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| On this page you will practise building a paragraph for an argumentative text. The text is about whether fees should be charged for university courses. |
Task 1: Dividing the sentences into opposing and supporting arguments
The sentences below all make up a paragraph from an argumentative essay on the topic of whether the government should charge fees for university courses. Divide the sentences into two groups:
| Group 1: | those sentences which support the writer's main premise |
| Group 2: | those sentences which oppose the writer's main premise |
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Charging fees for university courses Writers main premise: Students should have to pay fees for university courses | |
| 1. | Furthermore, there is money to fund more places for students so that in the future we will not have the shortage of places we had in the past. |
| 2. | It is asserted that the skills that students learn at university are important for the future social and economic development of our nation. |
| 3. | However, as John Dawkins (1988:1) explains the government is able to invest the money it gets back into the higher education system so that overall quality is improved. |
| 4. | Joan Sprat (1989:13) argues that the government should provide free university education because such education benefits the whole community. |
| 5. | Moreover, it is unreasonable to expect taxpayers to pay for students' education when those students get well-paid professional jobs after they graduate. |
| 6. | According to this argument, when students are forced to pay for their education themselves fewer of them will enrol in higher education courses. |
| 7. | Therefore,so this argument goes the government should invest money in education as it does with other vital resources. |
Check your answer here
Task 2: Building a paragraph
Now write a paragraph arguing for the premise that students should have to pay fees for university courses using all the sentences from your two groups,
Check your answer here
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©Bill Daly, 1997 |
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