Free writing: plastic bags and the environment article

Model article (about twelve lines, three arguments, one possible choice of arguments).

I strongly disagree with the view that only governments and large companies can protect our world. Laws matter, of course, but they are applied — or ignored — inside millions of homes. My first argument is arithmetical: the water and the electricity a single family wastes look ridiculous on their own, yet multiplied by every household they become a national bill that no ministry can pay for us. My second argument is that the climate is now a local experience, not a distant report: the summers in my own region are hotter than those my parents describe, and a society that feels the change is more likely to vote for the rules that slow it. My third argument is cultural. When one family repairs a phone or a chair instead of replacing it, the habit spreads to the street, and a culture of repair reduces the waste that no recycling plant can absorb. Governments and citizens are therefore not alternatives but partners: the state can forbid and finance, while families decide whether the change becomes normal. Blaming the others is simply the most comfortable way of doing nothing.

What is credited. The criteria printed on the English national paper for a free writing task are « Adherence to task and content adequacy », language (grammar and vocabulary) and « Mechanics of writing ».

- Task and content. The genre is an opinion article for a magazine, not a list of solutions: a clear stance is required (agree, disagree or partly agree), then three distinct and developed arguments. The optional idea box does not restrict the arguments you may develop. A script that only describes pollution, or that gives one argument three times, does not fulfil the task, even with accurate English.
- Language. Opinion markers (I strongly disagree, of course, therefore) and argument connectors (My first argument, moreover, however) help make the argument clear; keep the present tense for general truths and the comparative for hotter than before.
- Mechanics. About twelve lines, one paragraph or two, no sentence without a full stop, capital letters on I and on proper nouns, and careful spelling of environment, climate, society, government.

A plausible alternative stance is also valid. A student who partly agrees may argue that household efforts are negligible beside industrial emissions, that poor families cannot pay for greener choices, and that only law changes scale — provided the stance is supported by three relevant arguments and does not contradict them.

Model speech (about twelve lines).

Good morning, teachers, dear friends. Today, all around the world, people are marking World Environment Day, and I would like us to spend five minutes on a simple question: what does our school have to do with the climate of the planet? More than we think. First, look at the bins behind the canteen. Every plastic bottle we throw away this morning will still exist when our grandchildren are our age, and part of it will reach the sea. Second, think of the lights and fans left running in empty classrooms: the electricity we waste is produced by burning fuel, and the smoke it creates does not stay in our town. So here is my request. From today, carry a bottle you can refill, and be the last person out of any room to switch off the light. Small gestures, repeated by six hundred people, become a culture. Thank you for listening.

What is credited — adherence to task and content adequacy. Idea: the consigne fixes four obligations, and the genre is one of them. Greeting and direct address (Good morning… dear friends… Thank you for listening); two developed effects on the world's environment (plastic reaching the sea; wasted electricity and its smoke); a call to action the listeners can do today (refill a bottle, switch off the light); and the length. A text written as an article (“This article will explain…”) or as an essay with no audience misses the genre even if its ideas are correct.

Language. A speech uses the second person and the inclusive we, a rhetorical question (what does our school have to do with…?) and short sentences that can be spoken in one breath. Keep the present simple for facts (the electricity we waste is produced…) and the imperative for the call to action (carry… switch off…).

Mechanics. Capital letters on World Environment Day, a comma after the greeting, and no run-on sentences: a listener needs the pauses that the full stops mark.

Typical losses. A speech that lists five problems and proposes no action; statistics invented to sound serious; addressing “the reader”; a call to action that only the government can carry out.