Grade 5: Opinion Essay

Make sure your reasons explain your opinion clearly.

Be sure your reasons don't just restate your opinion. Then ask yourself, Is this reason related to my opinion? Is it too general? How can I make it more specific?

Just restates the opinion: I like playing the harmonica because it's really enjoyable.

Unrelated: Harmonicas have been around for a long time.

Too general: Harmonica music is really nice.

Much better: Harmonica music can express just about any kind of feeling.

Support your reasons with clear, exact facts and examples. Expand your details to tell more. Take out any reason that you have difficulty supporting.

Not enough support: What I like best about cooking is that you can experiment. Dad and I love to try new recipes. We also enjoy changing recipes.

Much better: What I like best about cooking is that you can experiment. I like trying recipes from different countries, such as Greece, Japan, and Morocco. For example, just recently Dad and I tried making Greek spinach pie with layers and layers of paper-thin dough. It didn't taste perfect, but maybe next time it will! We also like changing recipes to see if we can improve them. One time we made brownies with peanuts instead of walnuts. The results were so delicious that now we always make them that way.

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