Curfew for Teenagers to go out alone at night. IELTS General

Isolating teens during the night time

In some areas of the US, a 'curfew' is imposed, in which teenagers are not allowed to be out of doors after a particular time at night unless they are accompanied by an adult.

What is your opinion about this?

A curfew has been imposed in some parts of the US, according to which a teenager should always be accompanied by an adult outside their home after a particular time at night. I somewhat agree with this change and will be discussing this further.

During their teenage years, children are very eager to explore the outside world and are very susceptible to influence from social media. They might witness elder siblings and fictional characters on TV going out at night, partying and drinking alcohol and having fun. This can lead to teenagers sneaking out alone at night and indulging in under-age alcohol consumption which may have adverse effects on their health.

Secondly, it is very dangerous to venture out at night due to the high crime rate. Young teens can fall easy prey to robbers, muggers and other criminals. The presence of an adult ensures they will be kept safe and stay out of trouble.

However, there are some drawbacks to this curfew as well. We want children to understand their responsibilities from a young age. To this effect, in many states children can start working at age 14, apply for a driving licence at age 16 and even get married when they turn 18. Keeping this in mind it would be contradictory to then impose a curfew on teenagers going out alone at night.

In my opinion, imposing a curfew is a step in the right direction. I first hand experience my friend rebelling against his parents at a young age and going out unsupervised at night. He fell in with the wrong crowd, started drink alcohol, using drugs, dropped out of school and ultimately ended up in jail. I believe this could have been avoided if there was a law enforcing the presence of an adult with teenagers after a particular time at night.

I would like to conclude by saying that teenagers need a role-model when they are growing up. Even though they need to be taught responsibility, there is no reason for them not be supervised and kept safe from the bad elements of our society during night time.

You have not properly formed your response to the question. This is not an Agree/Disagree discussion. This is a direct opinion essay that requires an expanded response in the prompt restatement. You also did not replace enough words from the original to convince the examiner that you did not just cut and paste the said phrases / sentences from the original. Always change the keywords in the original essay so that you can score better under the LR considerations.

Cut and paste references are:
- accompanied by an adult.
- In some areas of the US, a 'curfew' is imposed,

Possible replacement phrases are:
- In the company of an older companion / with an older companion / in the presence of an adult
- The US implements a time limit / limits the night time exposure / allots a time allowance for out door activities

The opinion question is: What is your opinion? Therefore, you must indicate a clear thought consideration for your discussion such as:
- Curfew for adolescents has benefits
- Due to the current safety climate, there is a sense of logic to limiting the evening activities of the youth
- Limiting the outdoor time based activities of youngsters has negative effects.
- Considering two factors, there may be problems with this scenario.

The Task 2 essay is always limited to 5 paragraphs at the most. Your essay does not follow the personal opinion format. The personal opinion should be the second paragraph or first reasoning paragraph. That is because you have to directly explain your opinion immediately. It should not wait till the very end because it will not be responding to the question as expected. So the format should be:

-Paraphrase
-Opinion
-Example paragraph
-Discussion summary / conclusion

You cannot say you have first hand experience if it is your friend who underwent the scenario. You should instead refer to second person pronouns in that section. Clearly refer to this as the experience of your friend that you will be narrating.

- I witnessed how my friend would have benefited from having a curfew in place... He rebelled...