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In an arranged marriage, the choice of a husband or wife is made by parents or elders.

What do you think of this practice in today's society? Discuss. You should write at least
350 words.
SAMPLE ESSAY 1 REMARKS

Before the 20th century our older generations practiced arranged

marriage in their lives where the choice of a husband or wife is made by the
Introductory
parents or elders. In some case of arranged marriage, the woman or man only
statements
gets to meet their bride or groom on their wedding day itself. As the time
passed, the younger generation in these days and age seems to not follow the
tradition and prefer love marriage. However, in my opinion, I agree to a certain STAND
extent that arranged marriage should be practiced in today’s society. Arranged (PARTIAL)

marriage has its own advantages which are get parents’ blessings and secure THESIS
a spouse with good a character while the disadvantage is do not know the STATEMENT

spouse well.

First and foremost, one thing that is definite in an arranged marriage TOPIC
is parents’ blessings as they play a significant role in orchestrating the SENTENCE
(agree)
marriage. Since the choice of a husband or wife is fully made by the elders in
an arranged marriage, they will be overwhelmed by the thought that they have
created a better future for their son or daughter. Their approval and
acceptance become the anchor for an arranged marriage. On the other hand,
Shows comparison
love marriage turns out to be a disaster when the couples do not get the
approval from their parents. For example, the once rosy relationship between
EXAMPLE
the parents and child can become estranged and broken beyond repair. This
will completely break the parents’ hearts as their beloved children act against
them and some even choose to cut ties with the older generation in the family.
Most arranged marriages in today’s society are built with the tears,
disappointments and heartache of the parents. All these will not happen in an
arranged marriage as the couple will obtain the full blessing of their parents MINI CONCLUSION/
TIE-UP
and family.

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 Next, the certainty of one getting a husband or wife with a TOPIC
SENTENCE
respectable character is higher through an arranged marriage. As the alliance
(agree)
is fully planned by the parents or elders, they will be extra cautious and
investigate their future son or daughter-in-law’s character thoroughly. They
will select a person with a good education, positive family background and
mainly with the best disposition. They will not select someone with an
undesirable character and put their child’s life and future at risk. For instance,
EXAMPLE
parents will even make sure the prospective bride or groom has no bad habits
like smoking, consuming liquor and gambling. Besides parents and elders are
matured enough and can differentiate between good and bad better than what
the younger generation is able to do. Most young people in today’s society give
Shows comparison
preference to looks and appearance in selecting their partner. They seem not
to care enough about their partner’s character as long as he or she is good
looking and wealthy. They might choose a wrong person as their life partner as
they only consider certain aspects. Therefore, an arranged marriage enables
MINI CONCLUSION/
one to have a better future as parents and elders will select a person with fine
TIE-UP
qualities for their children.

Although some agree with the principle of arranged marriage in

Change of stand
today’s society, there are still some people who seem unfavourable to it. This
is because, the bride and groom hardly know each other in an arranged TOPIC
SENTENCE
marriage. They will find it difficult to live the rest of their live with someone
(disagree)
they have barely known. After marriage they might not have any interest in
common and this may lead to misunderstandings and unnecessary quarrelling.
For instance, an arranged marriage between an introvert and an extrovert will EXAMPLE
be difficult to work as their preferences will be poles apart. They may be at
each other’s throat all the time which could eventually lead to a separation or
divorce. However, this may not be the case if the individual makes his or her
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own choice of the partner. They will most likely find a person with common
interest and dreams to build their lives together. This will bring the couple
together rather than create a widening gap as what happens in an arranged

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marriage. Hence, some people oppose arranged marriage as knowing a person MINI CONCLUSION/
TIE-UP
well is crucial in sustaining a healthy marriage.

In conclusion, it is indeed true that arranged marriages can be part of

RESTATE STAND
today’s society to a certain extent. There are significant advantages of an &
THESIS STATEMENT
arranged marriage like parents’ approval is certain and get a partner with
admirable character but the disadvantage that one cannot simply deny is the
couple may not know each other well. Nevertheless, the tradition can be kept
alive even in today’s society given that all the parties involved take the Concluding
statements
necessary steps to work on the drawback while holding on to the benefits
closely. Arranged marriages does not have to be an outdated practice but in
fact a blessing in the society today and in future.

SAMPLE ESSAY 2 REMARKS

Despite modern development in both physical and psychological aspects

of today’s society, the medieval practice of arranged marriage in tribes or
Introductory
castes still exists in some rural areas. Arranged marriage is a traditional custom
statements
whereby the spouse of one individual is deliberately chosen by parents or
elders in a community. In lieu of efforts put forth by advocates of freedom in
marriage, the marginalized groups of the society are still plagued with ideas of
antiquity as such. I totally agree that this practice brings forth detrimental STAND

implications as it not only denies one’s freedom to make a choice and could THESIS
lead to incompatibility or worse, a mistake but also impinges on the meaning STATEMENT

of love in a marriage in our society today.

Firstly, arranged marriage is in one way rendering the pursuit of TOPIC

freedom by mankind in vain. It is one form of unnecessity that deteriorates SENTENCE
(agree)
what we yearn for in life – the freedom to make choices and to advocate
independent thoughts. An arranged marriage strips the constituents of today’s

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society of their personal freedom and deprives them of the ability to choose.
In this case, an arranged marriage becomes a stifling relationship accepted not
by choice but more likely by force be it emotional or physical by the elders in
the family or community. For instance, an arranged marriage is fixed between
EXAMPLE
two individuals by their elders for the benefit of strengthening the families’
business ties. However, a person’s quality of life is assessed in today’s
intellectual perspective as being able to upload humanistic values and to
protect basic human rights of oneself and the people. By robbing people of
MINI CONCLUSION/
their privilege to choose how and with whom they want to live their lives, TIE-UP
arranged marriage is an abdication of our moral obligations towards creating a
free society.
Albeit respecting our parents and elders is of the essence, this serves not
as a justifiable ground for an arranged marriage. One may have to consider the TOPIC
SENTENCE
possibility of conflicting interests and errors occurring when arranging a
(agree)
marriage. It has always been a common scene that most elders of a poor tribe
would deliberately seize women off their rights to serve their own interests.
This unscrupulous act provides an anti-argument for the need of arranged
marriage because broken lives are resulted from this. There may also be cases
of deception whereby marriage scandals are the norm. For an example, a male EXAMPLE
proposing through the parents for the female’s love and acceptance may resort
to whatever means in their possession. This could easily include lies,
exaggeration, half-truths and what is believed to be ‘white lies’. In many cases,
false information may be given by the proposing male and most often, the
MINI CONCLUSION/
truth of his behavior is only revealed after the marriage. Hence, it is not an
TIE-UP
uncommon sight to see failed arranged marriages due to clashing interests
even today.

Another point to consider is that arranged marriage affects the

TOPIC
values and how we perceive the meaning of love in a marriage in our society SENTENCE
(agree)
today. The innate ability of mankind to love has always been a sacred aspect
of humans. To love is not mainly to exclaim our appealing interests towards

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someone, but it is to exhaust whatever means we must to provide happiness
in the relationship. What arranged marriage serves to achieve is the contrary
of these views. Through arranged marriages, love to some extent takes the
back seat and is even ridiculed. This is partly due to most arranged marriages
are based on materialistic gains and the desire to improve one’s societal status.
For instance, the size of the dowry and wealth that the arranged marriage may
EXAMPLE
bring removes love from the equation of a blissful marriage and instead puts
the focus on monetary gains. Clearly, the stature of love as the fundamental
intuition of mankind has been affected by this. If arranged marriages were to
MINI CONCLUSION/
be continually practiced, unconditional love that serves as the ideals of society
TIE-UP
would cease to exist today.
In conclusion, it is absolutely true that arranged marriage is not for
RESTATE STAND
today’s practice as it takes away one’s right to choose, causes irreconcilable &
THESIS STATEMENT
differences in the marriage and alters the definition of love in a marriage.
Although altruistic love that could be sought not from arranged marriage
maybe a rare scene today, it has all but continued to be our vision toward living
a live to the fullest. Reverberating the great philosopher Karl Marx’ words,
Concluding
“freedom in development of all classes is essential”, I would say that we must
statements
first find freedom by ameliorating the practice of arranged marriages, because
in that way liberation of our universal values is consolidated.

SAMPLE PARAGRAPH I REMARKS

The benefit of having an arranged marriage in today’s society is to avoid TOPIC

SENTENCE
getting entangled in a bad relationship. Parents always want their children to
have the best including their life partner. They always choose the best spouse
for their children as they view marriage as a lifelong bond, one that ties them
together until death. If the choice is put in the hands of the younger generation, Shows comparison
there is a risk of choosing the wrong person. For example, a criminal or pervert
EXAMPLE
or someone who is only going after them for the sake of their prosperity or

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social status. This can easily cause depression as most people do not talk about
their troubled marriage as a broken marriage is not seen lightly in Asian culture.
In worst scenarios, choosing the wrong life partner could even lead to death if
the spouse is an abuser. It might be too late then. However, things will be
different in the case of an arranged marriage because parents tend to
scrutinize every detail pertaining to the prospective bride or groom and choose
the best person for their child. Hence, arranged marriage is a sure way not to MINI CONCLUSION/
TIE-UP
get involved in a toxic relationship.

SAMPLE PARAGRAPH II REMARKS

Moreover, marriage should be the eternal binding between two individuals TOPIC
SENTENCE
by compatibility. Today, one should have all the more reasons to select his or
her own life partner instead of having this opportunity snatched away.
Arranged marriage does precisely that. Parents or elders controlling the
permission and right of their children to marry someone of different standards,
social status or even race clearly is in contrast with the universal human rights
declared by the United Nations. Not only that, arranged marriage for the
EXAMPLE
purpose of uniting wealth amongst those in authoritative power is a big no as
well as it ultimately takes the decision away from the individual and places it
in the hands of parents or elders. Therefore, an individual’s consent is always
MINI CONCLUSION/
the individual’s own soul-searching path, be it for better or worse, nothing less TIE-UP
than that.

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