Essay Writing in teamwork

For the following activity, you are first going to write an opinion
essay (500 words) about the topic you have for debating.
(Alternatively, if you really dislike your topic, you can change to a different one. You
can even change to a topic you are really interested in but you have to come to
some kind of agreement).

But before you start, you need to do some basic research about how to write an
opinion essay by looking at different aspects such as pre-writing phase,
writing, the main body and conclusion and other relevant info.

This is text 1. Click here to read about the structure of an essay.

This is text 2. Click here to read more about structure. You will also find an
example.
This is text 3. Here, you will find info about expressions and linkers you can
use.

❖ I recommend you create a shared document on Google Drive so you can work from there

Ruben Kuijck - English Department

Document 1:

You can use the following as guiding questions:

1. For the first part, make sure you take notes about the pre-writing.
Take notes about the most important parts and explain why is the
prewriting phase so important?

2. In this section, explain what needs to be in the introductory paragraph.

Things you should elaborate on are the tense, linking words, formal
vocabulary, etc.

3. What should be in the conclusion?

Document 2:

Ruben Kuijck - English Department

You can use the following as guiding questions:

1. For the first part, make sure you take notes about what to include in
the opening paragraph.

2. For the first part, make sure you take notes about what each
paragraph contains. Briefly explain what to include in “Paragraph One”,
“Two, Three and Four” and “Five”.

Document 3:

You can use the following as guiding questions:

In this section, take general notes about those expressions and linkers,
you consider to be most important or interesting.

Ruben Kuijck - English Department

Make sure you chose a topic which you find interesting or meaningful. It
ought to be a topic which you genuinely have something to say about.
Some ideas include:

❖ The current issue in Gibraltar

❖ The selling of arms/weapons to Saudi Arabia
❖ Prostitution debate in Spain
❖ Euthanasia debate in Europe (maybe even Spain). Is it justified?
❖ Your opinion on Brexit
❖ How Europe is dealing with the refugee-crisis
❖ Should Uber be allowed?
❖ Something related to USA and migrants
❖ Should professional athletes get paid so much
❖ Should same-sex marriage be legal
❖ Are Tesla cars the future/Should government finance renewable
car-companies?
❖ Reading a physical book is better than reading an e-reader
❖ Professional athletes are paid too much and their salaries should
be reduced
❖ Alcohol consumption age should be lowered to 16
❖ Maternity/paternity leave-time should be equal
❖ Money makes people happier
❖ Humans are becoming more dependant on technology and the
internet
❖ Psychology/cooking should be a mandatory subject in school

Ruben Kuijck - English Department