Many people feel…
• Others think that…

Giving your opinion:

• I agree that…
• I think/believe that…
• In my opinion…
• I am in favour of…
• It seems to me that…

Concluding:

• Overall,…
• To sum up…
• On the whole…
• In conclusion…

Nowadays pollution is such a big problem for everybody that people say we should all be doing something to help the situation and not just expect the government to sort out the problems.

Many people think that the government should deal with pollution. In the first place, it is a huge problem affecting whole countries. In addition, factories cause a lot of problems, such as when they put poisonous chemicals into the rivers. Therefore, special laws are the only way to control this.

On the other hand, we each contribute to pollution in some way. For example, we use plastic bags or make too much rubbish. This is something we can all do about as individuals and, if everybody did something, it would make difference.

Overall, I agree with the statement because I think it is very easy for us to change small things in our lives. If we managed to make these changes then pollution levels would decrease and our environment would be better.