Writing Question
Some teachers at your school think comics are a bad influence on students. They have suggested that the school ban comic books from the school library. Write an article for your school magazine expressing your views. Give three reasons to support your views. Provide an appropriate title for your article.

Every sword has two edges –  What schools should do instead of prohibiting comic books

Do you want to become genteel, intellectual or charismatic? Do you want to promote your reading skills? It is beyond doubt that reading is a first-rate way to do so. Encyclopedic, exceptional, expeditious - if you’re a reader, then perhaps these are some of the ways that other people describe you.

Despite the advantages of reading being widely accepted, some teachers think that comics only provide a bad influence to students. These teachers have suggested that the school prohibits comics from the school library. I fully understand that the school wants to create a good learning atmosphere for the students. My concern is that it would be self-defeating to ignore the learning benefits that comics offer. In this article, I will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of comics.

With the advancement of education, students' learning methods have also become multifarious and distinct. Comics are one of these methods. To start with, comics contain a lot of quality writing. The language is often descriptive and vivid, and provides students with examples of actual conversations in different languages.

Furthermore, comic books encourage students to actually pick up a book and read. Whereas they may not be tempted to pick up a classic novel, comics help students make that first step towards developing a habit of reading. Furthermore, it takes great effort to master a foreign language. Comics can help students master a language better. No matter which language they are learning, the learning process is often tiresome and prolonged. With the funny style of comics, students can more easily immerse themselves into it. That is why many stories are published in a comic-book format.. Another key fact to remember is that many teachers also like to use comics in the teaching process.

Equally important is that comics can help adolescents to learn problem-solving skills. According to recent surveys, a large proportion of comic lovers are adolescents. Readers of comics often relate to the main characters in these comics. This is because the main characters are usually of a similar age and going through similar problems. Consequently, comics can help them gain insight into how to solve problems in actual life. Last but not least, we all know adolescents love to imitate others. If they learn from bad characters, they will become violent. They may easily get into a fight with other people or use foul language in their lives. As far as I am concerned, how teens choose comic books is very important. Teachers can provide a wide selection of educational comics so students will have plenty of choices in the library and be able to avoid reading the violent ones.

In a nutshell, I sincerely hope that our school can reconsider its decision and stop prohibiting comics. Making learning easy and productive remains critical for students’ learning. For these reasons, I hope that students will be allowed to continue to benefit from reading comics in the school library.

4A Blair Lu