Sample IELTS essay – museums

Should museums and art galleries be free of charge for the general public, or should a charge, even a voluntary charge, be levied for admittance? Discuss this issue, and give your opinion.

One very complex issue in today’s world is the funding of museums and art galleries. While there is an argument that they should be free to the general public and funded by governments, I also believe that there is also a case for saying that they should charge an entrance fee like other attractions.

Those who argue that museums should be free typically make one of two arguments. The first argument is that institutions like museums are a public service and therefore there should be free access to the man in the street. If for example there was a charge only the wealthy could afford to enjoy works of art. The second, and related, argument is that if they did levy a charge fewer people would go to museums. This would be serious as they are educational institutions and standards would fall.

In contrast, there is only one major argument on the other side of the debate. This is that both museums and art galleries need to charge an entrance fee if they are to survive in the modern world. Governments do not have sufficient funds to subsidise all such institutions and there are other priorities for public money. Therefore these galleries and museums need to charge their customers not only to survive but to update their exhibitions and make new purchases. By way of illustration, the Tate Modern in London could not have been founded without revenue from admissions.

My personal position is that there is no clear answer to this question as there are such strong arguments on both sides. Perhaps it is possible for some museums and galleries to charge fees and for others not to. It will depend on the situation of the individual museum or gallery.

Learn to write this essay

Some of the most important vocabulary for IELTS essays comes from the Academic Word List. I suggest you try this exercise that shows you the words in this essay from the Academic Word List

AWL exercise

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8 Responses to Sample IELTS essay – museums

  1. lakhvir kaur March 6, 2010 at 12:34 pm #

    give me please some vocabulary words for writing task 1 and writing task 2

    Reply
    • Dominic Cole November 14, 2010 at 5:59 pm #

      I am planning a series on topic vocabulary to start soon.

      Reply
  2. Expert comments April 6, 2010 at 9:37 am #

    Overall its a great essay. But, I think the word ” ARGUMENT” has been used many times in the above essay.

    Reply
    • Dominic Cole December 7, 2010 at 6:07 pm #

      Interesting point.

      It’s not always a mistake to repeat vocabulary as it can help the coherence of the essay. I would add that even though I do repeat the word argument, I use it differently each time. Note “one of two arguments’, “second, and related, argument”, “only one major argument” and “strong argument”. All of these are excellent collocations. It’s not always about the big words.

      Reply
  3. jyoti December 7, 2010 at 5:55 pm #

    plzz tell me how to write report for task 1 if it contains a bar graph and a table?

    Reply
    • Dominic Cole December 7, 2010 at 6:02 pm #

      I shall see what I can do. I will post an example later this week. Typically though you will use a separate paragraph for each diagram.

      Reply
  4. Yaoling January 4, 2011 at 3:37 pm #

    Dear Dominic,

    I like the new look of your website.
    And thanks a lot for the resources you’ve collected and offered here.

    Reply
  5. anu July 30, 2011 at 1:28 am #

    You are fantastic..Superb job..Thanks a lot.

    Reply

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