Tips for writing opinion essay

1. Structure of Opinion Essays
Paragraph 1: An Introduction, possibly a statement about the current
situation.
Paragraph 2: One or more arguments for or against the statement,
possibly with an example from your own knowledge or experience.
Paragraph3: One or more contracting arguments, possibly with an
example from your own knowledge or experiences.
Paragraph 4: A conclusion, your opinion of the statement

2. Structure of Opinion Essays
Opinion Essay Structure:
• Intro- state your opinion
• Two reasons to support your opinion
• One argument for contrast
• Short conclusion

3. Structure of Essays
• Write a general statement about the topic one or two sentences
• Focus on the question in your own words
• Give your opinion and tell the reader your essay plan
Introduction
paragraph
• Begin with a topic sentence
• Explain the idea of the topic sentence in detail
• Personal expereinc/ facts/data/ examples…etc..
Two
Discussion
paragraphs
• A general, one-sentence summary
• A focused summary of the main points-avoiding repetition of
vocabulary
• Personal comment
Conclusion
paragraph

4. Structure of Essays
Introduction
Present and develop the essay question in your introduction
1 st body paragraph
State your 1st argument and give a reason. This should be your
main point.
2 nd body paragraph
State your 2nd argument and give a reason.
3 rd body paragraph (optional)
State your 3d argument and give a reason.
Conclusion
Give your opinion

5. Checking and editing your essays
1. a spelling mistake
2. a mistake with singular /plural forms
3. a wrong tense
4. a punctuation mistake
5. a wrong preposition
6. a missing capital letter
7. a subject-verb agreement mistake (e.g. he go not he goes)
8. two wrong collocations
9. a contraction (I’ve not I have)
10. an example of informal language
11. a missing verb to be
12. two problems with articles (i.e. the or a missing or int eh wrong place)

6. Every country in the world has problems with pollution and
damage to the environment.
Do you think these problems can be solved?
Notes:
Write about:
1. transport
2. rivers and seas
3. ………………………… (your own idea)

7. DEVELOPMENT VS ENVIRONMENT
If we surf the web looking for pollution and environmental catastrophes, we will find out that
every country in the world suffers them. This is a natural consequence of the struggle
between development and environment.
If a country decided to live isolated from the rest of the world, living on what it can naturally
grow and produce, it surely wouldn’t be highly polluted. But we all want exotic food and
technological items from all over the world, so we have to pay the price.
Investing on electrical transport would benefit the environment a lot. Even more if this
electricity came from a natural source of energy like wind, rivers and solar boards. It’s difficult
to achieve this because petrol companies will fight against these actions.
We also have to take care of our rivers and seas. We all have heard about factories throwing
highly toxic substances to rivers, without minimizing their poisoning effects. A really strict law
should be applied to fine these factories and make them change their policy.
But what about ourselves? We also can do a lot! If, when possible, we bought larger packs of
food, we would be producing less rubbish. And this is only an example!