Essay Type
Cause - Solution
This essay type asks you to list some causes and some solutions to the given question. Generally, you would like to follow the model to the left, writing at least two causes and two solutions to the given causes. If you are an excellent writer and you're able to write quickly, you can consider going for three of each.
Feeling Unsafe - Causes
There could be many causes for this growing problem related to media, information, country, crime, politics, and so on. Let's take a look at a few.
Cause 1 - Media
Cause 2 - Overprotection
Due to the first cause (media), parents these days have begun to overprotect their children. Long lost are the days when parents would let their kids play outside for 5 hours in the neighborhood, without supervision. Nowadays parents do not leave their kids alone even for a minute and those overprotected kids become insecure and scared adults who do not trust the outside environment.
Cause 3 - Immigration
Feeling Unsafe - Solutions
Now we can discuss some solutions for the problems given above. Remember, all of these problems are complex in nature, and do not have a single solution, but you can present one of the necessary steps to improve the situation.
Solution 1 - Media
Solution 2 - Overprotection
The first step to solve the problem is for parents to learn and educate themselves on how to filter their own news cycle consumption. Once they do that they will realize that they need to give their kids the freedom to meet others and spend time outside with other kids. If the local environment allows, they should let them join different activities, group events, and organized outings. This will boost kids' confidence and make them socialize and build up social skills, which will be absolutely crucial in their future.
Solution 3 - Immigration
Example Essay:
"Many people today do not feel safe either at home or when they are out."
- What are the causes?
- What are the solutions?
Introduction
Fear is based on our own primal sense of self-protection and survival instinct. Looking around our shoulders and caring for our family’s safety has always been the core of our existence. This fear has become heavily manipulated and exploited by media, which focuses on click-based revenue and creating outrage, rather than showing the full picture. This essay will discuss some of the causes and some potential remedies for this continuing crisis of fearmongering.
Phrases:
Vocabulary:
primal sense - a feeling inside of us, left from our evolution and development, in hundreds of thousands of years
self-protection - protecting yourself, defending yourself
survival instinct - a feeling inside of us, left from our evolution, making us try our best to survive
*IDIOM* - to look around our shoulders - to be careful, to take care of ourselves
safety - feeling safe, taken care of, away from harm and danger
the core of our existence - the most important, central part of our life, the most essential goal of our life
to manipulate - to try to control the feelings, information, or even actions of someone with words and actions
to exploit - to make a full benefit for yourself (usually for money)
media - social media, news, newspapers, news agencies, TV channels, journals, magazines, etc.
click-based revenue - articles rely on clicks (you clicking and entering that article) so they can make more money from advertisements on the sides of that article (the more clicks the more money are generated)
outrage - a strong reaction of shock or anger
*IDIOM* - to show the full picture - to show ann information, to describe the story clearly, to look at all sides of the story
potential - possible
remedy - cure, fix, something that helps
crisis - a problem that affects many people, possibly around the world
fearmongering - the action of causing public fear on propose, doing it deliberately to gain some kind of benefit
Linking Phrases / Sentence Beginners:
___________is based on our ___________
This ___________has become ___________, which focuses on ___________, rather than __________.
This essay will discuss some of the...
Paragraph 1
To begin with, the root of all evil, making humans highly insecure and divisive, is the media itself. Ever since we developed the smartphone and created social media and push notifications, the media has been blasting breaking news and shocking stories twenty-four hours a day. As they get revenue from advertisers per click, this business model has been highly successful, and journalism, once a pillar of justice and purity, has turned into fearmongering, click-bate and click-fishing. Another base on how we, as people, have become highly fearful, judgmental, and unwilling to trust anyone, be it a relative or a stranger on the streets, is changes in parenting and generations of overprotecting kids. As the focus in life has shifted from raising our kids in a happy, social environment to overburdening them constantly with private lessons and setting insanely high education standards for them, kids have been raised in bubbles, never experiencing much socializing or meeting various people. This creates a sense of fear from society, which is further enhanced by media constantly shooting news about murders, kidnappings, accidents, death, and destruction. These two reasons, working hand in hand, have crushed many people’s spirits and made them doubtful, fearful, and unsafe even in their own homes.
Phrases:
Vocabulary:
*IDIOM* - the root of all evil - the beginning of all problems, the biggest problem in a situation, where all problems come from
insecure - having very low confidence to do things in life
something being divisive - something dividing people into groups instead of uniting them
social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
push notifications - automatic messages you receive on your phone or computer from things you subscribed to
to blast information - to spread a lot of information, to spam
breaking news - very important hot news of the day
shocking - surprising, distressing
revenue per click - advertisements are paid per click, so companies make money by readers clicking on ads
revenue - profit, money
a business model - a strategy, a way of companies making business
journalism - the industry of reporting on events, happenings, breaking news, and writing articles about said events
*IDIOM* - a pillar of justice - something seen as absolutely honest and just, setting an example to everyone else
fearmongering - creating fear for some kind of benefit
click-bate - articles that attract you to click in them, but usually have different or useless content inside
click-fishing - using tactics and strategies to make people click more
fearful - a person who is afraid all the time
judgemental - a person who criticizes others all the time
unwilling to trust - refusing, disliking to trust others
parenting - the ability to be a parent and take care of your kids
overprotecting - refusing to give freedom, protecting to a high extent
generation - a group of people born in a few years from each other
overburdening - causing heavy weight on someone, pushing someone to do more than necessary
Vocabulary 2
overprotecting - refusing to give freedom, protecting to a high extent
generation - a group of people born in a few years from each other
overburdening - causing heavy weight on someone, pushing someone to do more than necessary
education standards - the standards we push on our kids to make them a better person
Linking Phrases / Sentence Beginners:
To begin with... is the _________ itself.
Ever since we developed the...
As __________once a __________has turned into...
Another base on how we, as people, have _________, be it _________ or __________...
As the focus in life has shifted from ___________ to ___________...
This creates a sense of ___________, which is further enhanced by ___________...
These two reasons have __________ even in ___________...
Paragraph 2
What could be done to fight this growing crisis of trust and fear? For the first problem related to media, we have to first and foremost realize that media is not aimed at informing us and does not have any good intentions towards us. This realization will lead most of the media consumers to turn to alternative sources of information, or even completely ignore the constant, repetitive stream of fear and mistrust flowing from social media and news agencies. People have to develop their own filter within, able to glance at an article and judge the intention, just from the headline. Further, the government has a huge role in this process as well. For too long they have ignored the media industry and let it off the hook for anything divisive they produce. They should step in and regulate, or in other words, do their job. In terms of overprotecting our children, the solutions here are a bit easier. If people separate themselves from the fear cycle of media, they will realize that life is beautiful, vibrant and their kids need more socializing and less overprotection. Parents should encourage their kids to spend more time outside and should give them independence in their choices. They should sign them up for all sorts of social and public activities, and show them that people are wonderful and worth trusting. Only then they will raise their kids into brave and confident adults.
Phrases:
Vocabulary:
a crisis of... - a huge problem around the world, a difficult to solve situation
*IDIOM* - to aim at - to focus on something, to have a goal to do something
to realize - to admit to yourself, to learn, to change your mind
good intentions - positive aim or plan
media consumer - us the normal people reading and watching media all the time
an alternative source of information - reading and watching information on not so popular, but more trustful places like YouTube
to ignore - to stop using or watching or reading something
repetitive - repeating all the time, never-changing
a stream of information - (like a small river flowing) constant, all the time information being published
to flow - (like a river or water) continue going
news agencies - big media names like (in the US) CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, Politico and so on
to develop your own filter - to be able to look at information and quickly judge or decide what it is, to ignore information quickly when seen fake or misguided
to glance at - to quickly look at
judge the intention - decide what is the meaning behind the words or actions of someone
a headline - the first line of an article, the one with the big letters
Vocabulary 2
* IDIOM * - to have a huge role - to be very important
* IDIOM * - to let someone off the hook - to be unpunished for a long time
divisive information - information that separates people in groups, rather than uniting them
* IDIOM * - a time for someone to step in - to take responsibility, to do their job properly,
to regulate - to make laws and to enforce them
a fear cycle - fear-related articles following the same fear-related articles all the time, creating a circle (24 hours) of the same information coming in and out
vibrant - rich and full of life
to socialize - to spend time with others and make friends
to encourage - to give others confidence
independence - to be free to decide what you want to do
to sign up for something - to start a course or a class or an activity
wonderful - amazing, fantastic, splendid
to be brave - to be ready to face challenges
Linking Phrases / Sentence Beginners:
What could be done to...?
For the first problem related to ___________we have to first and foremost ___________...
This___________will lead most of ___________,or even ___________...
Further,___________...
For too long they have ignored ___________.
They should ___________, or in other words, __________.
In terms of ___________, the solutions here are ___________.
If people ___________, they will realize that ___________.
Only then they will __________.
Conclusion
Although some would argue that there is a rise in crime and accidents, and people should stay safely at their homes all around the world, in fact, this is mainly a smokescreen manufactured to feed the media machine and make people less confident and easier to manipulate. The solutions to this disinformation crisis are not easy, but hopefully, with the ability to self-educate online, and help from relatives, people can realize that life is not scary and full of terror, and that there are beautiful countries to visit and amazing people to know all around the world.
613 Words*
* This essay was written in 30 minutes, and it is too long. The goal is to present both problems and solutions clearly, and so I wrote a bit more than necessary. Use it as an example and shorten it down to 400-450.
Phrases:
Vocabulary:
crime - murder, kidnapping, arson, theft, robbery, looting, etc.
accidents - car accidents, plane accidents, helicopter accidents, work-related accidents, etc.
*IDIOM* - a smokescreen - something used to hide a real happening, a distraction, a lie to hide the truth
manufactured - if used for media and news - made up, fake, misleading
*IDIOM* - to feed the media machine - media is compared to a machine to show its strong and unstoppable
confident - to believe in yourself, to be proud and determined
to manipulate someone - to control someone, to lie to someone, to cheat someone
disinformation crisis - a big problem around the world is fake news and information partially or fully changed to follow someone's agenda
to self-educate - to learn by yourself
terror - extreme fear, irrational fear, strong type of fear that causes people to panic and do things they usually wouldn't
Linking Phrases / Sentence Beginners:
Although some would argue that__________, in faaact, this is mainly a _________.
The solutions to this ___________, but hopefully, with the abillty to __________, people can realize that ___________.