Unit 8 — Opinion Essay Writing

Learning objectives Link to heading

• I can read three opinion pieces and identify their thesis-evidence-counter-conclusion structure.
• I can use cohesion devices (lexical chain, anaphoric reference, conjunctive adverb) deliberately.
• I can write a 350-word opinion essay with a five-paragraph structure (intro / 2 body / counter / conclusion).

curriculum framework (“Bildungsplan”) alignment Link to heading

• 3.4.1 / 3.5.1 Soziokulturelles Orientierungswissen / Themen
• 3.4.3.2 / 3.5.3.2 Leseverstehen
• 3.4.3.5 / 3.5.3.5 Schreiben
• 3.4.3.8 / 3.5.3.8 Verfügen über sprachliche Mittel – Grammatik
• 3.4.4 / 3.5.4 Text- und Medienkompetenz

(Sources: https://www.bildungsplaene-bw.de/,Lde/LS/BP2016BW/ALLG/GYM/E1/IK/11-12-LF / https://www.bildungsplaene-bw.de/,Lde/LS/BP2016BW/ALLG/GYM/E1/IK/11-12-BF)

Lead-in story Link to heading

The class read three contemporary opinion pieces from English-language outlets, each on a different topic: a 700-word column, a 1,400-word essay, a 300-word op-ed. Mr. Yilmaz framed the question: how does length change the argument? The class noticed that the 300-word op-ed had to land on its single best sentence; the 1,400-word essay could afford to lose two.

1. Activate Link to heading

Length scan. With your partner, predict what each length permits and forbids: 300, 700, 1,400 words.

2. Input Link to heading

Reading — Opinion at three lengths Link to heading

The 300-word op-ed forces the writer to choose a single best sentence and arrange the rest as a ramp toward and away from it. The 700-word column permits one well-developed counter, but only one. The 1,400-word essay can afford to lose two sentences and still land its argument; it can also support a fully-articulated counter, a partial concession, and a more subtle conclusion. Length, in this regard, is not merely cosmetic. It determines what kinds of arguments the form can carry.

Cohesion devices Link to heading

Lexical chain: repeating the topic with varied vocabulary (the policy, the cap, the regulation, the measure).

Anaphoric reference: this argument, that concession, such a structure.

Conjunctive adverbs: however, nevertheless, moreover, accordingly, in this regard, by contrast.

3. Practise Link to heading

Niveau E — controlled Link to heading

1. Build a 4-link lexical chain for the four-day school week: ___ → ___ → ___ → ___ .
2. Match: however / accordingly / by contrast / moreover → contrast / consequence / contrast / addition.

Niveau E — productive Link to heading

3. Build 4 sentences using 4 different cohesion devices on a single topic.

4. Produce Link to heading

Opinion essay, 350 words. Five paragraphs: intro / 2 body / counter / conclusion. Use lexical chain (3+ links) + 4 conjunctive adverbs + 1 anaphoric reference + 2 hedges.

Sample Link to heading

The four-day school week is a tempting policy import. The Belgian trial of 2025-2027 reported unchanged test scores, higher pupil well-being, and modest cost savings — a finding the policy was always likely to produce. However, the trial also reported one limitation that the discussion has tended to underplay: many lower-income families struggled to arrange childcare for the extra Friday. This is the argument I want to develop. The trial is encouraging on its own terms. The policy, transferred to a different national context, is a different object. By contrast with Belgium, my home district has neither publicly-funded Friday childcare nor a tradition of Wednesday-afternoon-style half-days. The schedule we would actually face on import day is therefore not the schedule the trial measured. Such a structure would shift the burden of the well-being gain onto the families least able to absorb it. Accordingly, my position is conditional rather than oppositional: I would support a four-day school week here only if a publicly-funded Friday childcare option were funded first. Critics will argue, fairly, that this conditions the reform out of existence. In response, I would say that the well-being gain in Belgium is partly a product of the conditions Belgium already had; transplanting the policy without those conditions risks reproducing the headline without the result. Moreover, the public-administration literature is consistent on this point: well-being interventions fail when their structural pre-conditions are not in place. In this regard, the right question is not should we adopt the policy? but what would have to be true for it to deliver here?. That is, in my view, the more useful conversation.

5. Reflect Link to heading

• I can identify thesis-evidence-counter-conclusion in three opinion pieces.
• I can use cohesion devices deliberately.
• I can write a 350-word opinion essay with a clear five-paragraph structure.

One thing in your notebook: Write one sentence using something you learned in this Unit.

Exam example Link to heading

Part A — Comprehension (~24 BE) Link to heading

Listen twice.

“The 300-word op-ed forces the writer to choose a single best sentence. The 700-word column permits one well-developed counter, but only one. The 1,400-word essay can support a fully-articulated counter, a partial concession, and a more subtle conclusion. Length is not merely cosmetic.”

1. 300-word demand: ___ . 2. 700-word permission: ___ . 3. 1,400-word capacity: ___ . 4. Length is: ___ .

Part B — Analysis (~18 BE) Link to heading

Read the Opinion at three lengths extract.

1. 300-word constraint: ___ . 2. 700-word allowance: ___ . 3. 1,400-word affordance: ___ . 4. Length determines: ___ .

Part C — Composition (~18 BE) Link to heading

Cohesion device.

1. Build a 4-link lexical chain for the cap on rent increases: ___ → ___ → ___ → ___
2. Insert however / accordingly / in this regard: (contrast / consequence / specification).
3. Anaphoric reference for the four-day school week: ___ .
4. Conjunctive adverb for addition in formal register: ___ .

Mediation (~30 BE) Link to heading

Write 350 words: a five-paragraph opinion essay. Use lexical chain + 4 conjunctive adverbs + 1 anaphoric reference + 2 hedges.

Downloads Link to heading

Common pitfalls Link to heading

• Lexical-chain laziness — repetition of the same noun phrase reads flat.
• Conjunctive-adverb overload — three per paragraph is padding.
• Counter-paragraph that doesn’t actually concede anything.

Further reading / listening Link to heading

• The Atlantic, The Guardian Long Reads, The New Yorker — opinion archives.
• George Orwell, Politics and the English Language (1946) — short, accessible.

Downloads

Presentation

Download .pptx

Worksheet

Download .pdf