EssaysHow to write these essays
Essays on the environment follow a simple chain: what the problem is, its causes, its effects, and the solutions. Give the last part the most care. Examiners like practical steps that a student can really take, such as closing a tap or carrying a cloth bag.
For a season or an animal, use your senses: what you see, hear, smell and feel. Avoid numbers that you cannot be sure of. A clear explanation in your own words is worth more than a half-remembered figure.
A plan for an essay on an environmental problem
- Opening: say what the problem is in one or two lines.
- Causes: three or four, each in a sentence.
- Effects: on people, animals, plants and the weather.
- Solutions: what governments can do, then what a family and a student can do.
- Closing: a line of hope or a call to act.
A plan for a season, a tree or an animal
- Introduce it and say when or where we find it.
- Describe it through the senses.
- Say how it is useful to people and to nature.
- Add any trouble it brings, such as floods in the rainy season.
- End with why we should value it.
Words that help
Pollution, pollutant, smoke, waste, sewage, plastic, greenhouse gases, climate, drought, flood, scarcity, conserve, recycle, reuse, rainwater harvesting, plantation, fresh air, shade, shelter, greenery.
Mistakes examiners notice
- Long lists of causes and effects, and then one hurried line on solutions.
- Made-up percentages and figures.
- Treating air pollution and global warming as one and the same thing. They are linked, but they are not the same.
- Solutions that only others can carry out. Add what you yourself can do.