for and against essay

Creative Resources for ESL/EFL Teachers

25 For and Against Essay Topics and Ideas that Double as Conversation Topics

25 for and against essay topics that can be also used for class debates.

For and against essay topics: layout.

• The first paragraph should be the introduction. Include a thesis statement, which summarises the main issue.

In the past, most people lived with their parents until they got married. But in the modern world, it is more common to leave home and share accommodation with friends. This choice has both positive and negative aspects.

• The second paragraph should focus on the advantages. Include at least two arguments, if possible. Give examples where appropriate, introduced by phrases like For example or For instanc e.

There are several advantages to sharing with friends. Firstly, it gives you the opportunity to spend time with your friends and to build strong relationships with them. Secondly, it allows you to develop some of the practical skills that you will need as an independent adult. For instance, you will learn how to manage household bills, how to shop and cook, and so on. And thirdly, it makes living in your own home more affordable, and the more people who share, the more cost-effective it is. For instance , a shared house for six people is far cheaper than two houses for three people.

• The third paragraph should focus on the disadvantages. Include at least two arguments, if possible. Begin the third paragraph with a phrase like On the other hand or Howeve r,.. to express contrast with statements in the previous paragraph.

On the other hand , sharing a home has its disadvantages. Sharing a house can often cause disagreements. For instance, housemates often argue about household chores. What is more, it can be difficult to have time alone when you need it. And finally, the houses which young people share are sometimes in poor condition and landlords are not always good at repairing appliances when they break down.

• The fourth paragraph should be the conclusion. State your own opinion and decide whether the arguments for outweigh the arguments against the thesis statement or the other way around.

Although sharing a house with other young people is not always easy, the advantages definitely outweigh the problems. It is certainly something I would like to do in a few years’ time.

Source: Solutions Upper-Intermediate

For and against essay topics

• Having a role model can affect someone negatively.
• Should dyed hairstyles be allowed in school?
• Can a bad upbringing be an excuse for a felony?
• Social media – a blessing or a curse?
• It’s possible to learn to love somebody.
• You don’t need a college degree to be successful.
• Your past does not define you.
• Does watching fantasy films affect our perception of reality?
• Should there be a mandatory number of trees per square kilometer?
• Should people older than 65 be able to be politicians?
• Should healthcare be state-owned or privatized?
• Is immortality a blessing or a curse?
• Is the sous-vide method of preparing meals worth trying?
• Should self-driving cars be illegal?
• Should sharing hoaxes and false information on the Internet be severely punished?
• Should students do a part-time job while they are still studying?
• Sessions with a therapist should be mandatory for kids and teens
• Every country in the world should ban cigarettes.
• Every country in the world should stop producing and selling plastic bags and bottles.
• Field trips to prisons should be mandatory to help lower the crime rate.
• Scientists should pair people up for marriage based on DNA.
• A new universal language should be taught in every school.
• Should universities be apolitical?
• Do orphans have the same opportunities to be successful as children from complete families?
• Should the state have more control over our privacy?

Download the worksheet.

Other resources:

Picture Prompts for Speaking and Writing: An ESL Activity

Storytelling Cards: Imaginative Speaking and Writing Activity

Questions for ESL Conversation: 60 Questions Based on Vogue Interviews

ESL/EFL Speaking Activity: Role Play Debate

Related posts.

Picture Based Speaking Activity For ESL/EFL Classes

I got the idea for this ESL picture speaking activity after we came across a well-known photograph in our textbook, and I was surprised how many students didn’t know it. Sure, young people are overwhelmed with photos all day long. Take Instagram for example, but it is usually photos of…

I do a lot of speaking activities with my older students. We do a lot of simulations, discussions, role plays, games, etc. and this ESL debate is one of them. One of the activities I do is an argumentative debate where they can utilize everything they’ve learned, and another great…

ESL Vocabulary Activity Worksheet: Dictionary Skills

If you’re on the lookout for a cool and effective way to help your students improve their vocabulary, writing, and critical thinking skills, you’re in the right place. In this blog post, I’ll explain an ESL vocabulary activity that could become your secret weapon in the classroom. It’s all about…

Comments (4)

I like the idea of essay topics that focus on the student’s own experiences. This can be a great way to show that the student has been thinking about the material and is not just reading about it.

Thank you 🙂

Thank you for this!! (emil du suger rövhål)

Excellent topics Helped me giving topics to students ……..

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• AI Content Shield
• AI KW Research
• AI Assistant
• SEO Optimizer
• AI KW Clustering
• Customer reviews
• The NLO Revolution
• Press Center
• Help Center
• Content Resources
• Facebook Group

The Key to an Interesting For-Against Essay

Table of Contents

There are many types of essays, each with a different purpose and style. Argumentative essays are particularly tricky because they ask students to go beyond being informative. They require students to present arguments on a subject and support them with evidence. This guide will provide readers with a  for and against essay outline  and explain a few basic concepts. 

If you want to learn how to write potent essays and arguments, read on!

What is a For and Against Essay?

A for-and-against essay is an argumentative essay that requires writers to formulate arguments for and against the main topic. After presenting both arguments, the author will then choose a side and explain the reason for their decision.

A for and against essay follows the standard five-paragraph format but dedicates each body paragraph to a different stance on a topic. The key components of a for and against essay are:

• Introduction paragraph
• [For topic] Body Paragraph
• [Against topic] Body Paragraph
• [Writer’s Opinion] Body Paragraph

Conclusion Paragraph

The main point of a for and against essay is to explore both sides of an argument and teach students to exercise sound judgment. Moreover, it also cultivates their ability to assert their stance and express their opinion.

The act of taking a stance is as much a mental exercise as it is a writing exercise. It encourages students to commit to an argument and to defend that stance.

While there are only five paragraphs in a for and against essay, it can still get complicated. This is especially true when there are a lot of ideas and topics involved. 

The best way to create a clear and strong essay is to start with an outline.

The Importance of an Essay Outline

An essay outline gives writers a full view of their topics . It helps them identify the key angles of approach and direction of their topics. Outlines help writers draw connections between topics, which creates a sense of coherence and progression.

It allows them to ease the reader’s transition from one key topic to another by priming them for the upcoming information. 

Outlines also simplify the discussion of topics by narrowing the scope per section. It simplifies essays into sections and subsections that have a focal point and function.

The next section provides a sample for-and-against essay outline .

A Basic For and Against Essay Outline

Remember that the main premise of a for and against essay is to explore both sides of a topic. We will delve into each paragraph’s purpose and components. Let’s begin.

Introduction

• Start with a hook and introduce the main topic.
• Provide background information on the main topic.
• Provide a brief explanation of the writer’s hypothesis.
• State your claim at the end of the paragraph.

First Body Paragraph

• Start with a topic sentence that explains the benefits of the main topic.
• Include at least two sentences that support your argument for the main topic.
• Explain your supporting sentences using facts, examples, anecdotes, quotations, and statistics.

Second Body Paragraph

• Start with a topic sentence explaining the risks related to the main topic.
• Include at least two sentences that support your arguments against the main topic.
• Explain your supporting sentences through facts, examples, anecdotes, and other credible sources of evidence.

Third Body Paragraph

• Start the paragraph with a topic sentence stating your position on the topic.
• Provide at least two sentences to support your stand.
• Explain supporting details using credible sources.
• Restate your argument and supporting evidence. 
• Give a balanced consideration for both sides of the main topic
• State your final opinion.

Outlines simplify all types of essay writing by helping writers organize and plan the logical flow of their content . Outlines create a workflow that identifies the key topics writers must emphasize in each essay paragraph. If you’re unsure of how to start an essay, you can always start by writing an outline.o

Remember that effective writing is all about proper planning and presenting the right ideas in the right order. Outlines are as essential to writers as scripts are to actors.

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

Explore All Essay Outline Tool Articles

How to write a synthesis essay outline.

One of the most interesting assignments you could have is writing a synthesis essay. For a college or university student,…

• Essay Outline Tool

Learning the Structure of an Informational Essay

Academic writing assignments, primarily essays, are required of all college and university students. That’s because they think it will aid…

The Correct Way to Structure an Article

Writing non-fiction has a set format that can be followed, which makes it not all that different from writing fiction.…

Exploring the Structure of a Response Essay

You will typically be expected to write in a formal and impersonal voice when you are given the assignment of…

Writing a Persuasive Essay? Use This Structure!

Writing essays is a requirement of your academic program as a college student. Whether you love them or loathe them,…

Writing a Proposal Essay? Read This!

Are you writing a proposal essay? To write it correctly, we have to know what a proposal essay actually is.…

• ELT Concourse home
• A-Z site index
• Teacher training index
• Teacher development
• For teachers
• For trainers
• For managers
• For learners
• About language
• Language questions
• Other areas
• Academic English
• Business English
• Entering ELT
• Courses index
• Basic ELT course
• Language analysis
• Training to train
• Transcription

For and Against Discussion Essays (FADEs)

Learners working in English for Academic Purposes are not alone in needing the skills to write FADEs.  They are also important in business, education, government and other fields where the ability logically and dispassionately to set out arguments for and against a proposal or situation is valued. The social sciences, in particular, value written, balanced arguments. For this reason, this guide is linked from both the EAP sections and the general skills and discourse indexes.

It is important to be clear about what FADEs are not.  They are not:

• Expositions which require the writer to set out one side of an argument and attempt to persuade the reader of a point of view.
• Reports which require the writer to set out facts in logical stages with some discussion of each.
• Problem-Solution texts which require the writer to set out the problems and suggest solutions for each which are evaluated in terms of effectiveness, advantages and drawbacks.

Confusing the text types will bewilder learners.

All texts have purposes.  One definition of genre is that it contains texts which share the same cultural purposes.  Discussion is no exception so we need to identify what exactly the purpose of a FADE is.  We will start with this definition of purpose:

to look at more than one side of an issue: to explore various perspectives before coming to an informed decision Butt et al , 2001:9

and unpack it a little:

• more than one side ... various perspectives : A common error in students' writing (and in some teaching) is to see dichotomies where none exists or even to invent them.  Few important issues have only two sides and there are shades of opinion and many perspectives which need to be considered.
• to explore : This requires the writer to identify, discuss and exemplify a point of view, not simply state it.
• an informed decision : so not a simple statement of a point of view uninfluenced by facts and research.  The coda (at the end of the essay) needs to refer to the facts that have been set out.

The result of bearing these three issues in mind is that an essay will impress the reader with the depth of thought that lies behind it and gets away from some people think X, some people think Y but I agree with Z .

This guide is ordered as follows according to the key skills that are required.  They cannot be taught in a single lesson.

• Organisation This involves the knowledge, some of it cultural, of the conventional staging of information in a FADE.
• using appropriate verbal processes
• selecting appropriate tense structures
• using lexis concerning the register
• syntax and punctuation
• knowing who will read the text
• selecting an appropriate style (tenor)
• content knowledge (field)

We'll take the sections one at a time.

The staging of a discussion in English (not necessarily in the languages of other cultures) is, on the face of it, quite simple.  It comes in two basic options:

The first and last stages are common to both forms and, in fact, the last, the Coda, is often optional.  The other stages are not.

A classic error is to mix the structures and, for example, start with structure 1 and give a bunch of arguments for and then confuse the reader by transitioning to structure 2 and mix the points up.  That disconcerts, disorientates and displeases.

We can break all this down and exemplify what is meant.  As an example, we will take a topic in a field in which there are few technical terms and special registers to be considered.

Only at very low levels should this be a one-sentence section.  It involves two parts and each should be properly refined and defined:

• The particular topic of the essay needs, of course, to be stated clearly both in the title and the introductory paragraph but then the issue has to be set in its wider context and properly defined.
• The importance of the issue has to be stated in general terms and then has to be further refined to set out what is meant by importance: to whom, in what circumstances, says who?

Here's an example of the introduction to a FADE of the pros and cons of allowing smoking in public spaces:

This essay concerns whether smoking should be allowed in public spaces and attempts to set out the arguments that have been proposed for and against permitting it.  This is a social, legal and public health issue and in what follows these aspects of the subject will be taken in turn. For the purposes of this essay, public spaces are defined as any areas outside private homes which are open to the public either free of charge or on payment of an entrance fee.  It includes, therefore, open spaces, shops, bars, public houses, services and utilities such as airports and train stations as well as public roads and streets.  Excluded from consideration are private spaces although consideration will be given to borderline cases such as hotel rooms, hostels, prisons and private vehicles. Smoking is defined as the use of tobacco in pipes, cigarettes and cigars but excludes other, non-smoking ways of ingesting tobacco.  Consideration will also be given to the recent development of e-cigarettes. The issue is important for three reasons. Firstly, there are public health concerns regarding the use of tobacco and its effects both on individuals and those around them.  This includes the resources devoted to the care of those whose illnesses may have been caused or exacerbated by smoking. Secondly, it is a social issue in which the rights of individuals need to be balanced against the rights of others and society as a whole. Thirdly, it is a legal and ethical issue insofar as it concerns the extent to which the law should be used as a social engineering tool to encourage, enforce or prohibit the activities of individuals.

This is a rather sophisticated introduction written by a competent user of English and learners are unlikely to be able to produce writing of this sort without a good deal of help and teaching.  However, such a text may serve as a model for learners to encourage them to say more than just what the essay is about and to define their terms from the outset.  A check-list is helpful for this:

• State the topic
• organisational
• public health
• industrial etc.
• What terms do you need to define?
• Give two reasons why the issue is important.

Given such a list, even learners at lower levels can begin to develop an introduction that is more than a title.

These lie at the core of the essay and should be carefully constructed.  If the introduction has successfully previewed the areas into which the arguments fall, organisation becomes significantly easier. The most important issue here is to avoid what has been termed spaghetti writing characterised by rambling sentences, short unconnected points or a stream-of-consciousness approach.  Good advice is to confine each argument to four paragraphs:

• the issue and examples
• the argument
• the evaluation of the strength of the argument
• the evaluation of any weaknesses in the argument

The damage to health that smoking causes is no longer seriously debated by health professionals and other experts.  It has been shown in numerous well-conducted studies that smoking tobacco has a range of detrimental effects including but not limited to cancer, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory illnesses, reduced fertility and damage to unborn babies. For this reason, there are many who argue that an absolute ban on smoking in public spaces is required to protect individuals from the effects of smoking.  Banning smoking, it is argued, will reduce the amount people smoke, encourage abstinence and reduce the costs to the health care services as well as improving the population's overall fitness. This is a strong point because the costs to individuals and society can be readily estimated and the potential health benefits of a non-smoking society are also quantifiable in terms of health service, insurance and other costs. However, this argument relies on the assumption that it is society's right and duty to protect individuals from their own actions.  Extended logically, the argument might just as well apply to banning dangerous sports, such as mountaineering or solo yachting, boxing and even horse riding, rugby, judo and other contact sports, all of which cause thousands of deaths and injuries worldwide every year and all of which people take part in voluntarily despite the risks.  These activities, too, involve costs for health services and the emergency services whose members own safety may be put at risk rescuing others from the results of their own choices of recreational activities.

Again, only advanced learners are likely to be able to produce such a sophisticated text but, as before, such texts can be used as models to develop their own writing.

• State the field in which the argument lies (financial, health, social, legal etc.)
• State the argument clearly
• State the argument's strength
• State the argument's weakness

A coda may be defined as a concluding remark .  The word conclude , of course, also implies arriving at an opinion by deduction (not just stating a view) so the section needs attention.

Here, the job of the writer is to draw the reader' attention to the points which need to be emphasised and convince them that a just and fair conclusion has been arrived at by weighing the facts and arguments that have been identified. It comes in four parts:

• Identification of the main issue
• Identification of difficulties
• Reiteration of the strongest points
• Statement of view

Here's an example to treat in the same way as the previous ones.  It's more than can be expected of all but the strongest students but would serve as a model.

Whether smoking should be banned in all public spaces is by no means an easy issue to determine. Firstly, there is a tension between the public and private spheres regarding the extent to which the rights of smokers may be subordinated to the rights of others to breath clean air. Secondly, there is the issue of social costs and how far only one type of potentially dangerous voluntary activity should be controlled because of the costs that may be involved to society as a whole. Thirdly, there is the ethical issue of how far the law should be involved in the private decisions and choices of individuals. Arguments on both sides have merits and there are many intermediate points of view that lie between no control at all and an outright, universal ban. On balance, it seems that the costs to society and to the health of its members are more important than the respect we owe to allowing individuals to make informed choices concerning their own lives.  Smoking is not an activity which only affects the smoker.  Others are affected by the degradation of their surroundings, damage to their own health and costs to society as a whole to which all taxpayers contribute. A reasonable position to take, advocated here, is to limit smoking in circumstances which most affect non-smokers but to allow individuals to make choices in other settings. This will mean banning smoking in enclosed public spaces such as shops, bars, cafés, cinemas, theatres and so on but permitting it in private spaces and in the open air where the risk of damage caused to others is either voluntarily run or negligible.

In what follows, we will draw on the examples already given to see what linguistic issues underlie the ability to construct a FADE. As it is unlikely that the ability to write a discussion is something you would teach to lower-level learners, we shall assume from the outset that the learners can competently produce acceptable syntax, control most of the tense structures of English, can make passive and active voice sentences and use a range of conjunction. We shall not assume that they are familiar with complex pre- and post-modification or the large range of discoursal features that are needed in a FADE.

Here's one short paragraph from the example used above:

The damage to health that smoking causes is no longer seriously debated by health professionals and other experts.  It has been shown in numerous well-conducted studies that smoking tobacco has a range of detrimental effects including but not limited to cancer, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory illnesses, reduced fertility and damage to unborn babies. 

The first sentence in this section is, structurally, about as simple as we get in English and akin to, for example:     The book is published because it consists of a subject, a copular verb and an attribute.  The fact that the attribute is a participle so the sentence is also analysable as a passive is actually not very important.  It breaks down like this:

and we can do exactly the same to the longer, apparently more complex sentence, like this:

A feature of many academic texts and of FADEs in particular is that noun, verb and adjective phrases often contain a good deal of pre- and post-modification to make the expression of the data more concise and accessible.  We can of course, avoid most of this with shorter, less informative sentences and could produce a paragraph such as:

Smoking causes damage to health.  The damage used to be debated.  The damage is not debated now.  Health professionals do not debate this.  Other experts do not debate this.

but the outcome is clumsy and inefficient.

A primary teaching aim is to focus, therefore, on how pre- and post-modification of items is achieved in English.  There are guides to modification elsewhere on this site so the point will not be discussed at length here.  See the links to related guides at the end.

However, to teach this kind of structure is not as hard as it may seem.  We can start with something easy, like this and proceed as suggested:

• Homework is useful Add a relative clause to say what sort of homework:
• Homework which is set by the teacher is useful Add an adverb and another verb to make a phrase:
• Homework which is usually set and marked by the teacher is useful Add an adjective phrase for the subject:
• Subject-related homework which is usually set and marked by the teacher is useful Add a prepositional phrase to say who benefits:
• Subject-related homework which is usually set and marked by the teacher is useful for school children
• Now add a conjunction and another clause to say why this is true: Subject-related homework which is usually set and marked by the teacher is useful for school children because it helps them to learn

Once learners get the hang of doing this to simple and undemanding sentences, they can revisit their own writing to see how to compress more data into each clause and make the writing more sophisticated and interesting as well as densely informative.

Once complexity is built into clauses, we can move on to how clauses are connected to make complex and compound sentences. Here is another example taken from the texts we have already used:

Firstly, there is a tension between the public and private spheres regarding the extent to which the rights of smokers may be subordinated to the rights of others to breath clean air. Secondly, there is the issue of social costs and how far only one type of potentially dangerous voluntary activity should be controlled because of the costs that may be involved to society as a whole.

There are three systems at work here: prepositional links, conjunctions and conjuncts and they need to be handled separately.

• Conjuncts Confusing conjuncts with conjunctions is a major source of error for learners trying to write formally.  They are superficially attractive because their use is often a sign of sophisticated writing but they need to be handled with some care.  Errors such as:     *The problem is severe moreover it is difficult to solve     *The problem is severe.  Although it is not difficult to solve. are common outcomes of confusing conjunct with conjunction. Examples of conjunct use from above are:     Secondly, there is the issue of social costs     On balance, it seems that     For this reason, there are many     However, this argument relies on Conjuncts expressing the following concepts are frequently needed in FADEs:

It should be emphasised that teaching this kind of idea linking should precede the demand for learners to produce fully finished essays.

Here we are on simpler ground.

The following sorts of verbal processes are common to many differently focused FADEs.

• Existential: These are almost always introduced by it or there followed by a simple copular verb.  They are easy enough to deploy but learners often need help in noticing the need for them.  For example, from the texts above:     there are many who argue that an absolute ban on smoking in public spaces is required     it seems that the costs to society and to the health of its members are more important     It has been shown in numerous well-conducted studies that
• Relational: As the name suggests, these verbal processes link two items.  Examples from above include:     areas outside private homes which are open to the public     points of view that lie between no control at all and an outright, universal ban     costs to society and to the health of its members are more important than     Arguments on both sides have merits Setting up relationships between ideas is central to the role of writing a good FADE.
• Material and behavioural processes: These refer either to how people or things act.  Example from above include:     The damage to health that smoking causes     the law should be used as a social engineering tool     illnesses may have been caused or exacerbated by smoking      banning smoking in enclosed public spaces Which verbs learners will need will depend greatly on the topic under discussion, of course.  That they will need to deploy verbs relating to material and behavioural processes is not in doubt.
• Projecting: These refer to what people believe or say and are central.  Examples from above include:     no longer seriously debated     there are many who argue that     Smoking is defined as

Tense use is also predictably simple.

Almost all the verbs in the examples given above are in the present simple because the discussion involves a current situation.  Occasionally, the present perfect may be used to refer to a previous event that has significant present consequences, as in, for example:     It has been shown in numerous well-conducted studies that Otherwise, the simple present is conventionally used throughout.

Passive-voice clauses serve to distance the writer from the topic by implying that it is the action that is important, not who did it and that is conventionally how the tone of FADEs is achieved.  For example, from above:     public spaces are defined as not:     I am defining ...      voluntary activity should be controlled not:     The state should control etc. There are many more examples and if you use a model text as a teaching tool, it is worth taking the time to notice the frequency and effect of the structures.

Modal auxiliary verbs are used sparingly and generally confined to their function as hedging tactics or to express degrees of certainty.  For example:     Banning smoking, it is argued, will reduce a predictive use.     whose illnesses may have been caused a hedging use. Occasionally, usually hedged, modal auxiliary verbs of obligation are used but almost never ones which express absolute obligation (deontic modality, in the trade).  For example in

Whether smoking should be banned in all public spaces is by no means an easy issue to determine. Firstly, there is a tension between the public and private spheres regarding the extent to which the rights of smokers may be subordinated to the rights of others to breath clean air. Secondly, there is the issue of social costs and how far only one type of potentially dangerous voluntary activity should be controlled because of the costs that may be involved to society as a whole. Thirdly, there is the ethical issue of how far the law should be involved in the private decisions and choices of individuals.

all the uses are putative rather than expressing obligation per se . Modality in FADE writing is usually focused on the likelihood of a proposition being true.  That is epistemic modality and there is a link below which will take you to a guide.

Circumstances refer to concepts such as location in time or space, contingency, cause, matter, means and angle.  Many of these, including contingency, matter, angle and cause have been considered above under conjunction and prepositional links. However, the discussion would not be complete without some consideration of how adverbials and prepositional phrases in particular are used in a FADE.  Here are some key examples:

There is a guide, linked below, to how theme-rheme structures are achieved in writing.  Here it will be enough to consider two aspects only and we'll take this paragraph as the example:

On balance, it seems that the costs to society and to the health of its members are more important than the respect we owe to allowing individuals to make informed choices concerning their own lives.  Smoking is not an activity which only affects the smoker.  Others are affected by the degradation of their surroundings, damage to their own health and costs to society as a whole to which all taxpayers contribute.:

• The topic sentence It is not invariably the case that every paragraph in a well-written FADE will begin with a topic sentence to alert the reader to its contents but that is the way most texts work and, for novice writers in particular, a safe way to proceed. In our example, the first two word of the first sentence, the conjunct, to give it its proper name, tell the reader what this paragraph will do: sum up and conclude.
• The theme and the rheme The theme of the first sentence is the subject of the verb (excluding the hedging in it seems ).  That subject is:     the costs to society and to the health of its members and its rheme, which follows is     are more important than the respect we owe to allowing individuals to make informed choices concerning their own lives The reference to individuals is taken up as the theme of the next sentence with     Smoking is not an activity which only affects the smoker and that rheme, only affects the smoker , becomes the theme of the next sentence with:     Others are affected and so the coherence of the whole paragraph is maintained.

Simple approaches to teaching in this area involve:

• Recognition, noticing and analysis using cut-up paragraphs for re-sorting, jumbled sentences for re-ordering and so on.  The aim is to get learners to notice how topic sentences are used in the first instance.
• Giving learners paragraphs without topic sentences and getting them to compose something suitable.
• Analysing theme-rheme structures by tracing connections, underlining links and so on.
• Getting learners to write short paragraphs of their own and analysing them to see how (and whether) the theme-rheme links are working.

Short-term, the goal of learners' writing is probably for some kind of assessment purpose, either of their language skills or their subject knowledge and ability to construct rational arguments. The target audience is often, therefore, a single teacher or tutor rather than the audience one imagines for most essays in non-educational settings which may be somewhat wider. However, a long-term objective is to apply the skills learned in real-world settings for true communicative purposes. Possible audiences include, therefore:

• a teacher or tutor
• higher management
• policy makers
• readers of newspaper or magazine articles
• readers of technical or trade journals
• readers of academic journals
• website visitors to serious sites
• website visitors to blog sites (although few of these contain argued discussion, normally being just unsupported bluster)

The nature of the audience will determine a number of issues and can affect the choice of lexis as well as the choice of grammatical structures.  For example:

Writing well in this genre is not achievable overnight or in a lesson or two. Teaching demands consistency in planning and delivery over a series of lessons with sensible and achievable tasks to be accomplished along the way. You may decide, based on your reading, the nature of the learners and your own propensities, to adopt a product, process or genre approach to teaching writing skills but whichever approach you take, you will almost certainly have to find or compose model texts which can be drawn on for examples of the language that needs to be used.  There are examples which you are welcome to use above. An outline syllabus might appear something like:

This is by no means a simple syllabus to design because, although the general structure of FADE writing can be explained and exemplified quickly and will lead naturally to some level of coherence, achieving cohesion involves weaving together the seven issues identified on the right into a series of lesson focusing on the elements on the left.

References: Butt, D, Fahey, R, Feez, S, Spinks, S and Yallop, C, 2001, Using Functional Grammar: an explorer's guide. Sydney: NCELTR Burns, A, 2001, Genre-based Approaches to Writing , in Candlin, C and Mercer, N (Eds.), English Language Teaching in its Social Context . Abingdon, UK: Routledge Halliday, M, 1994, An introduction to functional grammar: 2nd edition. London: Edward Arnold Tribble C, 1997, Writing . Oxford: Oxford University Press

Contact | FAQs | Copyright notice | ELT Concourse charter | Disclaimer and Privacy statement | Search ELT Concourse

50 Latest For and against IELTS Topics

• Unlimited Task 1 checks Get all the feedback you need to keep improving your charts and letters.
• Unlimited Task 2 checks Practice and perfect your skills with essays.
• Personalized suggestions Know how to boost your score.
• Detailed mistakes analysis Get instant feedback. Spot every mistake.
• Topic ideas generator Get topic-specific ideas to enhance your writing.
• Vocabulary helper Get the right words for any topic.
• Progress tracking Track your writing improvements.

Learn Vocabulary

Learn English Vocabulary Through Pictures with 150 Topics

Vocabulary Exercises A1

English Vocabulary Exercises for A1 with Answers.

Vocabulary Exercises A2

English Vocabulary Exercises for A2 with Answers.

Vocabulary Exercises B1

English Vocabulary Exercises for B1 with Answers.

Vocabulary Exercises B2

English Vocabulary Exercises for B2 with Answers.

FULL Grammar Exercises

FULL English Grammar Exercises with Answers

Verbs and Tenses Exercises

English Verbs and Tenses Exercises with Answers and Explanations

Grammar Exercises A1

English Grammar Exercises for A1 with Answers

Grammar Exercises A2

English Grammar Exercises for A2 with Answers

Grammar Exercises B1

English Grammar Exercises for B1 with Answers

Grammar Exercises B2

English Grammar Exercises for B2 with Answers

Listening Exercises Beginner

English Listening Exercises for Beginner with Answers

Listening Exercises A1

English Listening Exercises for A1 with Answers

Listening Exercises A2

English Listening Exercises for A2 with Answers

Listening Exercises B1

English Listening Exercises for B1 with Answers

Listening Exercises B2

English Listening Exercises for B2 with Answers

Listening Tests A1

Practice Listening Tests for A1 with Answers & Transcripts

Listening Tests A2

Practice Listening Tests for A2 with Answers & Transcripts

Listening Tests B1

Practice Listening Tests for B1 with Answers & Transcripts

Listening Tests B2

Practice Listening Tests for B2 with Answers & Transcripts

Word Skills Exercises A1

English Word Skills Exercises for A1 with Answers

Word Skills Exercises A2

English Word Skills Exercises for A2 with Answers

Word Skills Exercises B1

English Word Skills Exercises for B1 with Answers

Word Skills Exercises B2

English Word Skills Exercises for B2 with Answers

Reading Exercises Beginner

English Reading Exercises for Beginner with Answers

Reading Exercises A1

English Reading Exercises for A1 with Answers

Reading ExercisesC A2

English Reading Exercises for A2 with Answers

Reading Exercises B1

English Reading Exercises for B1 with Answers

Reading Exercises B2

English Reading Exercises for B2 with Answers

Speaking Exercises A1

English Speaking Exercises for A1 with Answers

Speaking Exercises A2

English Speaking Exercises for A2 with Answers

Speaking Exercises B1

English Speaking Exercises for B1 with Answers

Speaking Exercises B2

English Speaking Exercises for B2 with Answers

Writing Exercises A1

English Writing Exercises for A1 with Answers

Writing Exercises A2

English Writing Exercises for A2 with Answers

Writing Exercises B1

English Writing Exercises for B1 with Answers

Writing Exercises B2

English Writing Exercises for B2 with Answers

Business Listening A1

Business English Listening Exercises for A1 with Answers

Business Listening A2

Business English Listening Exercises for A2 with Answers

Business Listening B1

Business English Listening Exercises for B1 with Answers

Article Level 1

Improve your ability to speak English

Article Level 2

Article level 3, article level 4, conversations.

Listening Practice Through Dictation with Transcripts

English Writing Exercises for B1 – A for and against essay

• English Writing Exercises for B1

Preparation

More university students should stay in education after their first degree in order to get another qualification.  Do you agree?

1. Read the task and the model essay. Does the writer agree or disagree with the statement in the task?

Agrees  ◻   Disagrees ◻

Nowadays, the number of students who do a second degree is increasing. In order to decide if this is a good thing, we must examine the advantages and disadvantages of taking a postgraduate course.

It is certainly true that there is fierce competition for employment, and candidates need something extra in order to get a good job. We should also remember that people with a second qualification can expect to earn more when they start work. Moreover, postgraduate courses offer the chance to focus on a topic which you find particularly interesting. What could be better than spending an extra two or three years studying something you find fascinating?

However, there are disadvantages too. Firstly, it is an expensive option. You often need to pay for your place at university and also support yourself financially during the course. What is more, many young people are understandably impatient to leave education by the time they finish their first degree.

On balance, I believe it is a good idea to continue your studies beyond a first degree, if possible. Although it may be expensive, an extra qualification allows you to find a better job and earn more money.

2. Study the model essay and answer the questions.

In which paragraph (1-4) does the writer …

1   describe the arguments for?

     How many does she / he describe?

2   describe the arguments against?

3   give his / her opinion?

1 2, 3   2 3, 2   3 4

Writing Strategy

Rhetorical questions can make an opinion essay more persuasive, provided you only include one or two. You do not have to answer the questions, but always make sure that the expected answer is clear, e.g.

Some people work long hours for very low pay. How can this is be right? (Expected answer: It can’t be right. )

3. Read the Writing Strategy. Find and underline a rhetorical question in the model essay. Choose the expected answer.

a   everything ◻

b   most things ◻

c   nothing ◻

What could be better than spending an extra two or three years studying something you find fascinating?, c

Writing Guide

More students should do their degree at a university abroad rather than in their own country. Do you agree?

4. Read the task above. Then plan your essay following the paragraph plan below. Use the questions to help you.

Paragraph 1: Rephrase the statement in the task.

………………………………………………………………………….

Paragraph 2: What are the arguments for doing a degree abroad? Think of two or three.

Paragraph 3: What are the arguments against doing a degree abroad? Think of two or three.

Paragraph 4: Give your opinion

your own answers

5. Write your essay using your plan from exercise 4. Extra exercises

Use signposting phrases ( Firstly, …, Furthermore, …, etc.) to introduce opinions for the statement and against it, and to introduce your opinion in the conclusion ( On balance, … ).

1. Read the Strategy. Then complete the text with the words below.

addition      also      another      furthermore      other      overall

One issue with social media is that it can distract people from work or study. In 1 …………………….., it can create unhappiness and anxiety when people compare their lives to other people’s. 2 …………………….. problem is that some people use it to spread unkind ideas about others.

On the 3 …………………….. hand, thanks to social media, people can build friendships quickly and easily by sharing photos, links, ideas and opinions. Social media 4 …………………….. allows people to ask for help and advice. 5 …………………….., it can educate people about things like health.

6 …………………….., I think social media has more positive than negative effects on everyday life.

1 addition   2 Another   3 other   4 also

5 Furthermore   5 overall

2. Read the task below and write a for and against essay.

Teenage students should spend more time at school studying I.C.T. (Information and Communication Technology). Discuss.

Related Posts

• English Writing Exercises for B1 – A formal letter
• English Writing Exercises for B1 – A narrative
• English Writing Exercises for B1 – Article: a film review
• English Writing Exercises for B1 – An internet forum post
• English Writing Exercises for B1 – An email
• English Writing Exercises for B1 – An opinion essay

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

• Bussiness English Listening for A1
• Bussiness English Listening for A2
• Bussiness English Listening for B1
• English for daily communication level 1
• English for daily communication level 2
• English for daily communication level 3
• English for daily communication level 4
• English for Daily Conversations
• English Grammar Exercises for A1
• English Grammar Exercises for A2
• English Grammar Exercises for B1
• English Grammar Exercises for B2
• English Listening Exercises for A1
• English Listening Exercises for A2
• English Listening Exercises for B1
• English Listening Exercises for B2
• English Listening Exercises for Beginner
• English Listening Tests for A1
• English Listening Tests for A2
• English Listening Tests for B1
• English Listening Tests for B2
• English Reading Exercises for A1
• English Reading Exercises for A2
• English Reading Exercises for B1
• English Reading Exercises for B2
• English Reading Exercises for Beginner
• English Speaking Exercises for A1
• English Speaking Exercises for A2
• English Speaking Exercises for B1
• English Speaking Exercises for B2
• English Vocabulary Exercises for A1
• English Vocabulary Exercises for A2
• English Vocabulary Exercises for B1
• English Vocabulary Exercises for B2
• English Word Skills Exercises for A1
• English Word Skills Exercises for A2
• English Word Skills Exercises for B1
• English Word Skills Exercises for B2
• English Writing Exercises for A1
• English Writing Exercises for A2
• English Writing Exercises for B2
• Learn Vocabulary Through Pictures
• Listening Practice Through Dictation

Pin It on Pinterest

Debate Topics

Need to write an argumentative essay? Preparing for an upcoming debate? ProCon.org has over 100 topics complete with pro and con arguments, quotes and statistics from experts, historical information, and other pertinent research.

Abortion – Should abortion be legal?

Alternative Energy – Can alternative energy effectively replace fossil fuels?

American Socialism – Should the U.S. become socialist?

Animal Dissection – Should K-12 students dissect animals in science classrooms?

Animal Testing – Should animals be used for scientific or commercial testing?

Artificial Intelligence – Is artificial intelligence good for society?

Banned Books – Should parents or other adults be able to ban books from schools and libraries?

Binge-Watching – Is binge-watching good for you?

Cancel Culture – Is cancel culture (or callout culture) good for society?

CBD for Pets – Is CBD good for pets?

Cell Phone Radiation – Is cell phone radiation safe?

Cheerleading – Is cheerleading a sport?

Churches & Taxes – Should churches (including mosques, synagogues, etc.) remain tax-exempt?

College Education – Is a college education worth it?

Congressional Term Limits  – Should term limits be imposed on U.S. Senators and Representatives?

Constitutional Carry of Handguns – Should permitless, “constitutional carry” of guns be legal?

Corporal Punishment – Should corporal punishment be used in K-12 schools?

Corporate Tax Rate – Should the federal corporate income tax rate be raised?

Cuba Embargo – Should the United States maintain its embargo against Cuba?

DACA & Dreamers – Are DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and the DREAM Act good for America?

Daylight Saving Time – Should the United States keep daylight saving time?

DC AND Puerto Rico Statehood – Should Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico be granted U.S. statehood?

Death Penalty – Should the death penalty be legal?

Defund the Police – Should police departments be defunded, if not abolished?

Dress Codes – Should dress codes be implemented and enforced?

Drinking Age – Should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to a younger age?

Drone Strikes – Should the United States continue its use of drone strikes abroad?

Drug Use in Sports – Should performance-enhancing drugs be accepted in sports?

Election Day National Holiday – Should the election day be made a national holiday?

Electoral College – Should the United States use the electoral college in presidential elections?

Employer Vaccine Mandates – Should employers be able to mandate vaccinations?

Felon Voting – Should people who have completed felony sentences be allowed to vote?

Fighting in Hockey – Should fighting be allowed in hockey?

Filibuster – Should the U.S. Senate keep the filibuster?

Fracking – Should the United States continue fracking

Free College – Should public college be tuition-free?

Fur Clothing Bans – Should fur clothing be banned?

GMOS – Should genetically modified organisms (GMOs) be grown?

Gold Standard – Should the United States return to a gold standard?

Golf – Is golf a sport and are golfers athletes?

Gun Control – Should more gun control laws be enacted?

Historic Statue Removal – Should historic statues be taken down?

Homework – Is homework beneficial?

Illegal Immigration – Should the U.S. government provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants?

Internet – Is the internet “making us stupid?”

Kneeling during the National Anthem – Is kneeling during the national anthem an appropriate form of protest?

Mandatory National Service – Should the United States have mandatory national service?

Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) – Should medical aid in dying be legal?

Medical Marijuana – Should medical marijuana be legal?

Milk – Should humans consume dairy milk?

Minimum Wage – Should the federal minimum wage be increased?

Net Neutrality – Should the U.S. have net neutrality laws?

Obesity – Is obesity a disease?

Olympics – Are the Olympic games an overall benefit for their host countries and cities?

OTC Birth Control Pills – Should birth control pills be available over-the-counter (OTC)?

Penny – Should the penny stay in circulation?

Pit Bull Bans – Should breed-specific legislation (“pit bull bans”) be enacted?

Pokémon – Is Pokémon Go good for our society?

Police Body Cameras – Should police officers wear body cameras?

Prescription Drug Costs – Should the U.S. federal government regulate prescription drug prices?

Presidential Election, 2024 – 2024 Presidential Election Site

Private Prisons – Should prisons be privatized?

Recreational Marijuana – Should recreational marijuana be legal?

Reparations for Slavery – Should the federal government pay reparations to the descendants of slaves?

Right to Healthcare – Should all Americans have the right (be entitled) to health care?

Sanctuary Cities – Should sanctuary cities receive federal funding?

Santa Claus – Is there really a Santa Claus?

Saturday Halloween – Should Halloween be moved permanently to Saturday?

School Uniforms – Should students have to wear school uniforms?

Single-use Plastics Ban – Should single-use plastics be banned?

Social Media & Digital Addiction – Does social media spur digital addiction and other social ills?

Social Security Privatization – Should social security be privatized?

Space Colonization – Should humans colonize space?

Standardized Tests – Do standardized tests improve education in America?

Student Loan Debt – Should student loan debt be eliminated via forgiveness or bankruptcy?

TikTok Bans – Should TikTok be banned?

Uber & Lyft – Are ride-sharing companies a benefit to society?

Universal Basic Income (UBI) – Should the United States implement a universal basic income?

U.S. Supreme Court Packing – Should packing the U.S. Supreme Court ever be considered?

Vaccines for Kids – Should states be allowed to mandate vaccines for school attendance??

Vaping E-Cigarettes – Is vaping e-cigarettes safe?

Vegetarianism – Should people become vegetarian?

Video Games & Violence – Do violent video games contribute to youth violence?

Voting Age – Should the voting age be lowered to 16?

Voting Machines – Are electronic voting machines the best method for voting?

Zoos – Should zoos exist?

Archived Topics

Please note that ProCon no longer updates these debates.

ACLU – Is the ACLU good for America?

Big Three Bailout – Should the big three car manufacturers be bailed out by the U.S. government?

Born Gay – Is sexual orientation determined at birth?

Climate Change – Is human activity primarily responsible for global climate change?

College Football Playoffs – Should college football replace the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) with a playoff system?

Dakota Access Pipeline – Should the Dakota Access Pipeline be completed?

D.A.R.E. – Is the D.A.R.E. program good for America’s kids (K-12)?

Gay Marriage – Should gay marriage be legal?

Congressional Insider Trading – Should insider trading by Congress be allowed?

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict – What are the solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Obamacare – Is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) good for America?

Paying College Athletes – Should colleges and universities pay college athletes?

President Bill Clinton – Was Bill Clinton a good president?

President Ronald Reagan – Was Ronald Reagan a good president?

Presidential Election, 2008 – Which candidate would make the best U.S. president?

Presidential Election, 2012 – Which candidate should be U.S. president in 2012?

Presidential Election, 2016 – The candidates and where they stand on the issues

Presidential Election, 2020 – 2020 Presidential Election Site

Prostitution – Should prostitution be legal?

School Vouchers – Should states have school voucher programs?

Tablets v. Textbooks -Should tablets replace textbooks in K-12 schools?

Teacher Tenure – Should teachers get tenure?

Under God in the Pledge – Should the words “under god” be in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance?

U.S. Drone Shot down by Iran – Was the U.S. drone shot down by Iran over international waters?

U.S.-Iraq War – Should the U.S. have attacked Iraq?

WTC Muslim Center – Is it appropriate to build a muslim community center (aka the ”ground zero mosque”) near the World Trade Center site?

ProCon/Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 Chicago, Illinois 60654 USA

Natalie Leppard Managing Editor [email protected]

© 2023 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved

• Social Media
• Death Penalty
• School Uniforms
• Video Games
• Animal Testing
• Gun Control
• Banned Books
• Teachers’ Corner

Cite This Page

ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order):

[Editor's Note: The APA citation style requires double spacing within entries.]

[Editor’s Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries.]

Blog de Cristina

Digital tools and ideas to transform education, a for and against essay.

I’ve updated a guide to help students write a good For and Against Essay i n this post.

Five Steps to Writing a Good For and Against Essay .

Don’t miss it!

Related posts:

2 thoughts on “ A For and Against Essay ”

Hi there!! A colleague from The Canary Islands, perhaps? Thanks for your comment ! I’ve also visited your blog and I like it a lot. In fact, I think the idea of using the wallwisher as a means of interaction between you and your students is a very interesting one. A bit risky, though . Anyway, I’m willing to try it ! I hope you drop by some other time.

hi, my name is saro rosales, and i’ve really liked this post about writing a for and against composition. i wonder if i can copy the code, mentioning you and your blog (anyway i have it on my blog list) . thanks in advance

Comments are closed.

Samantha Putterman, PolitiFact Samantha Putterman, PolitiFact

Leave your feedback

• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-warnings-from-democrats-about-project-2025-and-donald-trump

Fact-checking warnings from Democrats about Project 2025 and Donald Trump

This fact check originally appeared on PolitiFact .

Project 2025 has a starring role in this week’s Democratic National Convention.

And it was front and center on Night 1.

WATCH: Hauling large copy of Project 2025, Michigan state Sen. McMorrow speaks at 2024 DNC

“This is Project 2025,” Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, said as she laid a hardbound copy of the 900-page document on the lectern. “Over the next four nights, you are going to hear a lot about what is in this 900-page document. Why? Because this is the Republican blueprint for a second Trump term.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has warned Americans about “Trump’s Project 2025” agenda — even though former President Donald Trump doesn’t claim the conservative presidential transition document.

“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward,” Harris said July 23 in Milwaukee. “He and his extreme Project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle class. Like, we know we got to take this seriously, and can you believe they put that thing in writing?”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has joined in on the talking point.

“Don’t believe (Trump) when he’s playing dumb about this Project 2025. He knows exactly what it’ll do,” Walz said Aug. 9 in Glendale, Arizona.

Trump’s campaign has worked to build distance from the project, which the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, led with contributions from dozens of conservative groups.

Much of the plan calls for extensive executive-branch overhauls and draws on both long-standing conservative principles, such as tax cuts, and more recent culture war issues. It lays out recommendations for disbanding the Commerce and Education departments, eliminating certain climate protections and consolidating more power to the president.

Project 2025 offers a sweeping vision for a Republican-led executive branch, and some of its policies mirror Trump’s 2024 agenda, But Harris and her presidential campaign have at times gone too far in describing what the project calls for and how closely the plans overlap with Trump’s campaign.

PolitiFact researched Harris’ warnings about how the plan would affect reproductive rights, federal entitlement programs and education, just as we did for President Joe Biden’s Project 2025 rhetoric. Here’s what the project does and doesn’t call for, and how it squares with Trump’s positions.

Are Trump and Project 2025 connected?

To distance himself from Project 2025 amid the Democratic attacks, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he “knows nothing” about it and has “no idea” who is in charge of it. (CNN identified at least 140 former advisers from the Trump administration who have been involved.)

The Heritage Foundation sought contributions from more than 100 conservative organizations for its policy vision for the next Republican presidency, which was published in 2023.

Project 2025 is now winding down some of its policy operations, and director Paul Dans, a former Trump administration official, is stepping down, The Washington Post reported July 30. Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita denounced the document.

WATCH: A look at the Project 2025 plan to reshape government and Trump’s links to its authors

However, Project 2025 contributors include a number of high-ranking officials from Trump’s first administration, including former White House adviser Peter Navarro and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

A recently released recording of Russell Vought, a Project 2025 author and the former director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, showed Vought saying Trump’s “very supportive of what we do.” He said Trump was only distancing himself because Democrats were making a bogeyman out of the document.

Project 2025 wouldn’t ban abortion outright, but would curtail access

The Harris campaign shared a graphic on X that claimed “Trump’s Project 2025 plan for workers” would “go after birth control and ban abortion nationwide.”

The plan doesn’t call to ban abortion nationwide, though its recommendations could curtail some contraceptives and limit abortion access.

What’s known about Trump’s abortion agenda neither lines up with Harris’ description nor Project 2025’s wish list.

Project 2025 says the Department of Health and Human Services Department should “return to being known as the Department of Life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care.”

It recommends that the Food and Drug Administration reverse its 2000 approval of mifepristone, the first pill taken in a two-drug regimen for a medication abortion. Medication is the most common form of abortion in the U.S. — accounting for around 63 percent in 2023.

If mifepristone were to remain approved, Project 2025 recommends new rules, such as cutting its use from 10 weeks into pregnancy to seven. It would have to be provided to patients in person — part of the group’s efforts to limit access to the drug by mail. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to mifepristone’s FDA approval over procedural grounds.

WATCH: Trump’s plans for health care and reproductive rights if he returns to White House The manual also calls for the Justice Department to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act on mifepristone, which bans the mailing of “obscene” materials. Abortion access supporters fear that a strict interpretation of the law could go further to ban mailing the materials used in procedural abortions, such as surgical instruments and equipment.

The plan proposes withholding federal money from states that don’t report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention how many abortions take place within their borders. The plan also would prohibit abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds. It also calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the training of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, omits abortion training.

The document says some forms of emergency contraception — particularly Ella, a pill that can be taken within five days of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy — should be excluded from no-cost coverage. The Affordable Care Act requires most private health insurers to cover recommended preventive services, which involves a range of birth control methods, including emergency contraception.

Trump has recently said states should decide abortion regulations and that he wouldn’t block access to contraceptives. Trump said during his June 27 debate with Biden that he wouldn’t ban mifepristone after the Supreme Court “approved” it. But the court rejected the lawsuit based on standing, not the case’s merits. He has not weighed in on the Comstock Act or said whether he supports it being used to block abortion medication, or other kinds of abortions.

Project 2025 doesn’t call for cutting Social Security, but proposes some changes to Medicare

“When you read (Project 2025),” Harris told a crowd July 23 in Wisconsin, “you will see, Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare.”

The Project 2025 document does not call for Social Security cuts. None of its 10 references to Social Security addresses plans for cutting the program.

Harris also misleads about Trump’s Social Security views.

In his earlier campaigns and before he was a politician, Trump said about a half-dozen times that he’s open to major overhauls of Social Security, including cuts and privatization. More recently, in a March 2024 CNBC interview, Trump said of entitlement programs such as Social Security, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” However, he quickly walked that statement back, and his CNBC comment stands at odds with essentially everything else Trump has said during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump’s campaign website says that not “a single penny” should be cut from Social Security. We rated Harris’ claim that Trump intends to cut Social Security Mostly False.

Project 2025 does propose changes to Medicare, including making Medicare Advantage, the private insurance offering in Medicare, the “default” enrollment option. Unlike Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans have provider networks and can also require prior authorization, meaning that the plan can approve or deny certain services. Original Medicare plans don’t have prior authorization requirements.

The manual also calls for repealing health policies enacted under Biden, such as the Inflation Reduction Act. The law enabled Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers for the first time in history, and recently resulted in an agreement with drug companies to lower the prices of 10 expensive prescriptions for Medicare enrollees.

Trump, however, has said repeatedly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he will not cut Medicare.

Project 2025 would eliminate the Education Department, which Trump supports

The Harris campaign said Project 2025 would “eliminate the U.S. Department of Education” — and that’s accurate. Project 2025 says federal education policy “should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” The plan scales back the federal government’s role in education policy and devolves the functions that remain to other agencies.

Aside from eliminating the department, the project also proposes scrapping the Biden administration’s Title IX revision, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also would let states opt out of federal education programs and calls for passing a federal parents’ bill of rights similar to ones passed in some Republican-led state legislatures.

Republicans, including Trump, have pledged to close the department, which gained its status in 1979 within Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s presidential Cabinet.

In one of his Agenda 47 policy videos, Trump promised to close the department and “to send all education work and needs back to the states.” Eliminating the department would have to go through Congress.

What Project 2025, Trump would do on overtime pay

In the graphic, the Harris campaign says Project 2025 allows “employers to stop paying workers for overtime work.”

The plan doesn’t call for banning overtime wages. It recommends changes to some Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, regulations and to overtime rules. Some changes, if enacted, could result in some people losing overtime protections, experts told us.

The document proposes that the Labor Department maintain an overtime threshold “that does not punish businesses in lower-cost regions (e.g., the southeast United States).” This threshold is the amount of money executive, administrative or professional employees need to make for an employer to exempt them from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In 2019, the Trump’s administration finalized a rule that expanded overtime pay eligibility to most salaried workers earning less than about $35,568, which it said made about 1.3 million more workers eligible for overtime pay. The Trump-era threshold is high enough to cover most line workers in lower-cost regions, Project 2025 said.

The Biden administration raised that threshold to $43,888 beginning July 1, and that will rise to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. That would grant overtime eligibility to about 4 million workers, the Labor Department said.

It’s unclear how many workers Project 2025’s proposal to return to the Trump-era overtime threshold in some parts of the country would affect, but experts said some would presumably lose the right to overtime wages.

Other overtime proposals in Project 2025’s plan include allowing some workers to choose to accumulate paid time off instead of overtime pay, or to work more hours in one week and fewer in the next, rather than receive overtime.

Trump’s past with overtime pay is complicated. In 2016, the Obama administration said it would raise the overtime to salaried workers earning less than $47,476 a year, about double the exemption level set in 2004 of $23,660 a year.

But when a judge blocked the Obama rule, the Trump administration didn’t challenge the court ruling. Instead it set its own overtime threshold, which raised the amount, but by less than Obama.

Support Provided By: Learn more

Educate your inbox

Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else.

Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.

• Newsletters
• Account Activating this button will toggle the display of additional content Account Sign out

Trump’s Latest Abortion Comments Expose the Bind He’s In

This week, Donald Trump gave his clearest answer to date about whether he would enforce the Comstock Act, a 19 th -century obscenity law, as an abortion ban. In truth, Trump’s answer was anything but clear: He suggested that “specifics” remained to be determined, but that he “generally” wouldn’t enforce the Comstock Act against abortion pills, whatever that means. This was played up in mainstream media as Trump rejecting the use of Comstock Act as a de facto national abortion ban. They should not have gone so far.

Trump’s statement wasn’t actually all that new: Trump has spent the election season giving muddy answers in the hope of keeping antiabortion voters close without alienating everyone else. But Trump’s latest interview has infuriated key anti-abortion supporters , in the process revealing a major mistake made by conservatives in the aftermath of Dobbs . Abortion opponents were so sure of their chances of continuing to win before a conservative Supreme Court that they unveiled a disastrously unpopular Comstock strategy before an election year. As reaction to the CBS interview suggests, conservatives’ overconfidence might have created a trap that Trump will have trouble getting out of.

The idea for Comstock revival came from Jonathan Mitchell, the former Texas solicitor general, and pastor Mark Lee Dickson, the team behind Texas’s S.B. 8 bounty law, which allows anyone to sue an abortion provider or someone aiding them for at least $10,000 . Mitchell and Dickson’s objective was to find a way to bring about an abortion ban that could succeed before the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, not to win an election.

That’s where the Comstock Act came in. It was clear that Americans didn’t want a sweeping national ban on abortion. It seemed improbable that Congress would have a large enough Republican majority to pass one in the near term, or that Republicans would prioritize such a move given how unpopular such bans had become.

Mitchell and Dickson argued that there was no need for new legislation because the Comstock Act already was a national ban . The two pointed to language in the statute referring to items or information related to items designed, intended, or adapted for abortion, arguing that the Comstock Act made it a crime to mail or receive abortion drugs or paraphernalia. They contended that the law operated as a de facto ban on all abortions because no procedure in the United States takes place without items shipped across state lines by drug or medical supply companies.

From the beginning, this strategy didn’t seem likely to be a political winner. Americans have become more supportive of abortion rights since Dobbs , with support at near-record highs . And as conservatives interpreted Comstock, it was even more extreme than state bans: lacking exceptions for rape, incest, or even the life of the patient, and applying to women and other abortion seekers. Nevertheless, prominent anti-abortion groups embraced it . So did J.D. Vance and a who’s who of congressional conservatives . Comstock became a cornerstone of Project 2025. A Comstock claim even figured centrally in the Supreme Court’s recent mifepristone case, Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.

All of that speaks to the overconfidence of abortion opponents in the wake of Dobbs. The movement recognized that its best path to victory was to rely on the federal courts and the executive branch because voters seemed irrevocably opposed to anti-abortion leaders’ priorities. And with Trump long leading Joe Biden in the polls, anti-abortion leaders were convinced their candidate would come out ahead. But publicly embracing Comstock because it didn’t require voter support might have been a step too far, especially now that Kamala Harris has replaced the unpopular Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.

Trump’s campaign was well aware that it wouldn’t do him any favors to embrace Comstock. At the same time, clearly rejecting a Comstock strategy seemed likely to alienate anti-abortion voters already unsure of Trump’s commitment to their cause. Trump tried to thread the needle by avoiding the subject. He went months without saying anything, then promised Time magazine a policy statement on Comstock that never appeared. Most recently, in speaking to CBS, Trump tried the same tactic again. He answered the question but hardly offered any clarity. What does it mean to “generally” avoid Comstock enforcement? That only some doctors or drug companies or patients would be prosecuted? Which specifics remain to be worked out?

With Biden at the top of the ticket, Trump’s efforts to confuse the electorate seemed to benefit him. But now, it looks like Trump might end up with the worst of all possible outcomes. His latest comments were roundly criticized by anti-abortion leaders—including some who had defended Trump in the past.

It would be one thing if Trump were winning over swing voters, especially women, by angering anti-abortion conservatives, but it’s not clear that’s what’s happening. The gender gap—the difference in the stated voting intentions of male and female voters—seems to be at an all-time high. Whatever Trump’s potential appeal to swing voters, it’s likely not his honesty. Given his close ties to the authors of Project 2025, voters may simply not believe his faint-hearted denials about Comstock. At the same time, anti-abortion leaders have grown fed up with what they feel is Trump’s cowardice.

For the moment, abortion opponents’ overconfidence seems to be helping Kamala Harris. But in the longer term, the effects of Trump’s possible backpedaling on Comstock won’t be as straightforward. Jonathan Mitchell famously told Lisa Lerer and Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times that he hoped that anti-abortion groups would “keep their mouths shut as much as possible until after the election .” In some ways, that was the opposite of what happened.

If Trump doesn’t win—or even if he prevails and doesn’t enforce Comstock as strictly as abortion opponents hope—the lesson may well be that Mitchell was right. Publicly detailing plans for Comstock enforcement, like making Project 2025 broadly available, has created an opening for public exposure and criticism.

Since Dobbs , abortion opponents have looked for ways to win without the support of voters. Now, they may be incentivized to hide their plans altogether until well after the election ends.

Advertisement

Supported by

Critic’s Notebook

When Your Child Is an Animal

The charged cultural conversation about pets and children — see “Chimp Crazy,” “childless cat ladies” and more — reveals the hidden contradictions of family life.

• Share full article

By Amanda Hess

Amanda Hess is a critic at large who writes about internet and pop culture.

“Monkey love is totally different than the way that you have love for your child,” Tonia Haddix, an exotic animal broker, says at the beginning of “Chimp Crazy,” the documentary HBO series investigating the world of chimpanzee ownership. “If it’s your natural born child, it’s just natural because you actually gave birth to that kid. But when you adopt a monkey, the bond is much, much deeper.”

“Chimp Crazy” arrives in a summer of cultural and political obsession about the place of animals in our family lives. When JD Vance became the Republican vice-presidential nominee, his 2021 comment about “childless cat ladies” resurfaced, positioning them as adversaries of the traditional family. New York magazine published a special issue questioning the ethics of pet ownership, featuring a polarizing essay from an anonymous mother who neglected her cat once her human baby arrived. In the background of these stories, you can hear the echoes of an internet-wide argument that pits companion animals against human children, pet and tot forced into a psychic battle for adult recognition.

These dynamics feel supercharged since 2020, the year when American family life — that insular institution that is expected to provide for all human care needs — became positively airtight. The coronavirus pandemic exaggerated a wider trend toward domestic isolation : pet owners spending more time with their animals, parents more time with their children, everyone less time with one another — except perhaps online, where our domestic scenes collide in a theater of grievance and stress.

When a cat, a dog or certainly a chimp scampers through a family story, it knocks it off-kilter, revealing its hypocrisies and its harms. In “Chimp Crazy,” Haddix emerges as the avatar for all the contradictions of the domestic ideal of private home care: She loves her chimp “babies” with such obsession that she traps them (and herself) in a miserable diorama of family life.

Haddix, a 50-something woman who describes herself as the “Dolly Parton of Chimps,” believes that God chose her to be a caretaker. She was a registered nurse before she became a live-in volunteer at a ramshackle chimp breeding facility in Missouri, where she speaks of a male chimp named Tonka as if she is his mother. Haddix also has two human children; she just loves them less, and says so on television.

As she appoints herself the parent to an imprisoned wild animal, she asserts an idealized form of mothering — one she describes as selfless, unending and pure. “Chimp Crazy” is the story of just how ruinous this idea of love can be, for the woman and the ape.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

• The Attorney General
• Organizational Chart
• Budget & Performance
• Privacy Program
• Press Releases
• Photo Galleries
• Guidance Documents
• Publications
• Information for Victims in Large Cases
• Justice Manual
• Business and Contracts
• Why Justice ?
• DOJ Vacancies
• Legal Careers at DOJ
• Our Offices

Archived Press Releases

Archived News

Para Notícias en Español

Justice Department Sues RealPage for Algorithmic Pricing Scheme that Harms Millions of American Renters

The Justice Department, together with the Attorneys General of North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today against RealPage Inc. for its unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing and to monopolize the market for commercial revenue management software that landlords use to price apartments. RealPage’s alleged conduct deprives renters of the benefits of competition on apartment leasing terms and harms millions of Americans. The lawsuit was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina and alleges that RealPage violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.

The complaint  alleges that RealPage contracts with competing landlords who agree to share with RealPage nonpublic, competitively sensitive information about their apartment rental rates and other lease terms to train and run RealPage’s algorithmic pricing software. This software then generates recommendations, including on apartment rental pricing and other terms, for participating landlords based on their and their rivals’ competitively sensitive information. The complaint further alleges that in a free market, these landlords would otherwise be competing independently to attract renters based on pricing, discounts, concessions, lease terms, and other dimensions of apartment leasing. RealPage also uses this scheme and its substantial data trove to maintain a monopoly in the market for commercial revenue management software. The complaint seeks to end RealPage’s illegal conduct and restore competition for the benefit of renters in states across the country.

“Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We allege that RealPage’s pricing algorithm enables landlords to share confidential, competitively sensitive information and align their rents. Using software as the sharing mechanism does not immunize this scheme from Sherman Act liability, and the Justice Department will continue to aggressively enforce the antitrust laws and protect the American people from those who violate them.”

“Today’s complaint against RealPage illustrates our corporate enforcement strategy in action. We identify the most serious wrongdoers, whether individuals or companies, and focus our full energy on holding them accountable,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “By feeding sensitive data into a sophisticated algorithm powered by artificial intelligence, RealPage has found a modern way to violate a century-old law through systematic coordination of rental housing prices — undermining competition and fairness for consumers in the process. Training a machine to break the law is still breaking the law. Today’s action makes clear that we will use all our legal tools to ensure accountability for technology-fueled anticompetitive conduct.” 

“RealPage’s egregious, anticompetitive conduct allows landlords to undermine fair pricing and limit housing options while stifling necessary competition,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “The Department remains committed to rooting out illegal schemes and practices aimed at empowering corporate interests at the expense of consumers.” 

“As Americans struggle to afford housing, RealPage is making it easier for landlords to coordinate to increase rents,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today, we filed an antitrust suit against RealPage to make housing more affordable for millions of people across the country. Competition – not RealPage – should determine what Americans pay to rent their homes.”

The complaint cites internal documents and sworn testimony from RealPage and commercial landlords that make plain RealPage’s and landlords’ objective to maximize rental pricing and profitability at the expense of renters. For example:

• RealPage acknowledged that its software is aimed at maximizing prices for landlords, referring to its products as “driving every possible opportunity to increase price,” “avoid[ing] the race to the bottom in down markets,” and “a rising tide raises all ships.”
• A RealPage executive observed that its products help landlords avoid competing on the merits, noting that “there is greater good in everybody succeeding versus essentially trying to compete against one another in a way that actually keeps the entire industry down.”
• A RealPage executive explained to a landlord that using competitor data can help identify situations where the landlord “may have a $50 increase instead of a $10 increase for the day.”
• Another landlord commented about RealPage’s product, “I always liked this product because your algorithm uses proprietary data from other subscribers to suggest rents and term. That’s classic price fixing…”

The complaint alleges that RealPage’s agreements and conduct harm the competitive process in local rental markets for multi-family dwellings across the United States. Armed with competing landlords’ data, RealPage also encourages loyalty to the algorithm’s recommendations through, among other measures, “auto accept” functionality and pricing advisors who monitor landlords’ compliance. As a result, RealPage’s software tends to maximize price increases, minimize price decreases, and maximize landlords’ pricing power. RealPage also trained landlords to limit concessions (e.g., free month(s) of rent) and other discounts to renters. The complaint also cites internal documents from RealPage and landlords touting the fact that landlords have responded by reducing renter concessions.

The complaint separately alleges that RealPage has unlawfully maintained its monopoly over commercial revenue management software for multi-family dwellings in the United States, in which RealPage commands approximately 80% market share. Landlords agree to share their competitively sensitive data with RealPage in return for pricing recommendations and decisions that are the result of combining and analyzing competitors’ sensitive data. This creates a self-reinforcing feedback loop that strengthens RealPage’s grip on the market and makes it harder for honest businesses to compete on the merits.

RealPage Inc., is a property management software company headquartered in Richardson, Texas.

Related Content

The Justice Department, Department of Labor (DOL), Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) have signed an interagency memorandum of understanding (MOU) to further communication and coordination...

Thank you, Deputy Attorney General Monaco.

I would like to reiterate the Attorney General’s and the Deputy Attorney General’s thanks to the leadership and staff of the Antitrust Division. They...

Thank you, Mr. Attorney General.

Since the beginning of this administration, our approach to corporate misconduct across the Justice Department has been simple, straightforward, and relentless.