The use of mobile phones is as antisocial as smoking. Smoking is banned in certain places so mobile phones should be banned like smoking. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

The use of the mobile phones is being considered as unwelcoming in many occasions nowadays, just as the way people view smoking. Despite the negative side of the mobile phones, it should not be banned.

The argument on banning mobile phones may be based primarily it having on the following reasons. To start with, the mobile phonehas become a major disturbance to people’s study or work. With the emergingemergence of the smart phoneand the latest technology, mobile phones serve not merely as means of communication but more importantly, tools of entertainment. Mobile users are so addicted to the mobile phone that their study or work is also affected. Students playing mobile phones in class certainly cause trouble to other students and the teacher to concentrate. Libraries may no longer be quiet as some visitors keep making phone calls or receiving messages with the ringtone on. Apart from affecting their own study or work, mobile phone users also tend to ignore people around them, leading to estrangement and alienation between people. Lastly, the radiation of the mobile phone may also cause health hazard to mobile users and people around them.

Even though being labeled as “anti-social” just as smoking, the mobile phone should not be prohibited as the government did to smoking. This is primarily because smoking is entirely harmful to human, causing respiratory diseases such as bronchitis,pneumonia, and even lung cancer. The mobile phone, however, is in itself just a tool. Whether it plays a positive or negative role depends on the users. If it is well-managed, mobile phones can bring more convenience to its users. Besides, in a society where the mobile phone functions as a major means of telecommunication, it will cause more inconvenience to the user’s work and life.

In conclusion, the downsides caused by mobile phones need restriction and caution. However, the importance of the hand gadgets is undeniable, so there is no necessity to forbid the use of mobile phones.

HI, how are you?

Despite the excellent command of the English language in this essay, it lacks cogency mostly because of the focus of the discussion. The larger part of your essay should have been focused on proving why mobile phones should not be banned. The reason for its banning is not that much relevant in the task requirement. This lack of focus will greatly affect your task response rating.





The use of mobile phones is being considered as unwelcoming in many occasions nowadays, just as the way people view smoking. Despite the negative side of mobile phones, it should not be banned.

The argument on banning mobile phones may be based primarily it having become a major disturbance to people’s study or work. With the emergence of the smart phone and the latest technology, mobile phones serve not merely as means of communication but more importantly, tools of entertainment. Mobile users are so addicted to the mobile phone that their study or work is also affected. Students playing mobile phones in class certainly cause trouble to other students and the teacher. Libraries may no longer be quiet as some visitors keep making phone calls or receiving messages with the ringtone on. Apart from affecting their own study or work, mobile phone users also tend to ignore people around them, leading to estrangement and alienation between people. Lastly, the radiation of the mobile phone may also cause health hazard to mobile users and people around them.

Even though being labeled as “anti-social” just as smoking, the mobile phone should not be prohibited as the government did to smoking. This is primarily because smoking is entirely harmful to human, causing respiratory diseases such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and even lung cancer. The mobile phone, however, is in itself just a tool. Whether it plays a positive or negative role depends on the users. If it is well-managed, mobile phones can bring more convenience to its users. Besides, in a society where the mobile phone functions as a major means of telecommunication, it will cause more inconvenience to the user’s work and life.

In conclusion, the downsides caused by mobile phones need restriction and caution. However, the importance of the hand gadgets is undeniable, so there is no necessity to forbid the use of mobile phones.

Good luck!


Tip for the day

Learning the Correct Essay Structure for Language Tests

Learning how to use the correct essay structure is the first step in increasing your Language test scores writing score. Whether that be TOEFL, IELTS, or others knowing the basics of structuring an essay is essential.

The language test essay is usually four paragraphs long and has three parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Each part of the essay has a different function, and readers expect certain information in each of these parts.

Learning the Correct Essay Structure

Here's a brief explanation of the three main parts found in the essay structure:

Introduction

The introduction is the first paragraph of your essay. The first few sentences of this paragraph simply introduce the reader to the topic. The last sentence is called the thesis statement and clearly states your opinion. This is the most important sentence in the essay.

Body

The body of the essay is usually two paragraphs long. Each paragraph begins with a topic sentence that tells the reader what the rest of the paragraph is going to be about. The remaining sentences are called supporting ideas because their main function is to "support" the topic sentence.

Conclusion
The conclusion is the last paragraph of the essay. It restates the thesis and gives the reader a brief summary of the essay's main points. This paragraph is usually about 3 sentences long.

Importance of the essay structure

Do not underestimate the importance of the essay structure. In fact, not using this structure is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make.

When you use this structure in your essay, your ideas will be presented in a clear and logical way. Your essay will really begin to flow, and this makes it much easier for the reader to understand. Even with mistakes in spelling and grammar, an essay written in this structure is better than one with perfect grammar that is not.

How to Write an Essay Thesis Statement

The thesis statement is the most important sentence in your essay.

After you have introduced the reader to the subject of the essay, you write a thesis statement. This is the last sentence of the first paragraph, and it should do two things:

• Directly answer the essay question
• Tell the reader what your opinion is

The thesis statement is the most important sentence in the essay. It does not include specific details that appear later in your essay, but it should answer the essay question clearly and directly. If somebody reads your thesis sentence, they should be able to answer these two questions:

• What is the essay about?
• What is your opinion?

Step one: get an opinion

If you do not have an opinion on the topic, it is not possible to write a thesis statement. The
thesis statement must give an opinion--it tells the reader exactly what you think. On the next
page we will take a look at some examples of good and bad thesis statements.

Examples of good thesis statements

As soon as you have decided what your opinion is, you can write your thesis statement.
Let's say you get this essay question:

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

Police officers should carry guns.

Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

If you agree with the statement, your thesis could be as simple as this:

Police officers should carry guns.

On the other hand, maybe you would like to disagree. In that case, your thesis could be just
as simple:

Police officers should not carry guns.

These are both acceptable thesis statements. They are simple and direct, telling the reader what your opinion is and what the essay is going to be about.

It is good idea to write your thesis statement using key words or phrases from the original essay question. In one of our examples above, we simply copied the essay question directly!

We'll talk more about this later, but first let's take a look at a few thesis statements that are unacceptable.

Examples of bad thesis statements

Before we look at examples of unacceptable thesis statements, let's have another look at our sample essay question:

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

Police officers should not carry guns.

Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Now take a look at an unacceptable thesis statement:

Police officers work hard.

This thesis statement doesn't give us an opinion. It also doesn't tell us what the essay is about. In fact, it's not related to the essay topic at all. Here's another one that's not so good:

Guns help to protect police officers.

Unacceptable. It may be true that "guns help to protect police officers," but we still don't know what the writer's opinion is. And here's a third example:

Police officers don't need guns.

Again, it may be true that "police officers don't need guns," but what is the writer's opinion? Should police officers carry guns?

Strong thesis statements

Now that we've seen a few examples of both good thesis statements and bad thesis statements, the next question is this: how can we write a great thesis statement? Let's start with a thesis statement that we already know is good:

Police officers should not carry guns.

This is a good thesis statement, but it's not a great one. We can improve it by making the language stronger. Do this by using stronger language, words such as no or never. Here's what it looks like when we've made our improvements:

Police officers should never carry guns.

We could also say something like this:

No police officers should ever carry a gun.

If our thesis statement is a positive sentence, we can strengthen the language with a word like always. Here's an example:

Police officers should always carry guns.

Next we'll look at other ways of strengthening our the thesis statement.

Very strong thesis statements

Okay, we have written our thesis statement. Here it is:

Police officers should never carry guns.

It's already good, but we can make it even stronger by using a few phrases to emphasize our point. Here are some that we can use: regardless of, under no circumstances, at no time, without exception. This is what our final thesis statement will look like:

Regardless of the situation, police officers should never carry guns.

Or it could look like this:

At no time should a police officer ever carry a gun.

We can also use these same phrases to give the opposite opinion in our thesis statement, as in this example:

Regardless of the situation, police officers should always carry guns.

Continue to practice writing thesis statements--it really is the most important sentence in the
essay, and your hard work will be rewarded by a higher score!

How to Write an Essay Introduction

The introduction is the most important paragraph of your essay.

The introduction is the first paragraph of your essay, and it is important to make a good impression here. If you don't start out well, it will be difficult to convince your readers (or the assessor!) to take your writing seriously. Here's what you should know about the introduction:

• First paragraph of the essay
• Usually 3 to 5 sentences long
• Introduces the essay topic
• Clearly gives your opinion
• Has a strong thesis statement

All introductions must meet these five conditions. If it is missing one or two of them, then it is
a weak introduction.

Beginning the introduction

The best way to begin the introduction is with a general statement [HOOK] about the essay topic.

This explains what the essay is going to be about and mentally prepares the reader for the arguments that will follow. Do not give your opinion in this sentence--this is only a general
statement about the topic.

Here's an example of what a typical first sentence looks like:

Many communities have been discussing over whether or not police officers should carry guns.

You can see that there is no opinion in this sentence; it is only a general statement about the essay topic.

Developing the introduction

After we have written our first sentence, it is time to develop the introduction. We do this by
adding a few more general statements [ARGUMENT] about the topic. One strategy you can use is to explain both sides of the argument. Here's an example:

In some situations, guns protect the police officer as well as the public. However, guns often result in injuries and death.

By explaining both sides of the argument (this is called contrasting), you show the reader that you have thought carefully about the issue.

You should also know that when you contrast both sides of the argument, it is better to begin with the side of the argument that you do not agree with. This is more natural in English, and your essay introduction will develop logically toward the thesis statement.

Writing the thesis statement

Now it is time to write our thesis statement. This is the last sentence of the first paragraph. It is also the most important sentence in the essay. The thesis statement does two things:

• It directly answers the essay question.
• It tells the reader what your opinion is.

For our introduction, here's what the thesis statement could look like:

No police officer should ever carry a gun.

In this example, we have a strong thesis statement. It is simple and direct: it answers the essay question and tells the reader exactly what our opinion is.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the thesis statement is the most important sentence in the essay. In fact, if the reader has difficulty understanding the essay, he will often return to the thesis statement to be reminded what the essay is about. A bad thesis statement results in a bad essay.

Putting it all together

We've finally completed our essay. Here it is:
Many communities have been discussing over whether or not police officers should carry guns. In some situations, guns protect the police officer as well as the public. However, guns often result in injuries and death. No police officer should ever carry a gun.

In the first sentence we began the introduction with a general statement [HOOK] about the essay
topic. Then, in the second and third sentences [or could be compounded too], we contrasted both sides of the argument. Our last sentence was the thesis statement: this is where we answered the essay question and gave our opinion.

How to Write an Essay Body

The body is the meat and bones of your essay.

The body of the essay is everything that comes between your introduction and the conclusion. Here's what you need to know:

• It's usually 2 paragraphs long.
• Each paragraph has 1 topic sentence.
• Each paragraph has 3 to 5 supporting ideas.
• Its goal is to support thesis statement.

Paragraphs in the Body

Each paragraph of the body supports the thesis statement, and each paragraph has the same structure--1 topic sentence followed by 3 to 5 supporting ideas. Like this:

Topic Sentence (first sentence)
• supporting idea #1
• supporting idea #2
• supporting idea #3
• supporting idea #4

It's okay if you don't understand topic sentences or supporting ideas. That's what we'll look at on the next page. Read on.

The topic sentence

The topic sentence is the first sentence of the paragraph. This sentence should do 2 things:
• Give 1 reason to support your thesis statement.
• Tell the reader what the rest of the paragraph is about.

Supporting ideas

Everything that comes after the topic sentence is called a supporting idea. This is because it
"supports" your topic sentence.

A supporting idea could be almost anything: a story from your life, a philosophical argument,
a personal experience, or some statistical information. The important thing is that it explains
why you believe that the topic sentence is true.

How to Write Essay Topic Sentences

Topic sentences are important because they support your thesis statement.

First, let's have a quick review. We already know that the thesis statement is the last sentence of the introduction. We also know that the thesis statement is where we give our opinion. Here's the example we used:

No police officers should ever carry a gun.

It's a good thesis because it tells the reader what the essay is about and it gives an opinion.

Now the reader knows what our opinion is, but he doesn't know why. This is what topic sentence does--it tells the reader why.

Here's the minimum you need to know about what a topic sentence is:
• It is the first sentence of each paragraph in the body.
• It gives one reason why the thesis statement is true.
• It tells the reader what the rest of the paragraph is about.

A good way to write a topic sentence is to begin with a list of reasons that support your thesis statement. When you have your list, then choose the two best reasons. That's what we'll do on the next.

Writing a topic sentence

First we look at our thesis statement one more time:

No police officer should ever carry a gun.

Next we make a list of all the reasons why we believe our thesis statement is true. Here's what we have:

1. There is already too much violence in the world.
2. Police officers don't need protection.
3. Guns cause more harm than good.
4. Police officers like to shoot people.
5. Guns frighten people.
6. In most cases police officers don't need guns.
7. Violence of any kind is a bad thing.

Now we simply choose the best reasons. Let's choose number 3 and number 6. They look
like good reasons to me.

Now that we have two reasons that support our thesis statement, we are almost finished. We only have to put the finishing touches on, and we'll do that next.

Finishing the topic sentences

We have choses two reasons to support our thesis statement. These are our topic sentences. Here they are:

Guns cause more harm than good.
In most cases police officers don't need guns.

They already look good, but they could be better. We can improve them by adding a transitional phrase at the beginning of each. A transitional phrase helps the reader understand your essay. It also makes your essay sound more natural. For our first topic sentence, we can use the basic phrases* such as First, First of all, In the first place, To begin with, For one thing. This is what our first topic sentence might look like:

First of all, guns cause more harm than good.

For our second topic sentence, we can use these basic phrases*: Second, Next, In addition to the
previous point, More importantly. Like this:

In addition to the previous point, in most cases police officers don't need guns.

We're finished. Now we only need to write our supporting ideas!

How to Write Essay Supporting Ideas

They are called supporting ideas because they "support" the topic sentence.

Our essay's supporting ideas all come after the topic sentences. They support the topic sentence by telling the reader why we believe the topic sentence is true. Supporting ideas can be almost anything. The important thing is that they are all related to the topic sentence and that they support the topic sentence in some way. Here are some things we can use for our supporting ideas:

• A personal experience
• Something you've heard or read about
• A logical argument
• Statistical evidence
• Factual information
• Expert opinion

We can use any of these for our supporting ideas. However, most students use a personal experience or something they have read about. This is probably because it is easier to write
about these things. (given the time limit)

Writing supporting ideas

Before we begin, let's have another look at our first topic sentence. Here's what we have so far:

First of all, guns cause more harm than good.

Now let's use something that we've heard or read about for our supporting ideas. Our paragraph might look something like this:

First of all, guns cause more harm than good. There are often stories in the newspaper about people who are accidentally shot. Moreover, many of these stories involve police officers. If guns had not been involved, these accidents would not have happened. On the other hand, there are very few stories about how a gun has saved somebody's life.

In this example, our supporting ideas come from stories we've read in the newspaper, and they all explain why guns cause more harm than good.

We have also used a few interesting phrases at the beginning of some sentences: moreover and on the other hand. These are called transitional phrases. Transitional phrases makes the shift from one idea to another smoother and easier to follow. They are also called cohesion devices or strategies. There are other strategies used apart from transitional phrases, but more on that on another lesson.

Writing supporting ideas

Now let's take a look at our second topic sentence. Here it is:

In addition to the previous point, in most cases police officers don't need guns.

Now let's try using a personal experience for our supporting ideas. Here's one way we could write the paragraph:

In addition to the previous point, in most cases police officers don't need guns. My father, for example, has been a police officer for over 20 years, and he has never had to use his gun. In fact, he says that most people who break the law are unarmed. Thus, it is often unnecessary for police officers to carry guns.

There we have it! Again, our supporting ideas all tell the reader why our topic sentence is true. You will also notice that we've used a few more transitional phrases: for example, in fact, and thus.

We'll talk about that after we write the conclusion.

How to Write an Essay Conclusion

The conclusion is the essay's last paragraph. It restates the thesis and summarizes the main points.

The conclusion of your essay is probably the easiest part to write. Before we begin, here is what you should know about the conclusion:

• It's the last paragraph of the essay.
• It's usually 3 or four sentences long.
• It restates the essay's thesis.
• It summarizes the essay's main points.

The conclusion must restate your thesis statement and summarize the essay's main points. If it doesn't do this, then it's a bad conclusion.

In order to write the conclusion, we have to look at three important sentences in our essay. We look at our thesis statement and we look at our two topic sentences. This is what we'll do on the next page.

Writing the conclusion

First we have to look at our thesis statement:

No police officer should ever carry a gun.

Next we look at our two topic sentences:

First of all, guns cause more harm than good.
In addition to the previous point, in most cases police officers don't need guns.

Now we simply put them all into one paragraph, beginning with the thesis statement:

In conclusion, police officers should not carry guns. Guns usually cause harm to people. Moreover, police officers often don't need them to do their jobs.

Maybe you have noticed that we made small changes to the thesis statement and topic sentences. This is because it's not good to copy the sentences exactly--it's boring for the reader. These changes give our writing more variety.

We also added two transitional phrases to our conclusion: in conclusion and moreover.

We'll talk about these in a separate lesson. For now, let's see our
essay!

Our essay

We've finally completed our essay! Here it is:

Many communities have been discussing over whether or not police officers should carry guns. In some situations, guns protect the police officer as well as the public. However, guns often result in injuries and death. No police officer should ever carry a gun.

First of all, guns cause more harm than good. There are often stories in the newspaper about people who are accidentally shot. Moreover, many of these stories involve police officers.
If guns had not been involved, these accidents would not have happened. On the other hand, there are very few stories about how a gun has saved somebody's life.

In addition to the previous point, in most cases police officers don't need guns. My father, for example, has been police officer for over 20 years, and he has never had to use his gun.
In fact, he says that most people who break the law are unarmed. Thus, it is often unnecessary for police officers to carry guns.

In conclusion, police officers should not carry guns. Guns usually cause harm to people. Moreover, police officers often don't need them to do their jobs.

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