Model Essay 7: Museums, Tourists and Local People
Question type: discussion. A narrow topic, which is harder than a broad one - there is nowhere to hide behind general statements.
Unofficial original RCF practice material
Original question and essay written by RCF English. Not endorsed by the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia or Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
The question
Some people think that museums should be designed mainly to attract visitors from other countries. Others believe their main purpose is to serve the people who live locally.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Write at least 250 words.
The plan
| Paragraph | Content |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Note that the two aims conflict less often than the question implies, but that where they do conflict, one must win. Position: local first. |
| Body 1 | The tourist case: revenue, and the fact that visitor income often funds everything else the museum does. |
| Body 2 | The local case: a museum that no local person visits twice becomes a spectacle rather than an institution - and the difference shows in what it collects. |
| Body 3 | My position and the practical test: who does the museum serve on a wet Tuesday in February? |
| Conclusion | Serving locals well is what makes a museum worth travelling to. |
The model essay
Question: Some people think that museums should be designed mainly to attract visitors from other countries. Others believe their main purpose is to serve the people who live locally. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Most museums manage to serve both tourists and residents without much difficulty. But the two purposes do pull apart at the margin - over what is collected, how it is displayed and what it costs to enter - and when they do, I think the local audience should take priority.
The argument for designing around visitors is largely financial, and it is not a trivial one. International tourists pay entrance fees, buy in the shop and eat in the cafe, and in many institutions that income is what keeps the conservation work, the archive and the free schools programme going. A museum that ignored visitors entirely might be admirably principled and unable to open on Mondays. There is also a reasonable case that a country's major collections are part of how it presents itself to the world.
The case for the local audience is less about money and more about what a museum is for. A place that is designed for people passing through once will drift towards the famous, the photogenic and the easily explained, because that is what a single short visit rewards. A museum built for people who might return twenty times has to be deeper than that. It has to hold material of local significance that no tourist has heard of, change its displays, and expect its audience to know something already.
My own test is a simple one: who is the museum for on a wet Tuesday in February, when there are no tourists at all? An institution that has no good answer has become an attraction rather than a museum.
The two aims are not, in the end, opposed. Museums that take their own communities seriously tend to be exactly the ones that visitors travel a long way to see.
Why this answer works
- The introduction refuses the false opposition and then narrows to where the conflict is real. This is more precise than accepting the question's framing wholesale, and it is done in two sentences without dodging.
- Both views are argued generously. Admirably principled and unable to open on Mondays concedes the financial case with wit rather than grudgingly.
- The second body paragraph explains a mechanism - how designing for one-time visitors changes what a museum collects. That causal chain is what makes the argument feel earned.
- The wet-Tuesday test is the essay's memorable move. A concrete test does more persuasive work than an abstract principle, and it gives the opinion paragraph something to be about.
- The conclusion resolves rather than restates, arguing that the two aims converge - a genuine step beyond the introduction.
- Vocabulary is exact rather than showy: at the margin, drift towards, the photogenic and the easily explained, attraction rather than a museum.
- 288 words, both views at similar length, opinion clearly stated.
Language worth borrowing
- the two purposes do pull apart at the margin
- might be admirably principled and unable to open on Mondays
- My own test is a simple one:
- has become an attraction rather than a museum
- The two aims are not, in the end, opposed.
Check your own attempt
- Did you give both views similar space?
- Did you state an opinion clearly rather than implying it?
- Did you find a concrete test or example, rather than staying abstract throughout?
- Did your conclusion add something?
- Are you between 260 and 300 words?
Now try this variation
Some people believe historic city centres should be preserved exactly as they are. Others think they should be redeveloped to meet modern needs. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Try to find a concrete test of your own, as the wet-Tuesday question does here. Abstract principles are easy to write and easy to forget; a test forces you to be specific.
Next
Essay 8: Plastic waste
Causes and solutions.
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