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 local people without much trouble. The two aims do pull apart at the edges, however, over what is collected, how it is displayed and what it costs to enter. Where they do conflict, I believe the local audience should come first.
The argument for designing around visitors is mainly financial, and it is not a weak one. International tourists pay entrance fees, buy things in the shop and eat in the cafe. In many museums that income is what pays for the conservation work, the archive and the free schools programme. A museum that ignored visitors completely might be admirable in principle and unable to open on Mondays. There is also a fair argument that a country's major collections are part of how it presents itself to the world.
The argument for the local audience is less about money and more about what a museum is for. A place 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 keep material of local importance that no tourist has heard of, change its displays, and expect its visitors 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 with no good answer to that has become an attraction rather than a museum.
In the end the two aims are not really 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. That is more precise than accepting the question's framing wholesale, and it is done in two sentences without dodging.
- Both views are argued generously. Admirable in principle and unable to open on Mondays concedes the financial case with a touch of wit rather than grudgingly.
- The third 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 rather than asserted.
- The wet-Tuesday test is the 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 meet in the end - a genuine step beyond the introduction.
- Vocabulary is exact rather than showy: drift towards, the photogenic and the easily explained, an attraction rather than a museum.
- 297 words, both views at similar length, opinion clearly stated. Band 7 to 7.5.
Language worth borrowing
- The two aims do pull apart at the edges, however
- Concedes that a conflict is limited while keeping it real enough to write about.
- might be admirable in principle and unable to open on Mondays
- Concession with a dry edge. Register like this is credited under Lexical Resource.
- My own test is a simple one.
- Introduces a concrete criterion rather than an abstract claim.
- has become an attraction rather than a museum
- Draws a distinction between two words the reader assumed were the same.
- In the end the two aims are not really opposed.
- Resolves a discussion essay without pretending the disagreement never existed.
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.
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