Question

Passage A
The city park should be expanded because green spaces improve community well‑being. When people have access to trees, open fields, and walking paths, they tend to spend more time outdoors and less time in traffic‑filled areas. Expanding the park would give residents a healthier, quieter place to gather.

Passage B
Expanding the city park sounds nice, but it’s an unnecessary expense. The city already struggles to maintain the green spaces it has, and adding more land will only stretch the budget thinner. Instead of chasing new projects, officials should focus on fixing what’s already broken.

These two authors are writing about the same idea, but they don’t approach it the same way. In 3–4 sentences, explain how the structure, tone, and main claim of Passage A differ from Passage B.

Point to at least one specific choice each author makes that creates those differences.

• Structure: How does each author organize their ideas?
• Tone: What attitude or feeling does each author express?
• Claim: What is each author trying to convince you of?

Answer 1

Passage A is organized as a straightforward pro‑expansion argument: it asserts a general claim ("green spaces improve community well‑being"), then lists concrete benefits and examples ("trees, open fields, and walking paths") and the positive outcomes they produce. Passage B opens with a concession ("Expanding the city park sounds nice, but") and then pivots to counterarguments about costs and maintenance, ending with a policy alternative ("focus on fixing what’s already broken"). The tones differ: A is upbeat and persuasive, using positive language like "healthier, quieter place," while B is skeptical and pragmatic, calling the project an "unnecessary expense" that will "stretch the budget thinner." Each author’s claim follows from those choices: A tries to convince readers to expand the park for community well‑being, whereas B tries to convince readers to oppose expansion and prioritize repairing existing green spaces.