Clever creatures: an argumentative essay on animals and moral status
A model essay argues that suffering, not intelligence, should guide how we treat animals; students study the argument and write their own.
C2Adults60 minEssay
About this lesson
A C2 writing lesson (essay). Prompts, model texts and simple checklists — from a first email to an opinion essay.
- Level
- C2
- Skill
- Writing
- Type
- Essay
- Students
- Adults
- Time
- About 60 minutes
- Topic
- Animals
- Activities
- Key words, Speaking / writing task, Reading text, Multiple choice, Gap-fill
- Key words
- The instinct is…; the reasoning, however, …, To begin with, …, More fundamentally, …, Defenders of X might reply that…, This deserves to be taken seriously, an argument for X, not for Y, should give us pause, moral status
- Access
- Premium
By the end, students can
- Follow the logic of a one-sided argumentative essay, including its handling of objections
- Use signposts that rank arguments and redirect objections
- Write a 320–380 word argumentative essay on an ethical question about animals