Task 3, page 257 of Access to International English: Evaluating essays: Go to access.cappelendamm.no to find three examples of essays – one personal, one persuasive and one expository Read the essays and then write a short comment on each How well you think the writer has structured his or her text according to the rules for the type of essay? 1) Personal essay: What role does friendship play in your life? Nothing is more important to me in my life than friendship It is the glue that keeps my life together, the soothing medicine that helps me through the hard times and the source of fun and activities I not know what I would without friendship Today there are many different ideas about what a friend is Many people talk about having hundreds of “friends” on Facebook, while others twitter away like they were John Arne Riise on speed But these “friends” are not real, their contact with you is tentative, and they are quite possibly only fair-weather friends Their shared concern with you if you write about a bad experience on Facebook has a false ring to it How can they be so understanding of someone they really don’t know? No they are not my friends because here I’m talking about the old idea of friend: a person you can lean on for support, share your darkest secrets with, laugh and cry together with, someone who can hold you and hug you, wipe away your tears, drink coffee with you, go to the cinema with, walk with and talk with This friend is ready to celebrate your achievements with you, but is just as prepared to stick by you when you feel down in the dumps Your real friend is not some faceless digital connection (okay they use old photos of themselves on Facebook), he or she is someone who is always there for you Perhaps the most important word that comes to mind when thinking of friends is “trust” A friend is someone you can trust with your secrets and your fears I get strength from my friends because they understand me and accept and appreciate me as I am I don’t have to pretend with them I can let my hair down and be myself In this world where image is everything, it is especially important that I can sit with my friends and be myself The modern world can be a cruel place, with people being bullied by text message and mistakes get played out to the world on YouTube There is no better time to have a “real” friend, someone who can comfort you and accept you for who you are Without my real friends sharing experiences with me, the good and the bad, life would be unbearable I am not very quick to join new trends, I think if left on my own I would muddle along, blissfully unaware of the latest “in” things to For this I need my friends Together we’re dynamite and totally connected On my own, I’m on the outside looking in Sometimes they need to drag me along to a party or a dumb sounding film, or to roller derby or cage football, to name a few things Inevitably I’m the one who ends up having the most fun, but without my friends banging on my door and physically pushing me out the door, I would never have done these things at all Perhaps I would have stayed in and gone on Facebook to write about making a cake, or watching Gossip Girl – God give me a life! Of course here I am talking of close friends, the ones you let into your life on a very personal level But you also have friends you like to things with but you still don’t share everything with them But these more occasional friends still beat Facebook by a mile There is something warm, rewarding and spontaneous about getting together and having fun in the real world So, to conclude, friends are everything to me Without friends life would have little meaning After all, if a branch falls in the forest and no one hears it, who cares if it makes a sound or not if you haven’t got a friend to share the moment with