More practice with the language you're learning
Supplementary support — grammar, vocabulary, speaking and review — built from language already taught in the course. Not a lesson, and never a test.
1.Notice first: read these and say what they share — "**Name the stake**: 'If we get end-of-life care wrong, what is lost is the last three months of someone else's grandmother's cognition. That is the specific thing.'" / "**Own the position**: 'I think the school day should start later. I'm going to try to convince you. You are allowed to disagree with me and remain a serious person.'" / "**Concede the cost**: 'What I'm asking for would make the working parents' morning harder. I know that. I still think the argument holds. Here's why.'"
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Four moves at C2: (a) NAME THE STAKE — what would actually be lost, and to whom, if we get this wrong; use a specific harm, not a slogan; (b) OWN THE POSITION — first person, not 'we all know' or 'any reasonable person'; the reader is allowed to disagree without becoming unreasonable; (c) CONCEDE THE COST — name what your own preferred position costs the people it would bind; a view that costs no one nothing usually isn't really a view; (d) REFUSE THE CERTAINTY — end on the honest edge of your own thinking, not on a moral verdict on the reader.
2.Rewrite as ethics, not moralising: 'Anyone who opposes this reform is on the wrong side of history.'
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'I think this reform is right, and I don't think its serious opponents are on the wrong side of history. I think they are weighing the same goods differently, and I want to argue with the weighing.'
3.Name a specific stake for: 'We must do more about loneliness.'
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'Fifteen minutes of unstructured human conversation, three times a week, is what many of our over-eighties will now not have from tomorrow morning. That is the specific missing thing.'
4.Concede the cost of your own view on a policy of your choice.
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Model answer will vary; must name a concrete group whose life is harder if the writer's preferred view wins.
5.Sort these into "natural" and "not natural" and justify each decision out loud: "**Name the stake**: 'If we get end-of-life care wrong, what is lost is the last three months of someone else's grandmother's cognition. That is the specific thing.'" · "**Own the position**: 'I think the school day should start later. I'm going to try to convince you. You are allowed to disagree with me and remain a serious person.'" · "**Concede the cost**: 'What I'm asking for would make the working parents' morning harder. I know that. I still think the argument holds. Here's why.'" · "**Refuse the certainty**: 'I don't know whether I'm right. I know what I'd defend on a Wednesday. On a Sunday I'd want to reopen it.'"
6.Build three sentences on this pattern about your own week — one neutral, one emphatic, one tentative.
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Four moves at C2: (a) NAME THE STAKE — what would actually be lost, and to whom, if we get this wrong; use a specific harm, not a slogan; (b) OWN THE POSITION — first person, not 'we all know' or 'any reasonable person'; the reader is allowed to disagree without becoming unreasonable; (c) CONCEDE THE COST — name what your own preferred position costs the people it would bind; a view that costs no one nothing usually isn't really a view; (d) REFUSE THE CERTAINTY — end on the honest edge of your own thinking, not on a moral verdict on the reader.
1.Fill: 'That's a personal preference in ____ clothing.' (1 word)
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ethical
2.Fill: 'Ask yourself: could a serious person ____ with me here?' (1 word)
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disagree
3.Fill: 'End on the ____ ____, not on a verdict.' (2 words)
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honest edge
4.Complete in context: "That paragraph is ______, not ethics — nobody's allowed to disagree and stay respectable."
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moralising
5.Complete in context: "Name the stake. What exactly disappears from someone's life if you're wrong?"
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to name the stake
6.Complete in context: "Own the position. Drop 'we all know'."
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to own the position
7.Complete in context: "Concede the cost. A view that costs no one nothing usually isn't really a view."
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to concede the cost
8.Complete in context: "Refuse the certainty. Say what you'd reopen on Sunday."
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to refuse the certainty
9.Complete in context: "Steelman first, argue second. Anything less is theatre."
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to steelman
10.Complete in context: "That's ______. It doesn't survive a 'why is that wrong for the other person?'"
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a personal preference in ethical clothing
11.Complete in context: "That's ______, and it's why nobody who disagrees will finish the paragraph."
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the decency shortcut
12.Complete in context: "Ask yourself: could a serious person disagree with me here? If not, you're not doing ethics yet."
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a serious person could disagree
13.Complete in context: "End on ______, not on a verdict."
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the honest edge
14.Cover the list. Which words can you still recall, and what does each one add that a simpler word wouldn't?
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moralising — announcing a conclusion from above and demanding agreement as the price of decency | to name the stake — to say specifically what would be lost, and to whom, if the question is decided wrong | to own the position — to state your view in the first person as your view, not as the obvious view | to concede the cost — to name what your preferred view costs the people it would bind | to refuse the certainty — to end on the honest edge of your thinking rather than on a verdict | to steelman — to state an opposing view so well its holders recognise themselves in your account | a personal preference in ethical clothing — a taste or comfort dressed up as a moral claim | the decency shortcut — the rhetorical move of framing disagreement as evidence of bad character | a serious person could disagree — the standard test for whether your argument is ethics or moralising — a serious person on the other side must exist | the honest edge — the point in your own thinking where the case is genuinely still open
1.Give two natural word partners for "moralising" (adjective + noun, verb + noun, or adverb + adjective), then use one.
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Model use: That paragraph is moralising, not ethics — nobody's allowed to disagree and stay respectable.
2.Give two natural word partners for "to name the stake" (adjective + noun, verb + noun, or adverb + adjective), then use one.
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Model use: Name the stake. What exactly disappears from someone's life if you're wrong?
3.Give two natural word partners for "to own the position" (adjective + noun, verb + noun, or adverb + adjective), then use one.
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Model use: Own the position. Drop 'we all know'.
4.Give two natural word partners for "to concede the cost" (adjective + noun, verb + noun, or adverb + adjective), then use one.
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Model use: Concede the cost. A view that costs no one nothing usually isn't really a view.
5.Give two natural word partners for "to refuse the certainty" (adjective + noun, verb + noun, or adverb + adjective), then use one.
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Model use: Refuse the certainty. Say what you'd reopen on Sunday.
6.Give two natural word partners for "to steelman" (adjective + noun, verb + noun, or adverb + adjective), then use one.
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Model use: Steelman first, argue second. Anything less is theatre.
7.Give two natural word partners for "a personal preference in ethical clothing" (adjective + noun, verb + noun, or adverb + adjective), then use one.
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Model use: That's a personal preference in ethical clothing. It doesn't survive a 'why is that wrong for the other person?'
8.Give two natural word partners for "the decency shortcut" (adjective + noun, verb + noun, or adverb + adjective), then use one.
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Model use: That's the decency shortcut, and it's why nobody who disagrees will finish the paragraph.
9.Give two natural word partners for "a serious person could disagree" (adjective + noun, verb + noun, or adverb + adjective), then use one.
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Model use: Ask yourself: could a serious person disagree with me here? If not, you're not doing ethics yet.
10.Give two natural word partners for "the honest edge" (adjective + noun, verb + noun, or adverb + adjective), then use one.
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Model use: End on the honest edge, not on a verdict.
11.Choose three words from this lesson and build one sentence that uses all three naturally.
1.Rewrite so the meaning stays the same but you do NOT use "moralising": "That paragraph is moralising, not ethics — nobody's allowed to disagree and stay respectable."
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Keep the meaning of: announcing a conclusion from above and demanding agreement as the price of decency
2.Rewrite so the meaning stays the same but you do NOT use "to name the stake": "Name the stake. What exactly disappears from someone's life if you're wrong?"
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Keep the meaning of: to say specifically what would be lost, and to whom, if the question is decided wrong
3.Rewrite so the meaning stays the same but you do NOT use "to own the position": "Own the position. Drop 'we all know'."
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Keep the meaning of: to state your view in the first person as your view, not as the obvious view
4.Rewrite so the meaning stays the same but you do NOT use "to concede the cost": "Concede the cost. A view that costs no one nothing usually isn't really a view."
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Keep the meaning of: to name what your preferred view costs the people it would bind
5.Rewrite so the meaning stays the same but you do NOT use "to refuse the certainty": "Refuse the certainty. Say what you'd reopen on Sunday."
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Keep the meaning of: to end on the honest edge of your thinking rather than on a verdict
6.Summarise the lesson's main idea in exactly 20 words — no more, no less.
1.The ethical question you brought.
2.A back-up if yours collapses: 'Should employers be allowed to require workers back into offices five days a week?'
3.A back-up: 'Is it ethical to have a third child in a country with our carbon footprint?'
4.Long turn (2 minutes, no notes): Take the ethical question you brought. In 12 minutes, draft the OPENING 220 words of an op-ed. In 8 minutes, teacher plays an editor: reads it aloud, marks every 'we all know', every 'anyone who', every decency-shortcut, every un-conceded cost, every un-owned position — and you must revise, live, in the room. You cannot leave the draft with any decency-shortcut still intact. If you cannot defend a sentence to a reader who disagrees, the sentence goes.
5.Record 90 seconds using at least four of: to steelman, to name the stake, to own the position, to concede the cost, to refuse the certainty, a serious person could disagree. Listen back and mark one thing to make more precise.
1.Plan first: write a three-line outline (position → strongest support → concession) before you draft.
2.Write a 300-word ethical reflection in the register of the op-ed you read today. It MUST: (a) NAME THE STAKE with a specific harm, not a slogan; (b) OWN THE POSITION in the first person; (c) STEELMAN the strongest opposing view in a paragraph its holders would sign; (d) CONCEDE what your own view costs the people it would bind; (e) REFUSE THE CERTAINTY at the close on the honest edge of your own thinking. Use at least SEVEN target items naturally. Alongside the 300 words, submit a 40-word standalone steelman — one paragraph in the voice of someone who disagrees with you, that a holder of that view would recognise as their own. (300 words + 40-word steelman). Include: moralising, to name the stake, to own the position, to concede the cost, to refuse the certainty, to steelman, the decency shortcut, a serious person could disagree, the honest edge.
3.Model analysis: compare your text with the model. What does the model do in its first and last sentences that yours doesn't?
1.Examiners at Band 5 reward candidates who take a defended position and refuse false certainty. The ethical moves — name-stake, own-position, concede-cost, refuse-certainty — map directly to the C2 Writing rubric's 'holds a nuanced position with control'.
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For any Part 2 essay on a public question, open with NAME-THE-STAKE (a specific harm, not a slogan) and OWN-THE-POSITION (first person, not 'we all agree'). Close with REFUSE-THE-CERTAINTY — the honest edge of your own view, not a verdict. That opening/closing pair alone lifts a solid essay into the top band.
2.Where does the piece NAME THE STAKE with a specific harm rather than a slogan?
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'A family sits in a hospital corridor, and a doctor tries in five minutes to guess what a stranger would have wanted.' And later, the risk that 'a version of me in fifteen years, tired and short of money and desperate for the house to be sold, will read the wine list differently.' Both are concrete, not abstract.
3.Where does the piece STEELMAN the opposing view without irony?
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Paragraph 3: 'that is not a stupid objection and I do not think you hold it because you don't love your mother. You may hold it precisely because you do.' The opposing view is stated in a form its holders would recognise, with their motive charitably attributed.
4.Where does the writer CONCEDE THE COST of their own position?
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Paragraph 4 in full — puts a burden on doctors, asks a family to speak from a wine-list conversation, and names the future self who might read it in bad faith. All three are costs the writer's own view creates.
5.How does the piece REFUSE THE CERTAINTY at the close?
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Wednesday-self vs Sunday-self. Neither version is dismissed. The verdict-shaped ending is refused; the essay closes on the reality of the writer's own unfinished thinking rather than on 'therefore we must'.
6.Where is 'we' EARNED in this piece, and where is it AVOIDED?
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'We' is almost entirely avoided — the essay is 'I', 'you', 'my mother', 'a family'. The one 'we' — 'let us be the author of the last chapter' (rendered as 'we should let her') — is the writer speaking as the daughter, not as a spokesperson for the reader. That is why the piece never triggers the decency-shortcut alarm.
1.In your own words, when do you use "Ethics in public: name the stake · own the position · concede the cost · refuse the certainty"?
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Four moves at C2: (a) NAME THE STAKE — what would actually be lost, and to whom, if we get this wrong; use a specific harm, not a slogan; (b) OWN THE POSITION — first person, not 'we all know' or 'any reasonable person'; the reader is allowed to disagree without becoming unreasonable; (c) CONCEDE THE COST — name what your own preferred position costs the people it would bind; a view that costs no one nothing usually isn't really a view; (d) REFUSE THE CERTAINTY — end on the honest edge of your own thinking, not on a moral verdict on the reader.
2.Complete naturally: "That paragraph is ______, not ethics — nobody's allowed to disagree and stay respectable."
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moralising
3.Complete naturally: "Name the stake. What exactly disappears from someone's life if you're wrong?"
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to name the stake
4.Complete naturally: "Own the position. Drop 'we all know'."
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to own the position
5.Complete naturally: "Concede the cost. A view that costs no one nothing usually isn't really a view."
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to concede the cost
6.Complete naturally: "Refuse the certainty. Say what you'd reopen on Sunday."
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to refuse the certainty
7.Two-minute retell: summarise the reading/listening from this lesson without looking at it.
8.When did you last publicly moralise about something, and what did it cost you with someone whose mind you wanted to change?
9.Which of the four moves — name-stake, own-position, concede-cost, refuse-certainty — did you find hardest today, and why?