Onterra TutorShould governments keep funding the arts when budgets are tight?
TOEFL iBT writing question in the official format, with a full model answer and notes on why it scores. Write your own version below it and get an instant rater-style score.
The question
Your professor is teaching a class on economics. Write a post responding to the professor's question. In your response, express and support your opinion and add to the discussion in your own words. A strong response has at least 100 words.
Professor Vargas: When public budgets are tight, arts funding is often the first thing cut. Should governments continue to fund theatres, galleries and orchestras, or should the arts depend on ticket sales and private donors?
Ines: Public money should go to hospitals and schools first. If people genuinely value a play or an exhibition, they will pay for it, and wealthy patrons have supported the arts for centuries.
Bakary: Ticket sales only fund what is already popular. Public money keeps regional theatres and new work alive, and those are exactly the places where the next generation of artists is trained.
Model answer
Bakary is closer to the truth, and the reason is what funding actually buys. Ines is right that a hospital treats a patient and a gallery does not, but that comparison assumes the two budgets are the same size, and they are not: arts spending is usually a rounding error next to health. What that small sum protects is the part of culture no ticket buyer will pay for in advance, which is work that has not proved itself yet. Private patrons fund the famous, because famous is safe. I would add one condition Bakary skips. Public money should follow participation rather than prestige, so a community theatre training teenagers deserves it more than an opera house that already sells out.
Why this answer scores
- Attacks the hidden assumption in the opposing view (that the budgets are comparable) rather than just disagreeing.
- Adds an original condition about participation over prestige, which is the new contribution raters look for.
- Around 125 words with controlled, varied sentences and precise phrases like 'private patrons fund the famous'.
Do not memorise model answers; raters recognise recycled essays instantly. Study the moves, then make them with your own ideas, and check where you stand with a scored practice.
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