This guide uses “society and culture” as an editorial theme for PTE Academic essay practice. The five example prompts cover immigration, cultural preservation, media, globalization and inequality. The examples help you practice building a coherent 200-300 word argument within the 20-minute time limit.
This guide gives five complete PTE essay society and culture sample answers across three common essay prompt types, so you can practice with model answers that contain the range of vocabulary and paragraph development that makes the difference between an average and a high PTE Writing score.
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Prompt: Some people feel social media has negatively affected modern society. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge. Write 200-300 words.
Model answer:
That social media has done more harm to society than good is somewhat true, but it exaggerates the situation because its impact and effects are highly dependent on the user and the context.
The most compelling reason for this view is that it has been established that excessive social media consumption is associated with poorer mental health, especially among young people. Studies in various countries have revealed links between social media use and anxiety, depression and social comparison. Platforms are designed for engagement rather than wellbeing, and when they are used passively and compulsively, these harms are magnified at scale.
But it would be wrong to discount social media’s real contribution to society. It has connected communities often overlooked by mainstream media with spaces for them to organize as a community and be seen. The Arab Spring, #MeToo, and many environmental movements have had a tangible impact on politics or social action that would have been much more difficult without a social media infrastructure.
Social media’s harms are real and serious. However, they are most of all a matter of design and regulation of platforms and not an intrinsic characteristic of technology. There’s scope for more robust and comprehensive regulation and investment in digital literacy education to mitigate the greatest harms while maintaining the authentic social advantages that platforms offer.
Word count: 220. Time target: 18 minutes writing.
Prompt: There is a debate about whether governments should do everything they can to protect the nation’s traditional culture and customs. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples. Write 200-300 words.
Model answer:
Preserving traditional culture is a legitimate task for governments, but preservation may turn culture into a museum exhibit if it ignores culture as a living, evolving social phenomenon.
The most compelling argument for the role of government is the economic and political imbalance between dominant global cultures and local ones. Smaller, less-resourced cultural practices, languages, and art forms must compete with well-resourced commercial media and the homogenizing effect of globalization unless they have active support. UNESCO’s documentation and support of endangered languages is an example of public action that aims to slow the disappearance of several minority linguistic traditions.
But the term preservation must be qualified. Cultures are not immutable, and when governments try to fix one expression of a culture in a timeless form, they can impose an artificial version on communities that have developed beyond it. For example, indigenous groups often object to preservation programs run by the government that dictate the form of the culture, as opposed to letting the communities dictate the course of its evolution.
Funding and facilitating is the most defensible role of any government, not mandating. Governments can fund language classes, festivals and archives, but communities themselves should decide which practices to keep and how they evolve. Preserving what communities want to preserve, and eliminating institutional bias against minority cultures, is the best way to achieve preservation without paternalism.
Word count: 226. Time target: 18 minutes writing.
Prompt: There are different views on the impact of immigration on the host country: some people think that the immigration has mostly positive impacts; some people think that immigration has mostly negative impacts. Explain both opinions and express your own opinion. Write 200-300 words.
Model answer:
Immigration brings real gains to host countries and real costs, and the best way to grasp the net impact is not to settle the issue in favor of either side, but to separate the different kinds of cost and benefit.
Those who stress the benefits of immigration highlight its economic contribution. The contribution of immigrant labor to the skills shortage in industries where the labor force in the host country is unwilling or unable to fill the jobs at the prevailing wage rate is critical. In addition to labor supply, immigrants have disproportionately shown up as entrepreneurs and innovators in a number of high-growth economies. Studies in the United States, Canada and Australia have generally found that immigration has a positive effect on GDP growth and on fiscal balance in the medium to long term.
Those who stress the costs refer to the inequitable distribution of those benefits. Immigration can lead to positive net economic outcomes, but the communities that compete most directly for jobs do not always benefit. Housing pressure in specific localities, rising demand for public services and the speed of cultural change create real social tensions that cannot be explained by quoting national level economic figures.
I think the arguments are more in favor of immigration’s net positive impact, and that the policy question is one of making those gains more equitable to the communities that have to deal with the adjustment costs. Integration programs and investments in targeted localities would help meet the concerns of the second view without depleting the overall contribution of immigration.
Word count: 259. Time target: 18 minutes writing.
Prompt: There are certain people who think that cultural globalization causes loss of cultural identity. There are other people who say that it helps to encourage international understanding. Discuss and state your opinion on both sides. Write 200-300 words.
Model answer:
Cultural globalization is simultaneously eroding local distinctiveness and creating shared frameworks for international understanding, and both effects are real enough to be taken seriously.
Critics of cultural globalization cite the rapid proliferation of the global commercial culture, which is dominated by a small number of mainly Western media, technology and consumer enterprises, taking the place of local ones. Historically and culturally distinct languages, music, cuisines and norms are being replaced within a generation by globalized standards. This is not just a sentimentally felt concern: linguistic diversity, for instance, has cognitive and epistemic value, and languages that disappear are rarely revived. The current rate of homogenization therefore raises questions of irreversibility.
Supporters of cultural globalization argue that the same processes also create unprecedented cross-cultural exposure. Someone in rural Vietnam can now watch a Japanese film, hear a Brazilian song or read a Nigerian novel, which was hard to imagine 20 years ago. This exposure does not guarantee understanding, but it is a precondition for it, and one that previous generations lacked.
In my opinion, the question is not whether globalization will happen, but what form it will take. Genuine exchange, in which smaller cultures influence others as well as being influenced, benefits everyone. What is needed is policy that moves away from one-way influence by a few dominant cultural producers toward a more balanced exchange.
Word count: 224. Time target: 18 minutes writing.
Prompt: In many countries, over the last few decades, there has been an increase in social inequality. What are some of the primary reasons for this trend and what are some solutions you would propose? Explain your answer and use examples to support your explanation. Write 200-300 words.
Model answer:
Over the last 40 years, social inequality in many countries has increased, and the main reason is that several structural changes in the economy have coincided, systematically favoring capital over labor and skilled over unskilled work.
The most important cause is the shift in returns to capital and labor. The gains of capital ownership and highly specific skills have increased significantly, while the returns of routine cognitive and manual tasks have been stagnant or even falling in real terms as economies have become increasingly automated, digital and knowledge intensive. This is a structural shift rather than a temporary one, driven by technology and the greater mobility of capital compared with labor. At the same time, tax systems designed for different economic conditions have not kept pace with the growing concentration of wealth at the top of the distribution.
Effective solutions must narrow the gap in economic returns and widen access to better-rewarded jobs. Increasing the progressive taxation of capital gains, inheritance, and high incomes would raise money for redistributive investment without destroying productive incentives. Another solution is significant and sustained investment in education and retraining infrastructure that provides people with meaningful opportunities to enter into the areas of the economy that are creating economic returns, not the areas being automated. Countries with comprehensive retraining and strong social safety nets, such as Denmark and Finland, have faced similar technological pressures while keeping income inequality well below the OECD average.
Neither taxation nor education alone can fix inequality. The best long-term effects derive from their use in tandem within a well-integrated policy that views the distribution of economic opportunity as a structural issue, not a moral one.
Word count: 275. Time target: 18 minutes writing.
Replace these basic words in your society and culture practice essays:
Instead of “society”: social fabric, communities, public, populations, civic life
Wherever “culture” is mentioned, replace with: cultural practices, social norms, traditions, cultural identity, heritage, shared values
Instead of “immigration”: migration, migrant populations, immigrant communities, newly arrived communities, diaspora populations
In place of “inequality”: socioeconomic difference, concentration of wealth, distributional inequity, unequal opportunity, structural disadvantage
Instead of “change”: transformation, erosion, displacement, evolution, disruption, reconfiguration.
Most frequently used high scoring PTE essay society and culture collocations:
Social cohesion, cultural homogenization, structural disadvantage, distributional consequences, civic participation, institutional reform, policy intervention, net positive contribution, bilateral cultural exchange, asymmetric influence
The most common PTE essay society and culture topics from across various countries include: the influence of social media on communication and mental health, immigration and its impact on the host country, cultural globalization and loss of identity, social inequality and its root causes, the role of the government in protecting cultural heritage, and the correlation between economic development and social wellbeing.
It is important to build a specific example bank for each of these six topic areas before the test so you are not inventing examples under time pressure. Prepare the examples, not the sentences.
Agree or Disagree Prompts: Include a clear position statement in the first paragraph, a supporting reason supported by a specific example in the next paragraph, a consideration and response to the strongest counterargument in the third paragraph, and a restatement of the position with a synthesis in the conclusion.
Discuss Both Views prompts: Summarize both views in the introduction, Body 1: develop one view with evidence, Body 2: develop the other view with evidence, Concluding: give your own assessment.
Yes, but strategically. Some PTE essay society and culture prompts ask “To what extent do you agree or disagree?” or “Discuss both views and give your own opinion” and they are explicit in asking for your take on the issue. Communicate this in analytical statements rather than personal ones. A personal statement such as “I personally think social media is bad because it wastes my time” is weaker than an analytical one: “The evidence suggests social media harms are structural rather than incidental, as platform design prioritizes engagement over wellbeing.” The second version expresses the same opinion as an analytical position.
For a PTE essay on society and culture, aim for 220 to 275 words. This length comfortably clears the 200 words needed for full Form marks, is sufficient for the two body paragraphs with specific details, and stays under the instructed maximum of 300 words, beyond which Form drops from 2 to 1 (301-380 words) and time management gets harder. The five PTE essay culture model answers in this guide have an average word count of 241 words, which is realistic for a well-developed answer in the 20-minute writing time.
Yes. In Agree or Disagree prompts for essays in the PTE, it is important that you stay consistent throughout the essay. Discuss Both Views prompts require balanced treatment of both views before you give your own opinion. Causes and Solutions prompts require analysis of root causes rather than symptoms, and solutions that address those causes. A Causes and Solutions essay written like an Agree or Disagree essay will lose marks on Content. Before you start writing the introduction, determine the type of prompt from the first 30 seconds of reading.
Regular timed practice on the three essay prompt types covered in this guide (Agree or Disagree, Discuss Both Views, and Causes and Solutions) is the best way to achieve a higher writing score. LUME offers comprehensive PTE practice with full mock tests and AI-powered essay scoring that helps you monitor your progress with real data before test day with tasks and sections being analyzed for content, coherence, vocabulary and grammar.
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