Unit 4 • Giving your opinionD Many young actors und actresses dream of becoming stars, hut ill reality stardomhas its druwlmcks as we ll as its attractions.On the one hand,_Also,_On the other hand._:\fat only that. but also _Ultimately,_E As an Olympi c Gold Medallist, I am often asked what is the best way to spe ndthe night he fore a hig race.On the one hand,_On the other hand,_Person ally, though,_F Th ere are mallY reasons why I loveOn e reaso n is__Anothe r_\Vhat is 1110re._Above all._G Of all the soap powders in the world, I would recommend that yO l1 useIn the first place,__More importantly,_On top of tbat ,_In sbort,_70 • Types of writing
Argument • Module 4A1.1 Expanding your argumentBelow is the mini-compos ition on page 69 developed into a magazine article.A The connecting words that signal the structure of the argument have beenremoved . For each of the numbers (1, 2, 3) which four of the following adverbialswould be ap propriate?a Admittedly h By and large c Then againd Of course e All in all f But in the same wavg Granted h Conversely Nat urallvj To SIIIll lip k On the other hand UltimatelyI23B What is the function of each paragraph?The importanceof not being earnestTelling the truth may be a virtue, but is it notmore important to know how to teli lies?Any idiot can teli the truth, but lyin g is askill, a science , an art. Fortuna tely schools, withthe unrealistic ex pectations that they have ofyoung peopl e, provide early train in g in the artof lying. For exam ple, is it realistic to expect aIS-year-old to write a 2S0-word compos itionan d spend six hours watch ing television in thesame evening? So we watch television but telithe teach er we did our homewor k, bu t that thedog / cat / baby got hold of it . . . Then, later inlife, when the really un comfortabl e questionscome, like 'I know you're 18 yea rs old now, butwo uldn 't it be nice if we all went on a famil yholid ay together, with grandma and grandpa?',we kn ow better than to say that frankly it woul dbe our idea of hell. Instead, we' re really sorry wecan 't co me but we've got that project to finishfor school, plus fitn ess training, piano practice,or even English grammar exercises.(1) _ modern civilized society couldn't exist ifeverybody lied ali the tim e. Before a busin essdeal could be concluded, lawyers wo uld have tobe brought in to m ake sure th ere was notri ckery; but the lawyers themselves would belying, and leave both compa nies ban kru pt . Andhow could democracy operate unless politiciansoccasiona liy kept at least some of their electoralpromises?(2) _ would it not be equaliy disastro us ifeverybody always to ld the truth? How manyfamili es depend for thei r stability on the littl ewhite lie? How mu ch unhappiness, how ma nywars are avoided simply becau se people have thegood taste to hide the hatred and conte mpt theyfeel for othe r people? And as for love and desire,could these emotions not be ultimately morede st ruct ive to soc iety than any negativefeelings?(3) _ it seems to me that lying is an essentialskill, and that schools are qu ite righ t to teachch ildren how to do it. And if the editor of thismagazin e wonders wh y th is articl e reached herso lat e this week, please note that I did in factwrite it on time, but un fortunately the dog, thecat and the baby ganged up together, muggedme an d buried the article in the garden.Note that in this article the key sentences ('topic sentences') are the firstsentences in each paragraph ; this is often, but not always, the case. Similarly,many adverbial connecting words are not necessarily written at the beginning ofa sentence.Types of writing • 71
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