Is Social Media Doing More Harm Than Good? — Persuasive Writing — Answers
Answer sheet with model answers and success criteria for the Year 9 persuasive writing writing prompt.
Year 9 · English · Persuasive Writing
Is Social Media Doing More Harm Than Good? — Persuasive Writing — Answers
The prompt
Social media connects teenagers to friends, communities and ideas that previous generations could never have reached. It is also blamed for rising anxiety, sleep loss, bullying and a constant pressure to perform. Governments around the world, including Australia's, have debated age limits and restrictions.
Is social media doing more harm than good for teenagers? Write a persuasive essay that argues your position.
A strong persuasive essay at this level has:
• A nuanced contention that takes a clear side without pretending the issue is simple.
• Three or four arguments developed with reasoning, evidence and examples, ordered for maximum impact (strongest last).
• A concession and rebuttal: acknowledge what is valid in the opposing view, then show why your position still holds.
• An authoritative voice: confident, measured, and aware of a sceptical reader.
• Sophisticated devices: analogy, carefully chosen evidence, juxtaposition, controlled emotive language, strategic repetition.
• Cohesion across the whole essay: a line of argument the reader can follow from introduction to conclusion.
Persuasive techniques
Identify the techniques you will use to persuade a sceptical adult reader.
- Analogy
- Juxtaposition
- Concession
- Strategic repetition
- Appeal to authority
- Rhetorical question
- If a product were keeping our children awake, anxious and comparing themselves to strangers, would we call it entertainment?
- It is true that for isolated teenagers, online communities can be a lifeline.
- Handing a thirteen-year-old an unrestricted feed is like handing them the keys to a car and hoping for the best.
- The app promises connection; what it delivers, at midnight, is a room full of people and no one to talk to.
- Paediatric bodies have repeatedly warned about the link between heavy use and poor sleep.
- Designed to be checked. Designed to be scrolled. Designed, above all, never to be put down.
Answer: Analogy → Handing a thirteen-year-old an unrestricted feed is like handing them the keys to a car and hoping for the best.; Juxtaposition → The app promises connection; what it delivers, at midnight, is a room full of people and no one to talk to.; Concession → It is true that for isolated teenagers, online communities can be a lifeline.; Strategic repetition → Designed to be checked. Designed to be scrolled. Designed, above all, never to be put down.; Appeal to authority → Paediatric bodies have repeatedly warned about the link between heavy use and poor sleep.; Rhetorical question → If a product were keeping our children awake, anxious and comparing themselves to strangers, would we call it entertainment?
- ASocial media is bad and should be banned for everyone.
- BSocial media has good and bad sides, so it depends.
- CAlthough social media offers teenagers genuine connection, its design rewards comparison and compulsion, and on balance it is doing more harm than good.
- DSocial media is good because everyone uses it.
Answer: Although social media offers teenagers genuine connection, its design rewards comparison and compulsion, and on balance it is doing more harm than good.
A nuanced contention acknowledges complexity, then commits clearly to a position.
Plan
Plan for seven minutes. Order your arguments deliberately.
Answer: Although social media offers genuine connection, its design rewards comparison and compulsion, and for most teenagers it is doing more harm than good.
Answer: 1. It fragments attention and displaces sleep. 2. It turns friendship into performance, measured in likes. 3. It is deliberately engineered to be compulsive, which means the harm is not an accident but a business model.
Answer: 1. Late-night use and tiredness in class that every teacher sees. 2. The difference between a conversation and a post that must be curated. 3. Features such as infinite scroll and streaks that exist only to increase time on the app.
Answer: Concede that for isolated or marginalised teenagers, online communities can be a lifeline. Rebut: that benefit comes from community, not from the feed, and could be preserved with tools that are not built to exploit attention.
Answer: Return to the analogy of the car keys: we do not ban driving, we teach it, license it and set limits. Call for age-appropriate design rules and honest conversations at home.
Write
Model answer: Every generation has had something the adults feared: comic books, television, video games. It is tempting to file social media alongside them and move on. But no previous technology was carried in a pocket, checked two hundred times a day and engineered by thousands of people whose sole job was to make it harder to put down. Social media does offer teenagers real connection. On balance, however, its design rewards comparison and compulsion, and it is doing more harm than good.
Success criteria:
- Contention is nuanced and clearly stated in the introduction
- Three or four arguments developed with reasoning, evidence and examples
- Arguments are ordered for impact and linked cohesively
- Concession fairly acknowledges the opposing view before rebutting it
- At least four sophisticated persuasive techniques used deliberately
- Voice is authoritative and aware of a sceptical reader
- Conclusion returns to the contention and ends with a call to action
Marking tips
- Give credit for correct method even when the final answer slips — the working shows where the thinking went right.
- For open-ended tasks, use the success criteria as a checklist rather than looking for one "right" answer.
- Celebrate what went well first, then pick one thing to work on next.
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