EYE WRITING TEST: SAMPLE ESSAY WRITING TASK
Is capital punishment morally misguided?
There have been a great number of atrocious crimes in the past decade. As a
result, there are a lot of people who advocate the reintroduction of the death penalty in
Hungary. At the same time, several people are still against capital punishment.
Do you think that capital punishment is morally misguided? Write an
argumentative essay of ca. 250-300 words stating your own opinion on this issue. Make
sure to add SUPPORTING DETAILS to your arguments too. Do not only argue in
favour of your own views, also try to anticipate some COUNTER-ARGUMENTS and
REFUTE them.
Remember that a well-written essay has an introduction, a body and a
conclusion. Also note that NO CONTRACTIONS are allowed in a formal essay. Do pay
attention to the principles of RELEVANCE, COHERENCE and COHESION. Please
also observe the norms of format requirements: paragraph-subdivision, MARGINS,
LEGIBLE handwriting, etc.
You are allowed to prepare a draft copy if you wish. Write your name on the
draft copy, too, as you will also have to hand it in, but first cross out the page to clearly
indicate that it is a draft.
Please write your NAME and NEPTUNE CODE at the top of the separate answer
sheet.
A MODEL ESSAY:
Is capital punishment morally misguided?
As a result of the growing number of grave criminal acts, there is an argument going
on in Hungary whether the death penalty, which was abolished as late as 1989, should be
restored or not. Public opinion varies. There are a great number of people who condemn
capital punishment, while others are totally in favour of its reintroduction.
During the history of mankind, the death penalty has been applied in jurisdiction in
almost every society. It was a generally established custom to use hanging, stoning or
beheading as punishment for serious crimes such as treason, murder, theft and burglary.
However, as a consequence of improvement in moral standards and the changes of value
judgement, larger and larger groups of people consider the death penalty cruel and brutal.
Personally, I agree with them and think it should not be inflicted by law.
One of the most powerful counter-arguments against capital punishment is that it can
not be remedied in the case of miscarriages in justice. Courts can pass wrong judgements for
two major reasons. On the one hand, arbitrators can misuse their power, as it happened during
the Inquisition in the Middle Ages or during the political purges in the last century. On the
other hand, even if the court does good work, some crucial evidence may not come to light or
may be misinterpreted, or the court may be misled by false witnesses. If this only turns out
1
after the execution, there is no way to make amends for the mistake, as the convict cannot be
restored to life again.
Even if we leave the risk of executing the innocent out of consideration and suppose
that the actual perpetrator is found, we have to face moral problems in connection with capital
punishment. Most importantly, everyone has the right to live, independently of his/her acts in
the past, and this also holds true for criminals. Admittedly, those who endanger the order of
society and the safety of its inhabitants must be disciplined somehow, because without
authoritative control society would become anarchic, but it is unnecessary to use such harsh
means of redress as the death penalty.
Some people say that the reintroduction of the death penalty would reduce the number
of crimes, but surveys dealing with this subject do not verify this presumption. According to
the reports, there are no significant differences in the murder rates between the countries that
have capital punishment and those that do not, so it is clear that it does not act as a deterrent to
violent crime.
Some of the supporters of the death penalty think that the execution of dangerous
criminals is necessary, because this is the only way to prevent them from committing further
crimes. As a matter of fact, though, this is not the only way to protect society. Lifelong
imprisonment separates criminals from society, so I think this punishment achieves the same
purpose. Supporters may reject this solution, because it is impossible to guarantee that
convicts do not escape from prison. Those in favour of the death penalty also say that life
imprisonment often only means a number of years spent in prison, as convicts can be set free
on good conduct. I have to admit that these are rather weighty arguments, but we must
presume that the system functions properly in most of the cases, and we cannot let hundreds
of people be executed because of the odd exceptional error.
On balance, I would say that the death penalty should not be reintroduced, because it
is morally misguided. Furthermore, it is not the only possible response to serious crime. There
are other means of penalty, which are equally effective, but they do not require the killing of a
human being.
(The Model Essay is a collation of first- and second-year students’ works. It is presented in a
single-spaced format to save space.)
2