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10. Some people believe that a college or university education should be available to all students. Others believe that higher education should be available only to good students. Discuss these views. Which view do you agree with? Explain why.

To score a "6," the essay will be a well organized one that accomplishes the four requirements of the assignment. First, the writer must OBJECTIVELY discuss why a college or university education should be available to all students. Second, the writer must OBJECTIVELY discuss why a higher education should be available only to good students Third, not waffling on the issue, the writer should take a position by choosing which view he is in agreement with. The argument should be logical and plausible and cause the reader to reconsider his point of view if he is in disagreement or cause the reader to further bolster his position if he is in agreement. Fourth, the writer should give two or more reasons to show why he agrees with one of the viewpoints. The essay will have a high degree of grammatical correctness and syntactic variety but may have slight flaws in writing, consistent with timed, first draft prose.

Every issue always has many different perspectives because each person has a different background and education that relatively affects his/her opinion. Some people believe that a college or university education should be available to all students, while others believe that higher education should be available only to good students.

People who believe that a university education should be available to all students have a point of view that everybody is equal. Equality implies that even students, who are disabled or have low socio-economic status, should have access to higher education. In the view of higher education for all, students who have some kind of disadvantage should not be denied access to higher education. They should not be denied the right of higher education. For example, Richard Rodriguez was a disadvantaged student who achieved great success through his higher education experience. This is evidence that higher education for all has positive benefits for society.

People who believe that higher education should be available only to good students hold a point of view that good students can achieve better. According to this assumption, good students are advantaged students (i.e. the opposite of disadvantaged students). So the logic goes like this, if disadvantaged students do not perform well in higher education, the advantaged students will perform well in higher education. This logic assumes that those advantaged students will have academic success through higher education as compared with disadvantaged students. Of course, this assumption, by itself, has no basis in fact.

Personally, I believe that higher education should be available to all students. It does not matter what advantages or disadvantages they have. Everybody is motivated to achieve something. Disadvantages and advantages are temporal. That is, they only have short-term effects. People have times of struggle as well as periods of relative ease. I, for example, have struggled with higher education for ten years because of family and work. But now times are easier. I have managed to go back to school, and I will achieve my goal of becoming a dentist through higher education.

In conclusion, the criteria for access to higher education should not be the advantaged or disadvantaged status of a person. The only restriction should be -- does the person want a higher education. For those who want, it should be accessible, and for those who don't want, it is their own restriction and not anybody else's.

10. Comments on how this essay meets ETS criteria

This essay demonstrates clear competence in writing on both the rhetorical and syntactic levels

•Restating the main part of the question, the writer clearly frames the essay in the introduction: "Some people believe that a college or university education should be available to all students, while others believe that higher education should be available only to good students." In the developmental parts of the essay, the writer logically restates the key points in the thesis (i.e., people who believe that a university education should be available to all students have a point of view that everybody is equal; people who believe that higher education should be available only to good students hold a point of view that good students can achieve better; and I believe that higher education should be available to all students). Hence, the essay is tightly organized around the TWE prompt. Additionally, there are specific reasons and examples to support both sides of the debate as well as the writer's own argument.

•Paragraphs one, two and three use appropriate details to support the thesis. For instance, in paragraph two, as an example showing that education should be available to all (i.e., the disadvantaged), the writer discusses Richard Rodriguez, who was a disadvantaged student who achieved great success through his higher education experience. In the third paragraph, to illustrate why some believe education should not be available to all, the writer discusses that some believe that advantaged students will have academic success through higher education as compared with disadvantaged students. After an objective discussion of both sides, the writer argues for her position. Overall, the writer does a competent job of OBJECTIVELY discussing both positions before taking a side.

Displaying syntactic variety, the essay uses simple sentences (i.e., They should not be denied the right of higher education.), compound sentences (i.e., I have managed to go back to school, and I will achieve my goal of becoming a dentist through higher education.), and complex sentences (i.e., This is evidence that higher education for all has positive benefits for society). Furthermore, there are no significant sentence structure or mechanical errors in the essay, thereby giving the essay a high level of polish.

The writer has a good command of vocabulary (i.e., perspectives, relatively, socio-economic, logic, assumes, ease, access, restriction, and temporal) to demonstrate appropriate word choice.