how to write an essay about telling the truth

Is Telling the Truth Always Good? Research Paper

Truth is a virtue that is upheld by individuals and most societies around the globe. Telling the truth has been for ages held as a virtue and as a sign of honesty in human beings. It is a sign of respect for other people by showing them that you value their trust in you. It is important to note that telling the truth does not always bind a person to respond to every situation one is faced with. It can therefore be argued how one is supposed to respond to such situations. In this case we would ask ourselves whether it is always the best option to be honest and tell the truth or it is sometimes easier to tell lies and safe the situation of the day. This paper will generally focus on the importance of always telling the truth no matter the kind of situations we are faced with. Telling the truth can be held as always the better option.

The Virtue of always telling the truth helps to build ones character as an honest person. It does not really matter whether the act of telling the truth especially in difficult situations will put you into more problems. This is because one’s mind is cleared of guilt conscience. The mind is also cleared of any contradictions and one does not have to really always remember what you said to every one (Michael, p10). This is because you will not be afraid that a certain situation will come and the answer you might give might contradict the first one. Truth does not change and if one always tells the truth you don’t have to think and twist answers to save yourself. On the other hand telling the truth is good since this might prevent more problems to be created in future either in your life or other people’s lives. Once the truth about a situation is known, it can be handled with every possible solution to either solve problems of the day or be lessons to you and other people (Jean, p13).

It is always true that if one is used to telling the truth the people that you deal with will be more likely to tell the truth to you. This makes life very easy since you will also not have problems with the persons around you trying to think what is true and what is not true. You will be always a good example to the others. A person who learns to always tell the truth will also build a lot of self confidence. Being always true means no one can put you down for what you said as a form of deceit. This also makes one to be always proud of who they are. Since telling the truth clears one’s mind of guilt conscience, it follows that telling the truth reduces chances of a person being stressed. One is therefore able to always present themselves in a good manner, eat well and also improve on their physical appearance (Jean, p22). Truth also helps other individuals have confidence in you and also believe in you. This virtue assures other people that when things don’t work out as they should you will always present it as it is and this is what every one values as a bold person.

Telling the truth sometimes will hurt other people (Michael, p24). In such cases one should always try to use words and ways of expressions that will be taken in a very understanding manner. This is especially when we are dealing with very close friends, families and work colleagues. For example a friend asks you if a dress or a hair style is looking good on them. If you are sure it is not attractive one can respond with answers such as, “Am not certain this is your color or style.” In this way one can be able to automatically know they are not looking good and they will be willing to ask for opinions from you. It is also argued that sometimes we lie by telling the truth. The necessity of telling the truth also matters with the outcome of the situation. A false statement also has a degree of falsity and these measures whether one is really telling the truth or not. Not telling the truth does not really make some body a liar since the sole intention and the reactions by the speaker is what matters. What others believe about an individual also matters and some times telling the truth will only deceive the loyalty they hold on you. IT is therefore possible to not tell the truth and still get the satisfaction of others. He argues that telling the truth is always not part of the solution to everything (lumpur, p6).

A large number of individuals would consider not telling the truth with the sole intention of making other people believe in false facts. One may therefore argue it is good to not tell the truth in certain situations. The act of not telling the truth is considered a vice in the society and generally not accepted. The motive of not telling the truth is mostly directed towards preventing people from acting in a certain manner that may cause pain or hurt the informant. This then motivates the persons to make decisions or act in favor of the other person (Ben). Normally, People will not tell the truth because they are afraid of facing the consequences that might follow the truth. People also tell lies to save the situation of the day. One may not tell the truth because they consider it a short term solution of their problems. This is then followed by a series of lies as one tries to save the previous lies which might have been discovered and to avoid contradiction (Michael, p27).

In some situations one may weigh the cost of lying and that of telling the truth and decide the former is easier to handle. Individuals also find it easier to keep lying about different matters especially if one is used to not telling the truth to find favor. A perfect lie is said to be one that will result to some kind of benefit and which no one will find about. It can also be a lie that is used to divert people who will never affect once life either to add or reduce value (Ben). Life is very complicated and one may not be able differentiate who will be of benefit to you later in life and who will not. It is also very difficult to tell whether a certain lie will actually be discovered or not. It is very important to note that once a person learns to use lies as scapegoats to situations, the lies will finally be a habit and form patterns that are often repeated. Such repeated patterns will eventually give rise to a mistake and this might attract heavy consequences.

Mazur clearly brings out the vice of lying as corrupting the rational thinking of human beings. It denies one the freedom to make rational choices to reflect reality and also robs others their rationality and moral ethics (p15). It causes a lot of pain to the human dignity upon discovery of the truth. It diminishes the way we value ourselves and also the value we give to other individuals. The act of lying or not telling the truth clearly depicts the social uncertainty prevailing in the society and the lack of understanding the rules and authorities of personal behavior. Lying only acts as a solution to the dissatisfaction that we may have to go through by telling the truth (Bailey, p29).

In conclusion, it is always good to tell the truth since this increases one’s credibility. It helps in molding the relations-ships between individuals since they will be based on trust and believing in each other. The vice of not telling the truth no matter the consequences will always lead to short term solutions which may turn out to be bigger problems between individuals in future. The vice will eventually lead to a lot of enmity between individuals which might even cause psychological stress. The actual cost of not telling the truth is therefore higher than telling the truth. People should always weigh the cost of lying as a risk of creating enemies and losing their credibility as individuals who can be believed in.

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Truth Essay Guide - Importance of a Truth Today

Any topic expressing a particular view of truth is a good idea as it's an all-time relevant issue. While working on a truth essay, you should combine examples from real-life, widely-accepted definitions, and personal experience to identify this phenomenon as accurately as possible.

If this writing guide, we will explain how to write an essay about truth, explore the matter in terms of prompts and topics, and provide you with some simple examples and tips.

What to Write in Your Truth Essay?

An essay on such a specific topic isn't a separate type of academic paper - it's just writing with a different subject matter. Defining it is not that easy. Our beliefs and perception of truth may vary depending on subjective experience and even life values. That is why one of the simplest strategies would be to come up with a definition of truth. There, you don't have to argue that lying is evil, and we should be honest with each other. You can just provide a trustworthy definition to the phenomena and analyze the way the world translates its importance. The main sources one can use for this paper are reliable websites and dictionaries.

And what if you're writing a philosophy essay? This is what is preferred the most amongst the college students because Philosophy offers more self-expression. Here, every opinion may be considered relevant if you provide the reader with reliable evidence and reasonable statements. But don't forget about the coherence. While being immersed in your thoughts, you may forget about the essay structure and start beating around the bush. To avoid that, pay attention to the structure of your truth essay and don't neglect to outline your assignment. Here is an example of how you can start this writing:

"I think that truth is one's perception of beliefs and decisions. The contrasting points of view predetermine the way each of us understands this phenomenon and answer the question, 'What is true or false?'. There is only one thing that unites all possible definitions of truth and makes people agree on it. That is something believed to be accurate while the opposite is wrong."

So, a philosophy essay on this topic is based more on the author's opinion than an official definition from the dictionary.

Master Absolute Truth Essay Writing

We've gone through two most popular assignment types that the students of different schools frequently deal with. But there are truth essays with other purposes that we must consider. Look through the following list with short explanations.

• Descriptive. Involving touch, smell, hear, sight, taste, try to describe what a true is by these means.
• Narrative. Create a narration in which the frankness will be a core idea.
• Compare-contrast. Analyze why people express the same or completely different opinions on truth.
• Cause-effect (problem-solution). Consider the consequences the world actually is facing because of the lie.
• Argumentative. Formulate an idea related to the topic and provide arguments showing your statement is true and valid.
• Persuasive. Convince the reader that a certain statement is/is not the truth.
• Reflective. The way you reflect on being honest or telling lies.

So, when you are assigned to write an essay on truth, you may focus on the purpose that interests you the most (unless the type is assigned)

10 Great Truth Essay Topics

There are many students thinking that truth essays are all about "grass is green" and "the moon has craters" issues. The joke is it's not true - there are many great ideas to write about. It depends on which aspect you wish to focus as well as the type of academic paper you have to turn in. Here are some questions to consider:

• The issue of true words through the history of mankind.
• Locke's theories of truth correspondence.
• The link between truth and honesty.
• The challenges of being sincere.
• The consequences of pretending to be someone else.
• The idea of honesty in "Dear Evan Hansen."
• Lies VS Truth: A never-never-ending battle.
• Importance of being honest as a postmodern thought.
• Situations in which lies could be justified.
• Lying to dear people. How do they know about you being dishonest?
• The correspondence theory of truth in everyday life.
• How lying can distort our sense of reality.

The range of possible topic options is far wider - just decide a knowledge of what life aspect, science, or course you can successfully apply in your assignment.

Essay Thesis Statement

Each paper of this type should have a frankness-related thesis statement. That is the main idea of the entire writing that should appear in the opening paragraph (introduction). In your conclusion, you may paraphrase the thesis from the first paragraph to remind people of what you plan to talk about. However, we advise you to make conclusions more valuable than that and come up with thought-provoking ideas.

Essay about Honesty

Now, we're going to provide several examples, and the first one is an essay about truth and honesty. These two terms are interrelated, and one can barely exist without another. You may start with something like this:

"How is telling accurate things related to honesty? Honesty is one of the best human traits as it refers to always being open, no matter how bitter or sweet it is. Honesty is what makes human beings brave and robust, and that is why it is one of the most significant traits of candidates to become a president and other ruling authorities. It can lead to certain problems, but people tend to sympathize with those who are honest. It's an integral part of morality, which is the best policy in relationships; it's a significant building block."

Essay about Lies

Is life worth lying? In an essay about lies, you may compare and contrast two opposites. It is okay if you think that telling lies is more beneficial than being frank in specific cases. Share some examples and try to prove your position by providing relevant evidence. Here's an example that can inspire you:

"Is there a single person in the world who has never told a lie throughout life? Excluding Jesus Christ and some other saints from the Bible, everyone has experienced lies from both sides - telling and being told. A completely honest person is a myth. It's not because all people are bad and insincere. In my essay, I'm going to prove that telling lies in some situations may save one's life."

Importance of Being Frank in Our Life

Here, you should provide enough arguments against lying. You may recall some episodes from your favorite movies or just depict real-life examples when telling lies ended up dramatically for both sides. One of the good examples could be Evan Hansen from the "Dear Evan Hansen" musical. There, the socially anxious boy pretended to be the friend of his classmate who committed suicide to make friends with his family. Then, he becomes a hero in the eyes of other people. It all resulted in a big confusion, and the boy was left with nothing.

Truth Essays for Kids

Such an essay for kids should explain what the matter of truth is from a childish perspective. Avoid using difficult, complex terms from philosophy or other science as your target audience won't understand the text. Try to explain what each complex term means.

"In human frankness, there is essential and biggest virtue. Sincerity refers to speaking exactly what you think and feel, and an honest man never tells a lie. We should start telling only the true things since our early days, and here, a lot depends on our parents. You might have had these conversations with them already. Lying to parents is the biggest sin, so practice being honest with them and people around. You may tell lies only in sporadic cases, ensuring that no one will suffer from it, but benefit."

Custom Truth Essay for Students

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• Why Truthtelling Is Important

Besides emulating the character of God, truthtelling is critical for a flourishing society. Therefore, except in rare circumstances, God mandates it. Though God’s command would be a sufficient motivation, theologians and philosophers have identified other reasons as well.

• Authentic Communication Requires Truthtelling

Truthtelling is essential for authentic communication to occur, and makes genuine interaction between people possible. That is, if truth were not expected, it would not be long before communication would entirely break down. Imagine what it would be like living in a society in which no one expected the truth. How could a person discern what is accurate and what is a falsehood? On what basis could a person make important decisions if there was no expectation of the truth? Life would be chaotic without the norm of honesty.

This is essentially the view of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, and the principle of universalizability of truthtelling (though he would not support the notion given here that there are exceptions to the universal norm). Kant argued that this principle was the test of a valid moral principle, and used truthtelling as one of his primary illustrations. He insisted that for a norm to be legitimate, it must be universalizable—applicable to everyone. One of his illustrations envisioned what might happen if no one accepted the norm in question. He correctly argued that without a universal norm of truthtelling, the basis for communication would be in jeopardy, and a society in which this was not a norm would not be functional. [1] This is recognized by the fact that virtually every civilization has some kind of norm that promotes truthtelling and prohibits deception. [2]

• Trust and Cooperation Require Truthtelling

Truthtelling builds trust and civil cooperation among human beings. Trust is critical for a prosperous society, and being a person of one’s word establishes trust and trustworthiness. [1] The Mosaic Law underscored this in Deuteronomy 25:15, connecting honest dealings with Israel’s prosperity in the land. “You shall have only a full and honest weight; you shall have only a full and honest measure, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (also see Leviticus 19:36). Similarly Proverbs brings out the connection between trustworthiness and social harmony. Proverbs 3:29 emphasizes that trust among neighbors is what enables them to live in peace, not fearing harm from one’s neighbor. Further, Proverbs emphasize that trustworthiness brings healing to both relationships and communities (Prov. 13:17, 25:13). Adam Smith was very clear that honest dealings and trustworthiness were critical for a properly functioning market system. Cultures that are given to corruption are often in the most impoverished parts of the world, since it is more difficult and risky to do business in cultures in which the level of trust is low. Similarly, companies in which there is a culture of distrust typically have higher costs of doing business, since they require costly regimens of oversight. They also have intangible costs, as employees tend to be more reluctant to “go the extra mile” for their employer and tend to be less eager to embrace change and less committed to their work.

• Human Dignity Requires Truthtelling

Truthtelling treats people with dignity. To tell someone the truth is a measure of respect that is missing when someone is lied to.

The Scriptures illustrate this with the Genesis account of Jacob and his service to Laban (Genesis 29-30). Jacob works seven years for the right to marry Rachel and after the years of service are complete, Laban deceives Jacob and substitutes his less desirable daughter Leah as Jacob’s bride. Jacob is justifiably outraged at being deceived and treated with such disrespect (Gen. 29:25). Jacob returns the disrespect to Laban in Genesis 30 when he deceives Laban with respect to the flocks that Jacob is tending for Laban, separating out the stronger flocks for himself and leaving the weaker ones for Laban (Gen. 30:42).

Similarly in 2 Kings 12, when it came to the money for the repair of the temple, there were certain workmen who were so trustworthy that the overseers of the repairs did not need an accounting of the money they spent for the repairs. Because they were honest, they were treated with dignity and trust by the king and by the priests in charge of temple repair (also 2 Kings 22:7). This is also borne out by the proverb that warns a person, “Well meant are the wounds a friend inflicts, but profuse are the kisses of an enemy” (Proverbs 27:6). The enemy who multiplies kisses is the one who showers a person with false flattery, deceiving the person into the illusion of friendship and trust, when in reality, he is the enemy. Here, deception treats the person being deceived as a pawn to be manipulated for the deceiver’s own selfish purposes, not as someone with dignity who is deserving of respect. Disrespect also comes through in, “A lying tongue hates its victims; and a flattering mouth works ruin” (Prov. 26:28; also Prov. 26:18-19, 24, 26).

The right of a person to make his or her own autonomous decisions is based on having accurate information, so much so that people often and understandably feel violated and disrespected when they are deceived. A person’s autonomy is weakened when they are deceived. This is evident in the example of Jacob and Laban. Jacob’s autonomy to marry the woman of his choice was completely undermined by Laban’s deception, since Jacob would never have married Leah if left entirely to his own choice (Genesis 29:17-20). It is further evident in Jacob’s reciprocal deception of Laban, since Laban would not have managed the flocks to his obvious financial disadvantage had he not been deceived so effectively by Jacob (Gen. 30:42-43).

Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals , tr. James W. Ellington, (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1993, original, 1785), 30-36. See also, Kant’s essay, “On a Supposed Right to Tell Lies from Altruistic Motives,” ibid.

See C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (New York: Macmillan, 1943). See especially the appendix for a listing of the virtues in common to most of the world’s major civilizations. There are rare exceptions to this—a few cultures hold treachery and deceit as virtues. See for example, Don Richardson, Peace Child: An Unforgettable Story of Primitive Jungle Treachery , 4th edition (Ventura, California: Regal, 2005).

For more on this, see Francis Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (New York: Free Press, 1995).

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Table of Contents

• Truthtelling in the Bible
• Truthtelling is the Norm in the Bible
• Exceptions to Truthtelling in the Bible
• Truthtelling in the Workplace
• Financial Statements Must Tell the Truth
• There May Be Exceptions to Truthtelling in the Workplace
• Puffery/Exaggeration
• When Someone Has No Right to the Truth
• Deception to Obtain Information You Have a Right to Know
• Information You Have No Right to Know
• Social Implications of Protecting Information Others Have No Right to Know
• Conclusions About Truth & Deception
• Key Biblical Texts on Truth & Deception

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Contributors: Scott Rae Adopted by the Theology of Work Project Board October 3, 2012. Image by Used under license from Veer . Used by permission.

Author: Theology of Work Project

Theology of Work Project Online Materials by Theology of Work Project, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . Based on a work at www.theologyofwork.org

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© 2012 by the Theology of Work Project, Inc.

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Home — Essay Samples — Philosophy — Truth — Is It Better to Tell the Truth or Lie

Is It Better to Tell The Truth Or Lie

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Published: Sep 1, 2023

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TOEFL Essay 2 – Telling the truth

TOEFL – Quick Essay Analysis

Here is a sample essay for TOEFL Writing (Independent Essay). It is a topic about an abstract concept -a moral value, so candidates need to think about this carefully. An analysis of the question shows that the essay required appears to be one of ‘agree/disagree’ so this essay is essentially argumentative. In this sample, the author has chosen to disagree that truthfulness is no longer necessary today. The author’s stand is implied in the first paragraph, without the express use of the word ‘disagree’ but nonetheless, the author’s stand is clear. Three main points were put forth to support the author’s stand.

Sample Topic/Question

Truthfulness is a virtue that is held in high regard in many societies. However, modern life sometimes presents situations where it is better not to tell the truth. Do you agree or disagree that the truth is not always necessary and that sometimes it is even better not to be truthful? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.

Sample Answer:

As we have evolved as a society, some people contend that often, the line between truth and untruth has been blurred. The question is whether it is still necessary to be truthful all the time. My personal view is that truthfulness is still very much needed and the proverbial grey area is nothing but a convenient excuse created by the liars in our society.

The most important reason for us to be truthful is to uphold and maintain our integrity. A truthful person is someone dependable who can be relied on to present things honestly. The old adage, ‘Honesty is the best policy’, still applies today. If someone is honest, it means that others can put their trust in that person and this trust is often translated into favorable reviews which are worth far more than gold.

Those who argue that it is acceptable to tell white lies may present a convincing case at first, but a lie is still a lie, regardless of the intention of the lie. In the long run, telling the truth will always be for the greater good. For instance, when a woman asks, ‘How do I look?’, some people may be tempted to tell a white lie and tell her that she looks good even though the opposite may be the case. I personally think that it is better to tell the woman the truth from the onset rather than spare her feelings now but allow her to be laughed at by someone else later.

Another simple reason to tell the truth is that it is far less stressful than having to keep up the pretense that comes with lies. Often, one lie will lead to another one and soon, the liar will find that it is quite stressful trying to keep up with the web of lies. Living with the fear of being found out can take its toll on any person.

In conclusion, there are some universal values which will never erode with time and truthfulness is one of them. Truth will prevail over lies at any time in any situation, and if everyone were to understand this basic principle, the world will be a better place to live in.

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Why is truth-telling so important? Our research shows meaningful reconciliation cannot occur without it

Research Associate, Deakin University

Professor of Race Relations, Deakin University

Disclosure statement

Vanessa Barolsky received funding to conduct research on community truth-telling from Reconciliation Australia, Deakin University and the Centre for Inclusive and Resilient Societies.

Yin Paradies receives funding to conduct research on community truth-telling from Reconciliation Australia, Deakin University and the Centre for Inclusive and Resilient Societies.

Deakin University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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This article mentions ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and contains references that feature antiquated language.

Truth-telling is a key demand in the Uluru Statement and is seen as a vital step for both the Voice to Parliament and a Treaty. However, there has been ongoing debate as to whether historical injustices against First Nations peoples need to be addressed today.

Wiradjuri and Wailwan lawyer Teela Reid posed a question in a 2020 essay, is Australia ready to Gari Yala (speak truth) and reckon with its past?

We recently conducted a study to investigate this question by looking at First Nations community truth-telling practices. Our study found these communities have shown significant leadership in truth-telling, often without resources or support. Importantly, they have invited non-Indigenous people to also take part in truth-telling.

Truth-telling can take the form of memorial and commemorative events, repatriation of remains and cultural artefacts, the renaming of places, and the creation of public artworks and healing sites. A recent example is the Yoorrook Justice Commission’s truth-telling commission. Yoorrook released the truth-telling report this week, providing 46 recommendations for reforms into Victoria’s justice and child protection systems.

We found when non-Indigenous people participated in truth-telling with First Nations communities, it helped build a deeper shared understanding of the past and the achievements of First Nations peoples. This is why truth-telling is a collective social responsibility and non-Indigenous Australians are crucial participants.

But there is still much work to do. Many important historical events and First Nations achievements remain largely unrecognised. Sustained funding and support and the recognition of Australia’s difficult historical truths are crucial.

Read more: First Nations people have made a plea for 'truth-telling'. By reckoning with its past, Australia can finally help improve our future

Our research findings

Our research focused on documenting community truth-telling that reclaimed First Nations sovereignty and self-determination, as well as recognising colonial violence. We did in-depth investigations through 25 case studies, including ten in which we held yarning interviews with community organisers. These interviews helped shed new light on rich and diverse ways to engage with the truths of colonial history.

In the MacArthur region of New South Wales, reconciliation group Winga Myamly worked to make sure the 1816 Appin massacre on Dharawal Country is recognised and commemorated annually .

In the massacre, at least 14 (likely more) Aboriginal men, women and children were killed by members of a British Army regiment. The regiment chased the group to nearby cliffs at Cataract Gorge where many jumped to their deaths.

The 2019 commemoration brought together Dharawal Elder Aunty Glenda Chalker, a descendent of Giribunger, one of the survivors of the massacre, and Sandy Hamilton, descended from Stephen Partridge, who served with the regiment that carried out the attack.

In Portland, Victoria, a towering gum leaf sculpture, Mayapa Weeyn (meaning “make fire”) was erected near the site of the Convincing Ground massacre . This is where between 20 and 200 members of the Kilcarer Gunditj clan were killed by British whalers.

The sculpture recognises all 59 Gunditjmara clans, many of whom were killed during the Eumeralla Wars that followed the Convincing Ground massacre. Gunditjmara Elder Walter Saunders, who designed the sculpture, spent two years building it and talking with local residents in an informal process of truth-telling.

In Tasmania, the Mannalargenna Day Festival commemorates Pairrebeenne/Trawlwoolway leader Mannalargenna. Mannalargenna tried to negotiate to save the lives of Aboriginal people in Tasmania who had been devastated by the Black War during the 1830s.

Our study found truth-telling is more effective when it occurs through immersive experiences. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural practices, such as smoking ceremonies, walking on Country, storytelling and personal engagements with survivors, contributed to healing, dialogue and a deeper shared understanding of history.

Through these events Indigenous people deepened their connections to community, history and Country and non-Indigenous people learned about these connections from them. The increasing attendance at events such as the Appin massacre memorial, the Mannalargenna Day Festival and similar commemorations is evidence of the impact of this type of truth-telling.

Read more: 'Why didn't we know?' is no excuse. Non-Indigenous Australians must listen to the difficult historical truths told by First Nations people

Why is truth-telling important?

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have long called for Australia’s history to be told truthfully. The local truth-telling activities we have documented are examples of how communities have responded to this desire. They emphasise the importance of supporting communities to tell their stories, rather than government directing how truth-telling occurs.

While truth-telling does not guarantee reconciliation, the participants in our study stressed that meaningful reconciliation cannot occur without it. They emphasised the importance of reconciliation between First Nations and non-Indigenous communities because for some people these relationships have never existed, or are in need of repair.

Truth-telling is also crucial for political and social transformation. For example, the Queensland government is using truth-telling to help inform the path to Treaty. In Victoria, the Yoorrook Justice Commission is investigating historic and ongoing injustices experienced by First Nations peoples, alongside ongoing Treaty negotiations.

Read more: What is NAIDOC week? How did it start and what does it celebrate?

Community truth-telling can demonstrate the power of Indigenous identity and self-determination. It can also counter past attempts to erase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from Australian history.

Truth-telling highlights the crucial roles and contributions of First Nations peoples. Their acts of bravery and sacrifice, resistance against colonialism and contributions to communities.

Although some local governments have played a key role in supporting truth-telling, more support for local initiatives is required. National proposals, such as a national recognition of Mabo Day and a formal remembrance for frontier conflicts, have the potential to create a better environment for truth-telling.

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• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• truth-telling
• Voice to parliament
• First Nations people

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Write It Sideways

Telling the Truth in Memoir: More Than Just Facts

July 22, 2013 Christi Craig Filed Under: Non-Fiction

Today’s article is written by regular contributor  Christi Craig.

“Memoir is not an act of history but an act of memory, which is innately corrupt.” ~ Mary Karr , author of  The Liars’ Club

I don’t plan on writing a memoir. My life may be busy and fulfilling , chaotic and frustrating at times, but I doubt I could compile my 42 years into a riveting 300 page book of Me. Still, there are certain stories my gut wants me to put down on paper.

Like the one about the summer I turned twenty-two, when I climbed into the back seat of a tiny Isuzu Trooper and rode all the way from Norman, Oklahoma to the Catskills of upstate New York. So much changed for me during that trip, change embodied in the green hills of Pennsylvania as they rose and fell alongside me like waves. I left in one state of mind and returned a totally different person: tan, nursed by the woods of Rhinebeck, New York. And, in love.

And another about how, the week after my mother died, I desperately clung to whatever artifacts of hers I could, from her Bible to that pair of gaudy glasses she wore in the late eighties. Those glasses sat out on a table at my house for months, maybe a year. Why did she keep them, and why couldn’t I let them go?

As I begin to put some of these memories down into  tiny essays , I realize more and more that memoir—in long form or in short—presents an ongoing challenge: that of telling the truth.

The Fact of the Matter

It isn’t that I don’t remember the details, or that I worry about who said exactly what. When it comes to memoir and memories, you “tell the stories as accurately and artfully as your abilities allow,” as Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd say in Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction . The Who, What, Where and When of a story shouldn’t vary between two people, but the How or Why might unfold in entirely different ways.

After my road trip from Oklahoma to New York that summer, I flew home to visit my parents and discovered that their marriage was quickly falling apart. Or perhaps, after too many years of strain, the threads holding them together finally unraveled. Either way, in the months that followed, I found myself in the middle of their divorce. By choice, but also because I didn’t know better. Certain events and conversations stick with me in uncomfortable ways, so I’ve tried to write about them. The facts are set down easily enough; it’s everything in between—and the potential effects afterward—that present the hazards.

Emotional Consequences

“There is a ripple effect each time a memoir is published, and while the memoirist cannot fully prepare for it, he or she should expect it.” ~ Anthony D’Aries in  Writing Lessons: Memoir’s Truth and Consequences

The ripple effect, that’s what I worry about. How can I write what I saw and heard and felt and avoid shedding negative light on someone I love? Do I need to write those stories? Even more important, must I share them?

I’m a writer. It’s what I do, how I understand the world around me. And, I know I’m not alone in walking this tricky line when writing about personal experiences . So, I’ve been studying books, talking with other writers, and asking for critiques of my early drafts . Here are a few tips I’ve picked up so far:

• First drafts are for your eyes only. Sometimes, I have to get through all the weird and uncomfortable and (what feels like) an inventory of wrong-doing before I get to a place of real understanding or peace about an event. First drafts offer a safe haven for such writing, because I’m the only one who will be reading the work at this point anyway.
• Check your motives.  Through each rewrite after that first draft, I ask myself, Why am I writing this? And, who is the main focus in this story? Never, ever, write for revenge. And, as Kidder and Todd in  Good Prose  say, “ Be harder on yourself than you are on others. . . . You will not portray [them] just as they would like to be portrayed. But you can at least remember that the game is rigged: only you are playing voluntarily.”
• Share the story with someone you trust. I’ve requested feedback from a family member as well as other writers on some of my recent work, asking if my story reads full of self-pity or too much criticism of another or less literary and more fit for my journal. When writing memoir, friends or family may be just as valuable as writing partners.
• Let it go. After I’ve checked my motives and revised an essay time and again, after I’ve discussed it with someone else (and rewritten it one more time), then I have to let it go. Like D’Aries says, we cannot control what others think or how they see an event in comparison with the way we saw and understood it. But, if we’re driven to put our stories on paper, and share them with others, then we have to be ready to face every consequence—good and bad.

Do you write memoir in short or long form? How do you move beyond the anxiety of telling the truth?

About Christi Craig

Join the discussion.

July 23, 2013 at 5:33 am

Great post, Christi. Flash memoir is hot, and a great way to get those “snapshot” memories out there, but even in those short pieces you can be treading tricky terrain. I’m working on a long memoir and have many short pieces I’d like to submit, but some of them make me gulp when I think about it. These are great tips for reviewing those pieces before I hit send.

July 23, 2013 at 9:17 am

Both the book by Kidder & Todd and the Rose Metal Press guide are excellent books for anyone working on nonfiction, especially flash. I’m actually leading a workshop at the end of August on flash nonfiction using both these books as primary resources. If you’re in town, I’d love to have you join us!

July 23, 2013 at 9:11 pm

Hello Christi Craig, I’m totally agree with your great post ! The sense of this article is really amazing & great…I’m totally unable to share what I really feel insight of my heart for this post.

July 23, 2013 at 9:38 pm

This article is very helpful. A year ago I showed the unpublished manuscript of a book poetry — about the loss of our 21-year-old son — to several other poets and two close friends, and asked them to read it and give me honest responses. I was surprised and hurt to hear my close friends found it too overwhelmingly sad. I’d thought they’d understand, I thought i had “dialed down” the “volume” of sadness enough. For 6 months I could not face the manuscript myself I was so disappointed by their response. Now, almost a year later, I have revised the book a lot, have taken some poems out. The book is still not published because I still feel something has to settle / distill / that I am waiting for a turning of the season. When that has happened, I will be able to let it go. Then I will feel brave enough to trust in the book’s own ability to find its readers. Thanks.

July 24, 2013 at 12:44 am

Anne, You put it well, some things need to settle and distill. Time has given me nice distance from certain events that I couldn’t have written about before and helped me weed out more maudlin parts. Good luck with your manuscript. I think it’s important we pay attention to our instincts that pull us–again and again–back to certain pieces or stories.

July 23, 2013 at 9:40 pm

This article is very helpful. A year ago I showed the unpublished manuscript of a book poetry — about the loss of our 21-year-old son — to 2 close friends, and asked them to read it and give me honest responses. I was surprised and hurt that they found it too overwhelmingly sad. I’ thought i had “dialed down” the “volume” of sadness enough. For 6 months I could not face the manuscript myself but now, almost a year later, I have revised the book a lot. The book is still not published because I still feel something has to settle / distill / that I am waiting for a turning of the season. When that has happened, I will be able to let it go. Then I will feel brave enough to trust in the book’s own ability to find its readers. Thanks.

July 23, 2013 at 10:01 pm

Hi Christi, I’ve been following your blog for a while, but I haven’t written to you before. I have been working on my memoir for over ten years, had two agents, and have been rejected by every publisher out there. Now I am doing my MFA, and my peers are encouraging me to keep working on it even though I feel exhausted by the process. There is something holding me back, and mainly, I think it’s because my story includes the stories of my mothers, one of whom I would be alienating completely if it were published. I decided to only work on the first eight years of my life, prior to my adoption, which had nothing to do with my second mother. It’s amazing how much guilt and resurrection occurs when you work on memoir. It’s all I can write, really, because there is so much to write about. I think the honesty thing is why we call it “creative” nonfiction. We cannot recall every conversation, but I focus not on the words, but on the images. My memories ground me in my narrative. Good topic! thanks for writing it.

July 24, 2013 at 12:54 am

Marina, Thanks so much for your comment. I completely understand how you feel. Since writing this post, I signed up for an online class with Lisa Romeo called Writing About Loved Ones ( http://lisaromeo.blogspot.com/p/one-week-workshops-you-choose-week.html ). Within the workshop (which is only a week & only offered during the summer), Lisa mentions a quote by Kim Barnes who says we should write about loved ones with “complexity and compassion.” In doing so, we give them more depth and lean less on who did what & why it hurts so. I would certainly recommend Lisa’s course and wish you much luck with your manuscript!

July 23, 2013 at 11:06 pm

Great post. I think this is one of my favorite blogs these days – and this is certainly an issue I’ve struggled with myself.

My memories are what they are, and I do recognize they may not be accurate. When I write about family, I start with writing out what I remember, good or bad, and then I may speculate on motive.

I don’t make the assumption that bad people do bad things because they like being bad. That’s too simple. Sometimes, speculation on the ‘why’ of a circumstance can be as interesting as the event itself, and certainly softens the blow of a bad event.

July 24, 2013 at 12:56 am

Dianna, Thanks! And, I agree with you: write first, speculate in later drafts. As they say, the real writing happens in the rewriting.

July 24, 2013 at 12:40 am

Suzannah, thank you for inviting Christi to post her thoughtful commentary on Write It Sideways. Christi, I am posting nightly entries from the diaries I kept in high school and college on my blog, currently called A 1961-65 Park College Diary. I like to think of those entries as snippets or vignettes from my life. This summer I am posting entries from my summer back in Iowa, written 50 years ago to the night. Occasionally I omit something about another person that would serve no useful purpose to post. My thinking is that if I had not chosen to write about it in the first place, it wouldn’t have made it into the diary.

July 24, 2013 at 12:58 am

Barbara, What a cool project. Journal writing is a lost art, I fear, with so much Social Media in our presence these days. I love that you’re keeping it alive in this way.

July 24, 2013 at 1:20 am

Great advice. When I was working as a freelance editor, most of the books brought to me were memoirs. They were often “oh poor me” or revenge pieces and I’d have to turn them down. Or people would get so caught up in the minutia of “the facts” that they’d forget story.

The truth is it’s very hard to create a compelling narrative arc in memoir, so the “memoiric essay” is, I believe, the best form for memoir. Great insights here, Christi!

July 25, 2013 at 3:33 am

Thanks so much, Anne!

July 24, 2013 at 2:15 am

As someone who has been writing fiction for years currently making a foray into writing a memoir, I couldn’t agree with your four points more. It’s a different process, writing memoir, it certainly is! I’ve experienced every one of the things you’ve listed during the writing: writing a first draft for my eyes only; always questioning the motives; sharing excerpts of the second draft with a few trusted and honest readers to tell me how it reads. I am still working on the fourth point and some days I seriously wonder if I will just cram the whole thing in a drawer once it is completed. It’s a sad story. I’m trying to find the light and redemption in it that will balance this out.

The story has haunted me for almost 30 years. I’ve spent that time looking at the events in it from every angle. Many of them have ‘seeped’ into my fiction. The memoir is an attempt at finding the order in the chaos of the events of that time head-on and with direct honesty. Of course, I can’t possibly remember the details of the conversations, the exact chronology of events, the way things looked… it’s too far in the past. The thing I focus on, in this regard, is to remain true to the emotional landscape of the story: I ask myself constantly, as I write, ‘Is this emotionally true?’ ‘Is this true to my experience?’ If it’s not, I try to figure out why – am I glossing it? deflecting something? — and then I rewrite until it is. This can sometimes require a brutal honesty of my own role in the story that can be downright humbling, but I think that by doing this, it keeps the story honest, even if the ‘facts’ aren’t exact.

July 25, 2013 at 3:38 am

Cynthia, I love what you say here, “the emotional landscape of the story.” Even in just putting down the facts, we have to consider which facts we choose to include and which we leave out, as they all affect the emotional landscape of a story.

Good luck with your memoir!

July 27, 2013 at 1:38 am

Great article! Oh boy, how nonfiction presents its own challenges. Facts can be easy enough to report, as mentioned near the beginning of the article, but when you get to states of mind of different people things become blurry, interpretable, and relative. I imagine after writing as objectively as possible, then it may be helpful to remind the reader somehow in the text (without directly addressing them) that the writer’s thoughts as well as the writer’s interpretation of other characters’ states of mind are just that: an interpretation.

And I never really thought about it before, but maybe the question of audience is more important in nonfiction than fiction. Maybe sometimes what’s written should just be for the writer? I don’t know. But even when we write for others where characters are portrayed in a possibly negative light, I imagine we just do our best to write without any judgement. And, possibly write those particular negative scenes from a respective distance without gratuity? Like in a horror movie, we don’t always need to see the actual gore to feel and know what’s going on.

This article really made me think. Would love to read more by this author. Nice job.

July 31, 2013 at 5:11 am

Michael, Thanks for your comment. Definitely, audience plays a part in anything we write. And, I’m working on another piece of nonfiction right now that keeps falling in and out of the “submittable” pile to “other eyes shall never see.” Until I finish the piece (to the best of my abilities today), I won’t know whether to share it or keep it.

July 28, 2013 at 11:08 am

Thanks for this post. I’m so happy to read all these comments, too. I’m 50K into a memoir about love and some days it’s so hard to face the page again. I’m glad I’m not alone in this process. I usually write poetry and the length of this book is such a different beast compared to writing a book of poems.

July 31, 2013 at 5:13 am

Evelyn, Longer works are certainly difficult to tackle. I’m learning, though, that shorter works sometimes drag me along at an even slower pace, just as much (with more aches and pains). But we keep at it! Good luck with your memoir.

August 22, 2013 at 4:55 pm

It just not only article, in fact it’s amazing & superb & appreciable post about truth & life. I really like & appreciate it.

September 24, 2013 at 7:40 am

great post. i have a weekly letter to write to my professor and her topic to write on was the quote from Mary Karr. I enjoyed your piece and it also gave me insight of what a memoir should be, because i also have a paper to do on writing a memoir. so again thanks.

November 23, 2013 at 4:47 am

I’m in the midst of memoir, younger generations wanting information, but have become aware by their questions, that:

genalogy may list some women, but will follow the male line, and focus on the stories about the males in the family that support an idea of heroism and patriarchy if the women’s stories are told at all, it will be about their purity, goodness, delicious cookies, and generally how they supported the male’s life.

For example, a recent conversation about a grandmother’s gift at decorating was responded to with a question about guns, and exictement and glorification of the collection and the marksmanship etc. But how does one who lived it include the terror, the misuse to batter and abuse, the money spent on the collection but not food, or even a chair to sit on, the armed threats and drunkenness? And finally, the mother’s constant struggle to protect herself, and that’s why she is memoirized as a b*****?

[…] talking truth in memoir at Write It Sideways this week in a post that’s generating some great discussion. I hope you’ll stop by and […]

[…] At Write it Sideways, Christi Craig has a fantastic take on “Telling the Truth in Memoir: More than Just Facts”: https://transfer.writeitsideways.com/telling-the-truth-in-memoir-more-than-just-facts/ […]

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TOEFL Prep Online Guides and Tips

2 perfect-scoring toefl writing samples, analyzed.

The Writing section can be the most daunting section of the TOEFL. You’ll have 50 minutes to write two complete essays that must meet multiple requirements and show a strong grasp of English. Knowing what graders are looking for and reviewing TOEFL Writing samples can go a long way towards helping you get a high score on this section.

This guide will go over both of the TOEFL Writing tasks, explain how they’re graded, go over a high-scoring TOEFL Writing sample for each essay type, and end with TOEFL Writing examples for you to analyze.

The TOEFL Writing Section

The TOEFL Writing section is 50 minutes long (broken into two parts) and contains two tasks: Integrated Writing and Independent Writing. It’s the fourth and final section of the exam. You’ll type both essays on the computer. The next two sections will explain the format and requirements of each of the writing tasks as well as how they will be scored.

TOEFL Integrated Writing Task

The Integrated Writing task requires you to use listening, reading, and writing skills.  For this task, you’ll have three minutes to read a short passage, then you’ll listen to a short (approximately two-minute long) audio clip of a speaker discussing the same topic the written passage covers.

You’ll have 20 minutes to plan and write a response that references both of these sources in order to answer the question . You won’t discuss your own opinion. During the writing time, you’ll be able to look at the written passage again, but you won’t be able to re-hear the audio clip. You’ll be able to take notes while you listen to it though. The suggested response length for this task is 150-225 words.

By the way: we have built the world's best online TOEFL course . Get online practice (TPO-sytle!) and individual grading and feedback on Speaking and Writing.

Learn how you can improve your TOEFL score by 15 points today .

For this essay, you’ll be graded on the quality of your writing as well as how well your response represents the main points of the audio clip and written passage and how they relate to each other.  Each essay receives a score from 0-5. For both essay types, you can check out the complete rubric used for official grading. Below are key points from the Integrated Writing rubric. ( You can view complete rubric for both essays here .)

TOEFL Independent Writing Task

For the Independent Writing task, you’ll have receive a question on a particular topic or issue. You’ll have 30 minutes to plan and write a response to that topic that explains your opinion on it. You’ll need to give reasons that support your decision. It’s recommended that your response to this task be at least 300 words.

You’ll be graded on how well you develop your ideas, how well your essay is organized, and how accurately you use English to express your ideas.

Top-Scoring TOEFL Integrated Writing Sample

Below is an official TOEFL Integrated Writing sample question and as well as an essay response that received a score of 5.  It includes a written passage, the transcript of a conversation (which would be an audio recording on the actual TOEFL, and the essay prompt.  After the prompt is an example of a top-scoring essay. You can read the essay in full, then read our comments on what exactly about this essay gives it a top score.

Integrated Writing Example Prompt

You have three minutes to read the following passage and take notes. In many organizations, perhaps the best way to approach certain new projects is to assemble a group of people into a team. Having a team of people attack a project offers several advantages. First of all, a group of people has a wider range of knowledge, expertise, and skills than any single individual is likely to possess. Also, because of the numbers of people involved and the greater resources they possess, a group can work more quickly in response to the task assigned to it and can come up with highly creative solutions to problems and issues. Sometimes these creative solutions come about because a group is more likely to make risky decisions that an individual might not undertake. This is because the group spreads responsibility for a decision to all the members and thus no single individual can be held accountable if the decision turns out to be wrong.

Taking part in a group process can be very rewarding for members of the team. Team members who have a voice in making a decision will no doubt feel better about carrying out the work that is entailed by that decision than they might doing work that is imposed on them by others. Also, the individual team member has a much better chance to “shine,” to get his or her contributions and ideas not only recognized but recognized as highly significant, because a team’s overall results can be more far-reaching and have greater impact than what might have otherwise been possible for the person to accomplish or contribute working alone.

Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.

(Professor) Now I want to tell you about what one company found when it decided that it would turn over some of its new projects to teams of people, and make the team responsible for planning the projects and getting the work done. After about six months, the company took a look at how well the teams performed. On virtually every team, some members got almost a “free ride” … they didn’t contribute much at all, but if their team did a good job, they nevertheless benefited from the recognition the team got. And what about group members who worked especially well and who provided a lot of insight on problems and issues? Well…the recognition for a job well done went to the group as a whole, no names were named. So it won’t surprise you to learn that when the real contributors were asked how they felt about the group process, their attitude was just the opposite of what the reading predicts. Another finding was that some projects just didn’t move very quickly. Why? Because it took so long to reach consensus…it took many, many meetings to build the agreement among group members about how they would move the project along. On the other hand, there were other instances where one or two people managed to become very influential over what their group did. Sometimes when those influencers said “That will never work” about an idea the group was developing, the idea was quickly dropped instead of being further discussed. And then there was another occasion when a couple influencers convinced the group that a plan of theirs was “highly creative.” And even though some members tried to warn the rest of the group that the project was moving in directions that might not work, they were basically ignored by other group members. Can you guess the ending to *this* story? When the project failed, the blame was placed on all the members of the group.

You have 20 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response will be judged on the basis of the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the points in the lecture and their relationship to the reading passage. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words.

Summarize the points made in the lecture you just heard, explaining how they cast doubt on points made in the reading.

TOEFL Integrated Writing Sample Essay

The lecturer talks about research conducted by a firm that used the group system to handle their work. He says that the theory stated in the passage was very different and somewhat inaccurate when compared to what happened for real.

First, some members got free rides. That is, some didn’t work hard but gotrecognition for the success nontheless. This also indicates that people who worked hard was not given recognition they should have got. In other words, they weren’t given the oppotunity to “shine”. This derectly contradicts what the passage indicates.

Second, groups were slow in progress. The passage says that groups are nore responsive than individuals because of the number of people involved and their aggregated resources. However, the speaker talks about how the firm found out that groups were slower than individuals in dicision making. Groups needed more time for meetings, which are neccesary procceedures in decision making. This was another part where experience contradicted theory.

Third, influetial people might emerge, and lead the group towards glory or failure. If the influent people are going in the right direction there would be no problem. But in cases where they go in the wrong direction, there is nobody that has enough influence to counter the decision made. In other words, the group might turn into a dictatorship, with the influential party as the leader, and might be less flexible in thinking. They might become one-sided, and thus fail to succeed.

TOEFL Writing Sample Analysis

There are three key things this TOEFL example essay does that results in its high score:

• Clearly presents main points
• Contrasts lecture and reading points
• Few grammatical/spelling errors

This essay clearly organizes the three main points made in the lecture,  which is what the first part of the prompt asked for. (“Summarize the points made in the lecture you just heard.”) There is one paragraph for each point, and the point is clearly stated within the first sentence of the paragraph followed by specific details from the lecture. This organization makes it easy to follow the writer’s thinking and see that they understood the lecture.

Additionally, the essay clearly contrasts points made in the lecture with points made in the reading. Each main paragraph includes an example of how the two are different, and the writer makes these differences clear by using words and phrases such as “however” and “this directly contradicts.” Stating these differences answers the second part of the prompt (“explain how they cast doubt on points made in the reading”) and shows that the writer understood both the lecture and reading well enough to differentiate between the two.

Finally, there are only a few minor spelling and grammar error s, the most noticeable of which is the incorrect use of the word “influent” in the final paragraph (it should be “influential”), and they do not detract from the meaning of the essay. This writer shows a strong grasp of the English language, a key TOEFL skill.

This essay shows that the writer understood the main points of both the lecture and the reading well enough to both describe them and contrast them. That, along with the relatively few mechanical errors, gives the essay a top score.

Top-Scoring Independent TOEFL Writing Sample

Below is an official Independent Writing prompt and top-scoring sample essay. Beneath the essay we analyze what about the essay resulted in it receiving a top score.

Independent Writing Example Prompt

Directions Read the question below. You have 30 minutes to plan, write, and revise your essay. Typically, an effective essay will contain a minimum of 300 words.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Always telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Independent TOEFL Writing Sample Essay

the traditional virtue of telling the truth in all situations is increasingly doubted by many in today’s world. many believe that telling the truth is not always the best policy when dealing with people. moreover, the line of a “truth” is becoming more and more vague. this essay will explore the importance of telling the truth in relationships between people.

we all understand that often the truth is offending and may not be a very nice thing to both hear or say. lies or white lies often have their advantages. the manipulation of white lies is the most obvious the business world. how many times have we heard that some product is “the finest” or “the cheapest”? how many times have we heard that products have such and such “magical functions”? advertising is about persuasion, and many would agree that if a company is to tell the absolute truth about it’s products, no one would be interested in even having a look at the products.

the same logic applies to human relationships. if your friend had worn a newly purchased dress on her birthday and energetically asked you if it was a worthy buy, would you freely express your opinion that you had never seen a dress as the one she’s currently wearing? and spoil her birthday? unarguably, hiding(entirely or particially) the truth in some situations can be quite handy indeed. confrontations and disputes can seemingly be avoided.

however, there is always the risk factor of the truth emerging sooner or later when telling an untruth. the basic trust in any relationships(businessman/customer, friends, parents/children) will be blotched, and would have an impact on the future relationship between both parties. the story of the “the boy who cried wolf” fully illustrates the consequenes of telling untruths. no one will believe you when you’re telling the truth. your word will have no weighting.

in addition, another “bad factor” of telling untruths is that you have absolutely no control over when the truth(of previous untruths) will emerge. untruths breed pain in both parties: tears when the truth is uncovered after a period of time; fear and the burden of sharing a “secret”. in the long run, it seems that hiding the truth is not beneficial to either party. everyone hates betrayal. even if it is the trend to occasionally hide the truth in relationships, it is strongly recommended that not to follow that trend as the risk and the consequences of the truth unfolded overwhelms the minimal advantages one can derive from not telling the truth. afterall, it is understood that relationships are founded on “trust” which goes hand in hand with “truth”. indeed telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship between people. always.

There are three key things this essay does that results in its high score, and each is explained in more detail below.

• Is well organized
• Uses specific examples

The essay, like the first one, is well organized. The writer’s position is clear within the first few sentences, and the rest of the essay elaborates on that position. Each paragraph begins with a new major point that is then explained. This logical flow of ideas is easy for readers to follow and shows that the writer knows how to set up a clear argument.

Another reason the essay received a top score is because the writer used specific examples to make her point. By using specific examples, such as a friend buying a new outfit and asking your opinion and phrases businesses use to sell products, the writer makes her argument stronger and more concrete.

Finally, despite the lack of capitalization throughout the essay, there are few spelling and grammatical errors, and the ones that do exist don’t detract from the meaning of the essay or make it confusing to understand. This shows a strong command of English and the ability to write in-depth essays that are clear and get their point across.

Where to Find More TOEFL Writing Samples

Below are a list of other places, official and unofficial, where you can find TOEFL Writing examples. You can use these examples to get a better idea of what a high-scoring essay looks like and what graders are looking for on the Writing section.

Official Resources

Official resources are always the best to use since you can be sure the essay prompts are accurate and the sample essays were accurately scored.

TOEFL iBT Writing Sample Responses

This resource contains several sample essays (including the two sample responses used above). The essays from on this site received different scores as well as analysis of why they received the score they did. This can be helpful if you want more information on, say, what differentiates an essay that got a “5” from an essay that got a “4”.

TOEFL iBT Test Questions

This is a complete practice TOEFL, but it does include several sample essays along with score explanations so you can get a more in-depth look at how and why different essays received the scores they did.

Unofficial Resources

There are numerous unofficial TOEFL writing samples out there, of varying quality. Below are two of the best.

TOEFL Resources

This site has several dozen sample essays for both the Integrated and Independent Writing topics. There’s no scoring analysis, but you do get a good variety of essay topics and essay samples so that you can get a sense of how to approach different essay prompts.

Good Luck TOEFL

Good Luck TOEFL has seven sample Independent Writing essays (no Integrated Writing). There’s no scoring analysis, but the essays and prompts are similar to official TOEFL essay topics.

Review: Analyzing TOEFL Writing Examples

Writing can be a particularly tricky TOEFL section, and seeing TOEFL Writing samples can go a long way to helping you feel more confident. For TOEFL Writing, you’ll need to write two essays, the Integrated Writing Task and the Independent Writing Task.  Looking over the rubrics for both these essays and understanding what graders will be looking for can help you understand what to include in your own essays.

Both essays are scored on a scale of 0-5. Top-scoring essays generally need to have good organization, specific examples, answer the prompt completely, and minor spelling and grammar errors. It can also be useful to review other TOEFL writing samples to get a better idea of what a great TOEFL essay looks like.

What’s Next?

Looking for more information on the TOEFL Writing section? Learn all the tips you need to know in order to ace TOEFL Writing!

Want more tips on how to prepare for TOEFL Writing questions? Check out our guide to the best ways to practice for TOEFL Writing!

Want to improve your TOEFL score by 15 points?

Registration is now open for our best TOEFL course . We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your TOEFL score by 15 points or more.

PrepScholar TOEFL is online and it features thousands of practice questions and 1-on-1 Speaking and Writing review and feedback.

Looking for a great TOEFL prep book?  A good prep book can be the most important study tool you use, and we have information on all the best TOEFL prep books you should consider.

Ready to improve your TOEFL score by 15 points?

Author: Christine Sarikas

Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries. View all posts by Christine Sarikas

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IELTS Essay Topic: Always telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship between people.

• Updated on  
• May 16, 2023

Q- Always telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship between people. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Ans- Honesty and truthfulness are essential values that form the foundation of any relationship between people. While some individuals argue that always telling the truth is the most important consideration, others contend that there may be exceptions where withholding the truth may be necessary. I partially agree with this and in this essay, I will discuss the importance of truthfulness in any relationship while exploring situations where it may be necessary to withhold or delay the truth.

The primary reason why truthfulness is important in any relationship is that it establishes trust between individuals. When people are honest with each other, they can rely on each other’s words and actions, which strengthens their bond. For instance, in a romantic relationship, partners who are truthful with each other can trust each other with their vulnerabilities, which can deepen their intimacy and strengthen their connection. On the other hand, if individuals lie or withhold the truth, it can erode trust and damage the relationship over time. Furthermore, honesty promotes open communication, which is crucial for any relationship to thrive. When individuals are truthful with each other, they can communicate freely without fear of judgment or repercussion. This fosters a safe environment where both parties can express their opinions and feelings, which can help resolve conflicts and deepen their understanding of each other. In contrast, dishonesty can lead to misunderstandings, miscommunications, and ultimately, the breakdown of the relationship.

However, there may be instances where telling the truth may cause harm or have negative consequences. In such cases, it may be necessary to withhold or delay the truth. For example, if a person is undergoing a difficult time, revealing the truth may cause further distress. In such cases, it may be better to wait for an appropriate time to reveal the truth or to deliver it in a way that is gentle and compassionate. Moreover, in certain situations, the truth may be withheld to protect the safety or well-being of an individual or a group.

In conclusion, always telling the truth is crucial in any relationship as it establishes trust and promotes open communication. However, there may be situations where withholding or delaying the truth may be necessary. Therefore, individuals should prioritize honesty and truthfulness in their relationships, but also exercise discretion and compassion when dealing with delicate or sensitive issues. By doing so, individuals can build healthy and enduring relationships that are based on trust, respect, and understanding.

Outline statement:  Honesty and truthfulness are essential values that form the foundation of any relationship between people.

Paraphrased statement:  While some individuals argue that always telling the truth is the most important consideration, others contend that there may be exceptions where withholding the truth may be necessary.

Thesis statement:  I partially agree with this and in this essay, I will discuss the importance of truthfulness in any relationship while exploring situations where it may be necessary to withhold or delay the truth.

Body paragraph 1-Topic sentence: The primary reason why truthfulness is important in any relationship is that it establishes trust between individuals.

Body paragraph 1- Supporting evidence:  When people are honest with each other, they can rely on each other’s words and actions, which strengthens their bond. For instance, in a romantic relationship, partners who are truthful with each other can trust each other with their vulnerabilities, which can deepen their intimacy and strengthen their connection. On the other hand, if individuals lie or withhold the truth, it can erode trust and damage the relationship over time.

Body paragraph 1- Analysis: Furthermore, honesty promotes open communication, which is crucial for any relationship to thrive. When individuals are truthful with each other, they can communicate freely without fear of judgment or repercussion. This fosters a safe environment where both parties can express their opinions and feelings, which can help resolve conflicts and deepen their understanding of each other. In contrast, dishonesty can lead to misunderstandings, miscommunications, and ultimately, the breakdown of the relationship.

Body paragraph 2- Topic sentence: However, there may be instances where telling the truth may cause harm or have negative consequences.

Body paragraph 2- Supporting evidence: In such cases, it may be necessary to withhold or delay the truth.

Body paragraph 2- Analysis:  For example, if a person is undergoing a difficult time, revealing the truth may cause further distress. In such cases, it may be better to wait for an appropriate time to reveal the truth or to deliver it in a way that is gentle and compassionate. Moreover, in certain situations, the truth may be withheld to protect the safety or well-being of an individual or a group.

Conclusion: In conclusion, always telling the truth is crucial in any relationship as it establishes trust and promotes open communication. However, there may be situations where withholding or delaying the truth may be necessary. Therefore, individuals should prioritize honesty and truthfulness in their relationships, but also exercise discretion and compassion when dealing with delicate or sensitive issues. By doing so, individuals can build healthy and enduring relationships that are based on trust, respect, and understanding.

Vocabulary 

Honesty and truthfulness are essential values that form the foundation of any relationship between people. While some individuals argue that always telling the truth is the most important consideration , others contend that there may be exceptions where withholding the truth may be necessary. I partially agree with this and in this essay, I will discuss the importance of truthfulness in any relationship while exploring situations where it may be necessary to withhold or delay the truth.

The primary reason why truthfulness is important in any relationship is that it establishes trust between individuals. When people are honest with each other, they can rely on each other’s words and actions, which strengthens their bond. For instance, in a romantic relationship, partners who are truthful with each other can trust each other with their vulnerabilities , which can deepen their intimacy and strengthen their connection. On the other hand, if individuals lie or withhold the truth, it can erode trust and damage the relationship over time. Furthermore, honesty promotes open communication, which is crucial for any relationship to thrive. When individuals are truthful with each other, they can communicate freely without fear of judgment or repercussion . This fosters a safe environment where both parties can express their opinions and feelings, which can help resolve conflicts and deepen their understanding of each other. In contrast, dishonesty can lead to misunderstandings, miscommunications, and ultimately, the breakdown of the relationship.

However, there may be instances where telling the truth may cause harm or have negative consequences . In such cases, it may be necessary to withhold or delay the truth. For example, if a person is undergoing a difficult time, revealing the truth may cause further distress . In such cases, it may be better to wait for an appropriate time to reveal the truth or to deliver it in a way that is gentle and compassionate . Moreover, in certain situations, the truth may be withheld to protect the safety or well-being of an individual or a group.

Linkers and Connectors Used in this Essay

Linkers and connectors used in this essay are:

• Furthermore
• For instance
• On the other hand
• In contrast
• In conclusion
• Ultimately 

Are you preparing for IELTS? Check out this video to improve your writing skills for the IELTS exam given below👇.

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• IELTS Essay Topics

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Purti Chawla

Purti is a CELTA, British Council, and IDP-certified language trainer. Having worked as a Study Abroad Test Prep Expert for the past 7 years, she has guided thousands of students towards their desirable scores in IELTS, TOEFL, GRE, GMAT and other language proficiency tests to study abroad. She is adept in molding learning strategies according to the needs of the learners and has built multiple courses at Leverage IELTS with result-oriented strategies. Proficient in test prep courses such as IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, and Duolingo, she loves to explore different classroom teaching methods, keeps continuously improving her own skills, and stays abreast with the latest teaching methodologies. She is a master trainer at Leverage Edu and aims to help thousands more through her expertise.

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Test Resources

TOEFL® Resources by Michael Goodine

Sample toefl essay – should we always tell the truth, the question.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Sometimes it is better to be dishonest with people than to always tell them the truth. Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.

Special Offer: TOEFL Essay Evaluation and Scoring

You can now sign up to have your practice essays evaluated and scored by the author of this web page.  It’s a great way to learn how you will do before test day and how you can best prepare for the test. Sign up today .

The Sample Essay

         Maintaining healthy relationships can be very difficult in today’s world, and there are many aspects of our interactions with others that we need to worry about.  In my opinion, there are times when it is better to not tell the truth to others. I feel this way for two reasons, which I will explore in the following essay.

          First of all, telling small lies can sometimes motivate the people we care about to excel. Humans are very competitive and want to be the best at whatever task they have been assigned. Whether they are involved in an athletic event or taking a test at school, they feel more motivated if they think it is possible that they will achieve an impressive result.  In cases like these, sometimes lying about their potential can encourage them to perform well. My own experience is a compelling example of this. Last year, my husband signed up for a marathon in our city. I knew that he would struggle to even finish the event, but I wanted him to feel confident about his ability. Accordingly, when he asked me for my opinion, I lied and said that he had a chance of finishing in the top ten. This gave him a lot of confidence and he dedicated himself to training for the marathon.  Even though he did not win the race, my small lie was enough to maintain his motivation both before and during the race. Had I told him what I really thought, he might have given up altogether.

         Secondly, being honest all of the time can lead to high levels of anxiety. If we tell unpleasant truths, we may spend days or hours worrying about the possible consequences of what we have revealed.  For instance, last week a colleague asked me what I thought of her new hairstyle. I was honest, and said that I thought it looked terrible. Though she did not express any anger at my remarks, I could see that she was really hurt by what I said. As a result of this, I spent the rest of the day worrying that I had jeopardized our friendship. My emotional state greatly reduced my productivity that day, and I am still a bit nervous that my colleague will hold a grudge against me. Had I simply said that her hair looked wonderful, I could have avoided all of these feelings.

        In conclusion, I believe that there are times when it is best to not tell the truth to others. This is because lies can motivate people to perform well, and because always being honest can sometimes cause personal turmoil. (438 words)

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Essay Writing Tips: 10 Steps to Writing a Great Essay (And Have Fun Doing It!)

by Joe Bunting | 118 comments

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Do you dread essay writing? Are you looking for some essay tips that will help you write an amazing essay—and have fun doing it?

Lots of students, young and old, dread essay writing. It's a daunting assignment, one that takes research, time, and concentration.

It's also an assignment that you can break up into simple steps that make writing an essay manageable and, yes, even enjoyable.

These ten essay tips completely changed my writing process—and I hope that they can do the same for you.

Essay Writing Can Be Fun

Honestly, throughout most of high school and college, I was a mediocre essay writer.

Every once in a while, I would write a really good essay, but mostly I skated by with B's and A-minuses.

I know personally how boring writing an essay can be, and also, how hard it can be to write a good one.

However, toward the end of my time as a student, I made a breakthrough. I figured out how to not only write a great essay, I learned how to have fun while doing it . 

And since then, I've become a professional writer and have written more than a dozen books. I'm not saying that these essay writing tips are going to magically turn you into a writer, but at least they can help you enjoy the process more.

I'm excited to share these ten essay writing tips with you today! But first, we need to talk about why writing an essay is so hard.

Why Writing an Essay Is So Hard

When it comes to essay writing, a lot of students find a reason to put it off. And when they tackle it, they find it difficult to string sentences together that sound like a decent stance on the assigned subject.

Here are a few reasons why essay writing is hard:

• You'd rather be scrolling through Facebook
• You're trying to write something your teacher or professor will like
• You're trying to get an A instead of writing something that's actually good
• You want to do the least amount of work possible

The biggest reason writing an essay is so hard is because we mostly focus on those external  rewards like getting a passing grade, winning our teacher's approval, or just avoiding accusations of plagiarism.

The problem is that when you focus on external approval it not only makes writing much less fun, it also makes it significantly harder.

Because when you focus on external approval, you shut down your subconscious, and the subconscious is the source of your creativity.

The subconscious is the source of your creativity.

What this means practically is that when you're trying to write that perfect, A-plus-worthy sentence, you're turning off most of your best resources and writing skills.

So stop. Stop trying to write a good essay (or even a “good-enough” essay). Instead, write an interesting  essay, write an essay you think is fascinating. And when you're finished, go back and edit it until it's “good” according to your teacher's standards.

Yes, you need to follow the guidelines in your assignment. If your teacher tells you to write a five-paragraph essay, then write a five-paragraph essay! If your teacher asks for a specific type of essay, like an analysis, argument, or research essay, then make sure you write that type of essay!

However, within those guidelines, find room to express something that is uniquely you .

I can't guarantee you'll get a higher grade (although, you almost certainly will), but I can absolutely promise you'll have a lot more fun writing.

The Step-by-Step Process to Writing a Great Essay: Your 10 Essay Writing Tips

Ready to get writing? You can read my ten best tips for having fun while writing an essay that earns you the top grade, or check out this presentation designed by our friends at Canva Presentations .

1. Remember your essay is just a story.

Every story is about conflict and change, and the truth is that essays are about conflict and change, too! The difference is that in an essay, the conflict is between different ideas , and the change is in the way we should perceive those ideas.

That means that the best essays are about surprise: “You probably think it's one way, but in reality, you should think of it this other way.” See tip #3 for more on this.

How do you know what story you're telling? The prompt should tell you.

Any list of essay prompts includes various topics and tasks associated with them. Within those topics are characters (historical, fictional, or topical) faced with difficult choices. Your job is to work with those choices, usually by analyzing them, arguing about them, researching them, or describing them in detail.

2. Before you start writing, ask yourself, “How can I have the most fun writing this?”

It's normal to feel unmotivated when writing an academic essay. I'm a writer, and honestly, I feel unmotivated to write all the time. But I have a super-ninja, judo-mind trick I like to use to help motivate myself.

Here's the secret trick: One of the interesting things about your subconscious is that it will answer any question you ask yourself. So whenever you feel unmotivated to write your essay, ask yourself the following question:

“How much fun can I have writing this?”

Your subconscious will immediately start thinking of strategies to make the writing process more fun.

The best time to have your fun is the first draft. Since you're just brainstorming within the topic, and exploring the possible ways of approaching it, the first draft is the perfect place to get creative and even a little scandalous. Here are some wild suggestions to make your next essay a load of fun:

• Research the most surprising or outrageous fact about the topic and use it as your hook.
• Use a thesaurus to research the topic's key words. Get crazy with your vocabulary as you write, working in each key word synonym as much as possible.
• Play devil's advocate and take the opposing or immoral side of the issue. See where the discussion takes you as you write.

3. As you research, ask yourself, “What surprises me about this subject?”

The temptation, when you're writing an essay, is to write what you think your teacher or professor wants to read.

Don't do this .

Instead, ask yourself, “What do I find interesting about this subject? What surprises me?”

If you can't think of anything that surprises you, anything you find interesting, then you're not searching well enough, because history, science, and literature are all brimming   over with surprises. When you look at how great ideas actually happen, the story is always, “We used  to think the world was this way. We found out we were completely wrong, and that the world is actually quite different from what we thought.”

These pieces of surprising information often make for the best topic sentences as well. Use them to outline your essay and build your body paragraphs off of each unique fact or idea. These will function as excellent hooks for your reader as you transition from one topic to the next.

(By the way, what sources should you use for research? Check out tip #10 below.)

4. Overwhelmed? Write five original sentences.

The standard three-point essay is really made up of just five original sentences surrounded by supporting paragraphs that back up those five sentences. If you're feeling overwhelmed, just write five sentences covering your most basic main points.

Here's what they might look like for this article:

• Introductory Paragraph:  While most students consider writing an essay a boring task, with the right mindset, it can actually be an enjoyable experience.
• Body #1: Most students think writing an essay is tedious because they focus on external rewards.
• Body #2: Students should instead focus on internal fulfillment when writing an essay.
• Body #3: Not only will focusing on internal fulfillment allow students to have more fun, it will also result in better essays.
• Conclusion: Writing an essay doesn't have to be simply a way to earn a good grade. Instead, it can be a means of finding fulfillment.

After you write your five sentences, it's easy to fill in the paragraphs for each one.

Now, you give it a shot!

5. Be “source heavy.”

In college, I discovered a trick that helped me go from a B-average student to an A-student, but before I explain how it works, let me warn you. This technique is powerful , but it might not work for all teachers or professors. Use with caution.

As I was writing a paper for a literature class, I realized that the articles and books I was reading said what I was trying to say much better than I ever could. So what did I do? I quoted them liberally throughout my paper. When I wasn't quoting, I re-phrased what they said in my own words, giving proper credit, of course. I found that not only did this formula create a well-written essay, it took about half the time to write.

It's good to keep in mind that using anyone else's words, even when morphed into your own phrasing, requires citation. While the definition of plagiarism is shifting with the rise of online collaboration and cooperative learning environments, always  err on the side of excessive citation to be safe.

When I used this technique, my professors sometimes mentioned that my papers were very “source” heavy. However, at the same time, they always gave me A's.

To keep yourself safe, I recommend using a 60/40 approach with your body paragraphs: Make sure 60% of the words are your own analysis and argumentation, while 40% can be quoted (or text you paraphrase) from your sources.

Like the five sentence trick, this technique makes the writing process simpler. Instead of putting the main focus on writing well, it instead forces you to research  well, which some students find easier.

6. Write the body first, the introduction second, and the conclusion last.

Introductions are often the hardest part to write because you're trying to summarize your entire essay before you've even written it yet. Instead, try writing your introduction last, giving yourself the body of the paper to figure out the main point of your essay.

This is especially important with an essay topic you are not personally interested in. I definitely recommend this in classes you either don't excel in or care much for. Take plenty of time to draft and revise your body paragraphs before  attempting to craft a meaningful introductory paragraph.

Otherwise your opening may sound awkward, wooden, and bland.

7. Most essays answer the question, “What?” Good essays answer the “Why?” The best essays answer the “How?”

If you get stuck trying to make your argument, or you're struggling to reach the required word count, try focusing on the question, “How?”

For example:

• How did J.D. Salinger convey the theme of inauthenticity in  The Catcher In the Rye ?
• How did Napoleon restore stability in France after the French Revolution?
• How does the research prove girls really do rule and boys really do drool?

If you focus on how, you'll always have enough to write about.

8. Don't be afraid to jump around.

Essay writing can be a dance. You don't have to stay in one place and write from beginning to end.

For the same reasons listed in point #6, give yourself the freedom to write as if you're circling around your topic rather than making a single, straightforward argument. Then, when you edit and proofread, you can make sure everything lines up correctly.

In fact, now is the perfect time to mention that proofreading your essay isn't just about spelling and commas.

It's about making sure your analysis or argument flows smoothly from one idea to another. (Okay, technically this comprises editing, but most students writing a high school or college essay don't take the time to complete every step of the writing process. Let's be honest.)

So as you clean up your mechanics and sentence structure, make sure your ideas flow smoothly, logically, and naturally from one to the next as you finish proofreading.

9. Here are some words and phrases you don't want to use.

• You  (You'll notice I use a lot of you's, which is great for a blog post. However, in an academic essay, it's better to omit the second-person.)
• To Be verbs (is, are, was, were, am)

Don't have time to edit? Here's a lightning-quick editing technique .

A note about “I”: Some teachers say you shouldn't use “I” statements in your writing, but the truth is that professional, academic papers often use phrases like “I believe” and “in my opinion,” especially in their introductions.

10. It's okay to use Wikipedia, if…

Wikipedia is one of the top five websites in the world for a reason: it can be a great tool for research. However, most teachers and professors don't consider Wikipedia a valid source for use in essays.

Don't totally discount it, though! Here are two ways you can use Wikipedia in your essay writing:

• Background research. If you don't know enough about your topic, Wikipedia can be a great resource to quickly learn everything you need to know to get started.
• Find sources . Check the reference section of Wikipedia's articles on your topic. While you may not be able to cite Wikipedia itself, you can often find those original sources and cite them . You can locate the links to primary and secondary sources at the bottom of any Wikipedia page under the headings “Further Reading” and “References.”

You Can Enjoy Essay Writing

The thing I regret most about high school and college is that I treated it like something I had  to do rather than something I wanted  to do.

The truth is, education is an opportunity many people in the world don't have access to.

It's a gift, not just something that makes your life more difficult. I don't want you to make the mistake of just “getting by” through school, waiting desperately for summer breaks and, eventually, graduation.

How would your life be better if you actively enjoyed writing an essay? What would school look like if you wanted to suck it dry of all the gifts it has to give you?

All I'm saying is, don't miss out!

Looking for More Essay Writing Tips?

Looking for more essay tips to strengthen your essay writing? Try some of these resources:

• 7 Tips on Writing an Effective Essay
• Tips for Writing Your Thesis Statement

How about you? Do you have any tips for writing an essay?  Let us know in the  comments .

Need more grammar help?  My favorite tool that helps find grammar problems and even generates reports to help improve my writing is ProWritingAid . Works with Word, Scrivener, Google Docs, and web browsers. Also, be sure to use my coupon code to get 20 percent off: WritePractice20

Coupon Code:WritePractice20 »

Ready to try out these ten essay tips to make your essay assignment fun? Spend fifteen minutes using tip #4 and write five original sentences that could be turned into an essay.

When you're finished, share your five sentences in the comments section. And don't forget to give feedback to your fellow writers!

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Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

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Exploring Free Speech and Persuasion with Nothing But the Truth

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

After reading the novel Nothing But the Truth , students discuss the protagonist Phillip and his right to free speech as well as their own rights. Students examine various Websites to research First Amendment rights, especially as they relate to the situation in the novel. After their research, students compose a position statement regarding their opinion of whether Philip's rights were violated then work with small groups to strengthen their statements and supporting evidence. Groups present position statement and supporting evidence to the whole class and debate Philip's civil rights as a culminating activity.

Featured Resources

Persuasion Map : Use this online tool to map out and print your persuasive argument. Included are spaces to map out your thesis, three reasons, and supporting details.

From Theory to Practice

In "Writing to Think Critically: The Seed of Social Action", Randy Bomer states that "one of the goals many writing teachers share is that of enabling students, usually rendered voiceless in the world at large, to speak for social change in their writing" (2). Bomer declares that "we want students to view their writing as more than exercises for learning to write, as more than obedience to teacher instruction, but rather as a unique form of social action" (2). Students begin to see writing as more than a teacher-directed exercise when they can see how their writing relates to their lives and the world around them. It is useful to use an interdisciplinary approach that blends two or more disciplines together, as social justice cannot be achieved through writing alone. Rather, a writer must understand the social, historic, and scientific background of an issue. One such issue that is addressed in this lesson, is students' freedom of verbal expression-what speech is protected by the First Amendment? How is the nature of a particular expression determined? Who has the final authority in issues of free speech? Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

Copies of Avi’s Nothing But the Truth

• Position Statements handout
• Expression Rights of Students (handout on Supreme Court cases regarding free speech in schools)
• Nothing But the Truth Presentation Rubric

Preparation

• Students should have read the novel Nothing But the Truth .
• Decide when students will write their response to the first writing prompt. In this lesson, students write the response after reading the book; however, the prompt can be used as an anticipatory activity, before reading the novel.
• Make copies or an overhead of the Position Statements handout and the Nothing But the Truth Presentation Rubric .
• Familiarize yourself with the Expression Rights of Students cases regarding free speech in public schools.
• Check the First Amendment Websites to ensure that all are appropriate for us in your class. If desired, make an overhead or copies of the links so that students can continue their research outside of class.
• Decide how much time to allot for each group’s presentation. If groups keep their presentations in the 5-7 minute time limit, all the presentations can be given in one day.
• Decide when to give presentations, ideally a week after their work with the Persuasion Map . Ideally, build at least one additional work day into the schedule to provide enough time for students to plan and practice their work. Work time in class is especially important to ensure that students can assemble easily without having to arrange for special meetings outside of school hours. You may also make arrangements for students to work in your classroom or the library is they before school starts, during lunch, and after school.
• Test the Persuasion Map on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.

Student Objectives

Students will

• analyze the theme of a novel using both personal opinion and factual information.
• engage with the novel by making personal connections to its themes.
• use the Internet for research.
• use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information in support of an opinion.
• compose a position statement.
• synthesize their position statements with those of two to four other students.
• present, explain, and defend their position statements.

Session One

• In their journals or loose leaf, have students respond to the following prompt as they enter the room, “Using your own experience and the events in Nothing But the Truth , list the rights you feel you should, but do not have, as a young adult.”
• Divide students into small groups and give each group a piece of chart paper and some markers. Alternatively, students can gather their responses on overhead transparencies.
• Ask groups to discuss their responses to the prompt, compiling a list of their rights or rights they think they should have on the chart paper. Give students about five minutes for this work.
• Bring the class together and ask representatives from each group can share their lists, either posting their list on the wall or sharing it with an overhead projector.
• Using the lists generated as a class, ask students to write for a few minutes about which of the rights they listed are violated in Philip’s situation.
• After allowing students to gather their ideas, ask students to discuss Philip’s situation and their opinion of his rights (about 20 minutes or so).

Philip: “It’s a free country.” Dr. Palleni: “Nothing is free.” (74-5) Dr. Palleni: “If a student creates a disturbance in a classroom, that’s breaking a rule. An important rule. Students cannot break—cannot make a disturbance in a classroom.” (83) Mrs. Narwin: “He’s a student. I’m a teacher. Hands aren’t meant to be even.” (177)

Session Two

• Explain that during this session you will look for reference material and research material relating to the issues of free speech raised in Nothing But the Truth .
• Begin the session with basic information about free speech, pointing first to the Bill of Rights and then to the information from the handout on Supreme Court cases regarding free speech in schools .
• Point students to the First Amendment Websites . If you want to allow students to continue research outside of class, provide them a copy of the Web page or ask them to copy the addresses into their notebooks.
• Ask students to use the First Amendment Websites to find as much information as they can about rights for young adults, focusing on free speech rights related to schools. Depending on your students’ Internet capabilities, you may want to narrow the search further.
• Ask students should keep track of the important points found in their research, such as Supreme Court cases, examples from schools throughout the country, public opinion, and so forth.
• If desired, explain that students can cut and paste relevant information from Web pages to a Word document, explaining why the information is important using a different font color, making sure that they cite their sources.
• Have a 10 to 20 minute discussion of the information that students find. A suggestion would be for each student to read one section of his/her notes with both the Internet information and his/her evaluation of its importance.

Session Three

• Have students respond in writing to the following prompt, “Explain whether or not you feel Phillip’s free speech rights were violated.”
• After allowing students to gather their ideas in writing, ask them to discuss their answers as a class or in small groups. Encourage students to engage specifically in issues that expose different opinions. Ask students to point to evidence from the novel or from their research that supports their beliefs.
• After students have had time to share their views, introduce position statements, using the Position Statements handout.
• Answer any questions that students have about how to write position statements. If students need additional examples, work through the process of composing position statements on another topic, such as funding for after-school activities or the use of standardized testing.
• Once you're satisfied that students understand the task, ask students to create a position statement that related to Phillip’s free speech rights (or another topic) in the novel. Students’ goal during this session is to gather ideas informally. Explain that they will work on creating a more polished statement with support during the next session.
• As students work in their groups, circulate and monitor student progress, encouraging them to brainstorm reasons for their position. Let them know a few minutes before the work period will conclude so that they have time to wrap up their thoughts.
• If desired, students can continue their work as homework. By the beginning of the next class session, students should gathered the reasons supporting their position—using their research, passages from the novel, and their personal opinion.

Session Four

• Introduce the Persuasion Map Student Interactive to your students, demonstrating how to use the tool. To provide a full example, work through the interactive using one of the example topics from the previous session (e.g., a position on school uniforms).
• Answer any questions about using the Persuasion Map , then ask students to enter their information in order to construct a position statement and a map of the related support. Ask students to complete their maps as they finish.
• As students finish and printout their work, arrange them in groups based on their position, placing all the students with the same position together. Ask groups to combine their statements and support to create the strongest argument possible. Groups will refine their statement and support as more students finish and join the group.
• Once all students have finished with the Persuasion Map and joined a group, explain that groups will present their position statements and support orally during the next class session.
• Go over the Presentation Rubric , indicating the amount of time each student needs to speak.
• Allow students the remainder of the class session to work on their presentations.

Additional Work Time (optional)

• If possible, allow students additional time to work on their group presentations in class. At the beginning of work sessions, remind students of the assignment and the requirements of the Presentation Rubric .
• As students work in their groups, circulate and monitor student progress.
• If students need additional support for their positions, encourage them to return to the resources used in Session Two.
• Let them know a few minutes before the work period will conclude so that they have time to wrap up their thoughts.

Session Five: Discussing Phillip's Rights

• Before the presentations begin, ask students to keep notes on the presentations, consisting of the group’s position, their reasons, and the student’s opinion of the argument. Ask students to use their notes to record any questions they have for the group at then end of the presentation.
• Rotate through the groups, allowing each group the allotted time to present.
• When all the groups have presented, ask students to debate whether Phillip’s rights were violated.
• If possible, arrange the desks in a circle for debate, asking students to sit by people with the same viewpoint.
• To manage the class discussion, students can pass a sponge ball to someone on the opposite side, with a hand raised, for a response. The responding speaker should acknowledge the main point of the previous speaker, offer an opinion on the point (not the person), and add something original.
• Explain what surprised you the most from your research abut students’ rights.
• Explain how your research affected your opinion of Phillip’s situation.
• How have you been affected by rights you do or do not have as a student?
• In what ways are your experiences similar to Philip’s?
• How has Philip’s situation and your research shaped your view of fighting for your rights?
• Use the students’ printout from the Persuasion Map as a graphic organizer for a persuasive essay on the novel.
• Tie the rights discussed in this lesson to another novel, such as Summer of My German Soldier, Farewell to Manzanar, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Bat 6 , or Speak .

Student Assessment / Reflections

• As students discuss free speech and the situation in Nothing But the Truth , listen for comments that indicate students are identifying specific evidence from the story that connects to the information they have researched. The connections that they make between the details in the novel and the details they choose as their supporting reasons for their position will reveal their understanding and engagement with the novel.
• Monitor student interaction and progress during group work to assess social skills and assist any students having problems with the project.
• Use the Presentation Rubric to assess group presentations.
• Respond to the content and quality of students’ thoughts in their final reflections on the project. Look for indications that the student provides supporting evidence for the reflections, thus applying the lessons learned from the work with the Persuasion Map and position statements.
• Calendar Activities
• Lesson Plans
• Student Interactives

Students will identify how Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of nonviolent conflict-resolution is reinterpreted in modern texts. Homework is differentiated to prompt discussion on how nonviolence is portrayed through characterization and conflict. Students will be formally assessed on a thesis essay that addresses the Six Kingian Principles of Nonviolence.

The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.

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Explore Resources by Grade

• Kindergarten K

7 Reasons Why You Should Always Tell the Truth

Every moment of our lives, we have the option to either tell the complete truth or make up a bold-faced lie. Lies can cover true feelings, make it easier to get out of things we don’t want to do and make us look better. They can also hurt not just the person that we tell the lie to, but ourselves as well. A big reason to not lie is to avoid the downfall of getting caught. However, many will still wonder what the most important aspects of telling the truth are.

What are the reasons why you should always tell the truth? You should always tell the truth because :

• The Truth Will Always Come Out
• It Will Make Things Worse for You
• You Don’t Want to Lose Respect
• It Will Help Everyone Grow
• There’s a Bigger Issue That Needs Attention
• You’re Usually Lying to Yourself the Most
• Lying Holds You Back

Honesty is important because it can help get to the deeper meaning of any issues that are at hand. It can ensure you are confronting yourself so that you can continue on a path toward a growth mindset. When you’re honest with everyone, it might be hard at the time, but eventually, things will get better, rather than a lie where things could actually end up getting worse.

The truth is always going to be there, and a lie is a choice made to avoid this. We’re going to help you better understand why you should always tell the truth, starting with the most important reason of all.

#1: The Truth Will Always Come Out

We’ve been taught since we were kids that the truth was always the right choice, even when it might have been hard. As adults, we might not always reflect on the real reasons why lying is the worst choice. Lying is bad because (Carey, 2008):

• It hurts other people
• It is deceptive
• It creates more issues
• It is bad for your health

“The truth will always come out in the end” is a common saying, but it isn’t always, well, the truth.

Imagine a girl who tells her parents she’s going to a friend’s house when really, she’s going to meet up with a boy that she was forbidden to date. They ask her the next day if she had fun at her friend’s house, and she replies, “Yeah, we watched a movie together.” Fifty years later, both of her parents have passed away, and not once did she ever reveal the truth. They lived a long and happy life, and not once did the daughter’s falsehood cause any conflict in the family.

On one hand, it’s safe to say her lie was never revealed. On the other hand, maybe her father had noticed but didn’t mind, keeping it hidden from his wife who would have caused a huge fight. The daughter never knew about this truth either.

We can’t say for certain whether the truth will always come out or not, but we can know that there will always be a possibility of the truth coming out. It is the person who holds this truth who has the most power over what will or will not be revealed.

It can sometimes be easier to keep a secret yourself rather than trusting others to do the same. Think of how easily secrets can spread. How many of those secrets have been lies?

Then what are you to do? Share the truth and be branded a liar, or change reality to suit the false information? Create more lies to cover up any loopholes in the first?

The possibility of a lie coming out can be the most challenging part. The fear over the exposure finally coming to the surface can engulf a happy mind and cause immense stress.

Consider those who confess to crimes after not being able to live with the secrecy. Sometimes the lie can become the reality to the point that people don’t even realize their dishonesty anymore.

It’s best to avoid the lies because not doing so means you never know what’s going to happen in the end. You might dig yourself into a deep hole by not sharing the reality and getting lost in the cover-ups.

#2: It Will Make Things Worse for You

Lying is something that is thought to be the most hurtful to the person who receives the lie. In reality, the liar is the one who will end up hurting the longer they keep up their facade.

Sometimes we lie because we think we’re protecting ourselves. We envision a terrible outcome from what could happen if we were to share the truth. In order to avoid that, it can be easy for many people to want to turn to the lie as a form of protection.

Unfortunately, this will only hurt the one who spills the deceit from their mouths.

It can start first by affecting your mental health. When you tell a lie, you are instantly putting yourself in a stressful situation. Sometimes it feels like you’re going to be fine in the end, and that’s why you lie. But really, you are causing more worry in your mind. You’re creating a focal point for anxiety to fester and blossom.

Anxiety can take a huge toll on not just your mental health but also your physical health. You might grind your teeth. Perhaps you pick at your fingers or at scabs on your face.

Some people even pull out their hair when they are under an intense amount of stress. It can affect you internally. You might feel sick to your stomach or have constant headaches from the anxiety.

It’s not necessarily the lie that will automatically begin manifesting itself through physical ailments; it’s the stressful life that can be created once a lie is told.

To see more ways that stress, fear, and anxiety can negatively affect your overall health, check out the video below:

Lying can also affect your sleep. You might have trouble getting to bed and falling asleep at a certain time because worried thoughts over the lie are consuming your brain.

If your sleep is messed up, then this will also negatively affect your overall health. You might struggle to pay attention and focus at work. Maybe the stress from everything is causing you to overeat or skip the gym. Whatever might be going on in your life, if we are not properly managing our mental health, it will reflect on our physical health much more than you would ever be able to imagine.

You will lower your self-esteem and lack confidence if you are constantly worried about a lie coming to the surface. It can make you very defensive. It can create this sort of blockage to any kind of criticism or comment that can be taken as something used against you.

When you are holding on to a lie, then that means that you are protecting something. There is a morsel of truth that you are desperately trying to cover up.

When you are acting in defense against that, this will show in other people. Somebody might make a completely unrelated comment to you, but your brain connects it back to the lie that you’re covering up, and this leads to a stressful thought. Then you believe that the other person might be out to get you.

It makes it hard for us to be ourselves because our true self is the person that knows the lie. The person that everybody else knows is the one who is living that lie.

It can be really hard to be comfortable with yourself and have high self-esteem when you’re so terrified about the truth coming to the surface.

#3: You Don’t Want to Lose Respect

Some lies are going to be bigger than others. When a friend asks, “Do I look fat in this dress?” you might lie a bit because you don’t want to hurt her feelings. When someone asks, “Can you help me move this weekend?” you might say that you’re busy with something else to avoid the extra labor.

When considering bigger lies that might end up hurting someone else in the process, you’ll want to consider filling out this chart below to determine if the lie is really going to be worth it in the end. It might seem like the lie is better, but really, it might just be easier at that moment.

Trust is one of the most important things you can have in a relationship. If there is no trust, then there is no dependency that others will want to rely on. There is no agreement between the two people that they can depend on the other person. Trust isn’t something that always is discussed upfront with others. Most of the time, we just have this underlying understanding with another person where we know that we can count on them to support us or keep a secret.

As soon as you show the other person that you have lied just one time, it can destroy that trust. They will start to wonder, “If they lied about that, what else might they have lied about?”

Lies are like things buried under the sand. You usually don’t know that you are walking on top of something when you’re strolling along the beach. As soon as one tiny little protrusion sticks up from the surface, you can pull it up to see that something giant has been hidden under there all along.

While you might have only lied just one time, that still doesn’t assure the other person of anything. You might beg and plead with them letting them know that truly, deeply, you only lied once. They might even forgive you for that lie, but they will still struggle to believe if that really was the only lie that you’ve told. They can forever wonder if you are still hiding something bigger. Other people will also question if you even told the entire truth about the lie, or if you just gave them a glimpse at something deeper that you tried to cover up.

A lie isn’t just a lie. It’s not just a sentence, a hidden object, a secret passed between others. It is an action. It is a lifestyle choice. It’s not just the lie that is hard to accept. Others will struggle after you’ve lied to them because they won’t know if there are other parts of yourself that you have hidden.

If you’re good at lying about where you were the night before, maybe you’re also good at lying about whether or not you truly love them.

Lying can really mess with a person’s head. It can make them doubt you and everything that they know to be true.

More people will be able to tell if you are lying than you’d think. You might have thought you got away with a lie, but maybe the other person is just not as great at confrontation. They could seemingly accept the false information that you fed to them, but perhaps they already know the truth anyway.

This video shows how easy it is to see if someone is lying:

It’s a reminder that even though someone won’t blatantly call you out when you’re lying, they can still likely pick up on the half-truth you’re sharing. Don’t risk someone losing respect for you because of a lie. Take an honest way to ensure your relationships will continue in the right direction.

#4: It Will Help Everyone Grow

A lie is something that is told usually to cover up an issue. Nobody lies just for fun. Perhaps there is that individual who lies about having more money, nicer things, and greater experiences than other people. But still, there is an underlying issue there.

When we begin to choose the truth over a lie, that is when people will actually be able to grow rather than focusing on trying to bury the actual issue.

Lying can just make things worse. It can destroy trust in a relationship and ruin the bond that two people have managed to create. Telling the truth is important because it will help everybody to grow. When you learn how to properly express your feelings and share those with other people, it creates a closer connection.

Perhaps you decide to lie to your significant other and tell them that you’re not upset after you’ve had a fight. Maybe you are still harboring some resentment, but you don’t feel like talking about it or getting into an argument, so you just tell them that it’s all good now.

Unfortunately, this just causes that to fester inside of you. Your significant other isn’t going to be reflecting on this issue anymore. They’ve moved on now because they think that you’re fine. The issue might come up again and you have to go through this experience all over. If you had told the truth from the start, it could have helped show the significant other your perspective, giving them the opportunity to grow from it.

In reality, we need to confront that issue so that you can share it with the other person and come to a healthier conclusion in the end rather than just saying, “I’m fine,” when you’re actually suffering.

You can talk things out and get to a place where both of you can grow. The issue that many people have is that they don’t know how to effectively communicate with others. In order to properly share your feelings and discuss the truth in a way that won’t cause an explosive issue, you have to check in with how you are sharing your words.

Let them know why you decided to lie. Don’t just reveal the lie and have them suddenly blame you for that. You want to approach the topic to get to the root of the issue. These are a few phrases that you can say in order to help smooth over a conversation and keep it civil so that the both of you end up growing closer together in the end, rather than letting a lie tear you apart (Smith, 2017).

It’s better to approach the topic by sharing the “why” and also stating that you didn’t tell the truth rather than blatantly saying, “I lied.” It’s never going to be easy, but open and honest communication is essential for a healthy relationship and a happy life.

#5: There’s a Bigger Issue That Needs Attention

Truth is like a seed. When you lie, you bury that seed deep into the ground, but that truth is going to continue to grow and grow. It might take it a while to get to the surface, but eventually, it will. Once it is at the surface, it has likely collected to become even bigger than it would have been if you just would have planted the seed of truth at the surface from the start.

Lying only continues to cover up something that needs to be confronted. Imagine that you have an infected cut on your arm. You can put a Band-Aid on it, but if you are not properly caring for that infection, it’s going to spread to every part of your body.

A lie is like a Band-Aid on top of an infected wound. It might make everything seem like it is okay, but there is a deeper issue going on. A common lie we have is that we tell our friends, our family, or whoever we are closest to that we are fine and that we are happy when we actually are not.

It’s important that we begin to confront the truth to address these underlying issues and help everyone grow along the way.

To further explore this topic, this video is a great one that gets into the details of the psychology of lying:

#6: You’re Usually Lying to Yourself the Most

We lie to other people because we don’t want the truth to come out. In reality, we are lying to ourselves the most. We are talking to our own brains and convincing them of a truth that is not real. You can lie to your coworkers, to your friends, and to the person that you share a bed with every night, but the person that we end up lying to more than anyone else will always be ourselves.

Oftentimes, this issue is something that deals directly with yourself. Perhaps you lie to other people about how much you enjoy your job. Maybe you continue to go on about how great it is, always talking about the fun work parties, the many benefits, and your huge paycheck. Other people might not really care whether or not you like your job. They have their own lives going on, and while they are happy for you, it really doesn’t concern them one way or another.

You might continue to talk about this as a way to validate your own perspective.

After a while, it’s not even about convincing other people that you’re happy; instead, it’s about convincing yourself.

The more that somebody talks about something and has to validate it to others, usually, the more that they have to validate it to themselves.

When you want to lie, you have to look deep inside yourself and ask if there is a truth you are trying to keep from your own mind (Kornet, 1997).

#7: Lying Holds You Back

For all of the other reasons that we discussed above, lying is only going to hold you back. It’s going to make you sick because you’ll think about how the truth is going to come out. It’s going to make things worse for you because it could lead to stress and anxiety. People might lose respect, and you can destroy relationships.

You might cover up the actual issue that needs to be addressed.

The truth is hard. It can be scary, and it can be messy. However, the truth can also help release us from the restrictions we’ve placed with the lie.

Life is all about growing and becoming a better person tomorrow than the one that you were yesterday.

Lying is going to keep you stuck in that mindset that you had when you began the actual lie. Lying is like a weighted chain that keeps you trapped to the ground. You will be stationary, whereas truth can help you actually grow. You can continue to pretend like everything is fine and nothing is wrong by creating lie after lie after lie.

Or you can tell the truth, the first time, deal with all those messy consequences, and then put that behind you as you move on. A lie is like taking the hard emotion or that challenging issue and putting it in your back pocket.

It might not be right in front of you, but it will always be right behind you. It will always be there with you. Only the truth can be left behind. Yes, the truth could negatively impact you for a month or even a year at a time. However, it will eventually help to release you.

For example, imagine a husband and wife who have been together for five years. They had a great relationship at the start but unfortunately, things have gotten messy.

They’re constantly fighting and neither one really wants to be with the other person. However, they continue to lie to themselves and pretend as though everything is good because they have a young child, and they are too afraid to be alone. They continue to live unhappy for the next 15 years. Eventually, one of them cheats on the other. Everything gets messy, and they divorce.

They could have revealed the truth 15 years ago and released themselves from that situation.

They might have gotten a divorce, and it would have been ugly for a year or so. It was messy, they fought, and their families were upset. It did put a little pressure on the child. However, after two years, everything settled down, and they are all completely happy. They’ve each remarried and started a brand-new life with people that they truly love.

The child is thriving because they have two different homes filled with people who love them. It was messy, and it was awful for those two years, but now it is better than it ever could have been in the other situation where they were miserable for those 15 years.

The truth can be bad, but lying will always be worse.

Related Questions

To lie or not to lie is a dilemma we might often find ourselves in. It’s a good topic to explore more of, so check out these further questions to get the most out of your perspective on lying.

Is it lying if I don’t say anything at all?

You might wonder if you avoid responding to a question rather than telling a lie, is that being dishonest? That can be dependent on the situation. If the truth is unnecessary, like an employer asking why you left your last job, you can gloss over the truth and say you were let go, but you don’t have to go into the dirty details of how you were fired for showing up late three times in one week. Question who you are hurting by hiding the truth. Anytime the truth is intentionally hidden, it is dishonesty. It’s ok to not get too deep into the details of a situation, but when someone is intentionally seeking out the truth and it is intentionally hidden, that can be just as bad as lying.

Will, there ever be a time when telling a lie is good? You might find yourself in a situation where lying is going to help others. Perhaps you’re working in a bank and a robber comes in, so you lie and say you’re the only one there to protect coworkers in the back. Maybe bullies in school are asking something personal and you lie to make sure they don’t attack you or a friend. If the lie will protect someone’s life or health, you might consider lying. Eventually, you will want to share the truth, but safety is important, so it’s ok to make sure you are protecting others. There are a few serious situations where a lie could help act as a defense, but for the most part, it’s best, to be honest.

S.Y.H Staff is a collection of writers whose purpose is to provide the best value and information on the article's content.

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Telling the Truth

My nine-year-old daughter loves informational texts: vibrantly colored kid encyclopedias teeming with animals, Roman architecture, Bible history, anything of the sort. “Dad! Did you know…?” is the ubiquitous sound that pops joyfully from the backseat on long drives. As a pastor and English teacher, I’m happy she’s so bent. It’ll do her good in school.

Recently, she’s gotten tall enough to sit in the front seat and, with it, has discovered a new subgenre. In subtle and rapt joy, she is working through the stock glove compartment canonical tome, “Prius C 2014 Owner’s Manual.” This is not a desperate act in the wake of running out of screen time; this reading is not for business or busyness but for pleasure! And because of that, I am afraid she might grow up to be a theologian.

My daughter’s latest literary interest is not wrong, but it is potentially hazardous: she might think she knows how to drive at the end of it. Theologians and the more academically minded Christians among us have the disturbing ability to speak of the Word-Become-Flesh in a disembodied, unstoried way. The books we write about books, especially the Bible, can become two degrees of separation from anything remotely God-breathed, which is painfully ironic considering the incarnation. (Doubly so, considering this is a review of a book drawing from the themes of another book.)

I believe our love of categories is largely to blame. Slice open a frog or parse a Hebrew verb, and in the end, they are both dead—with all of their internal organs clean and categorized. The real problem is not that the frog is dead; that comes with the territory. The problem is hidden in the smug way that categories tend to deceive us. Each parsed part of the poor Hebrew noun in its Strong’s formaldehyde jars is necessary in its own right. It’s just not enough. Frogs swim, and scripture breathes.

Then there is the rare book about scripture whose very words make one’s breath catch sharply. A frog jumps in, the sound of water…

Enter Frederick Buechner’s Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale , which explores the Christian gospel through the lenses of three literary genres: tragedy, comedy, and fairy tale. In essence, Buechner suggests that serious matters of the gospel are first matters of a human life well lived before they are a logical problem to be solved and systematized. Thus, he encourages readers to engage with the gospel not only as a doctrinal or moral teaching but as a compelling and rich narrative that speaks to the depth and diversity of the human condition. In keeping with this project, the book’s form embodies his thesis.

To borrow from Marshall McLuhan, Buechner’s medium is his message. The book is an experience more akin to Saul’s Emmaus road catastrophe than to Paul’s Mars Hill monologue. In short, Buechner’s book breathes.

At first glance, one could easily misread the subtitle as a typical formaldehyde-laced sermon outline: three points about the gospel in neat, sanitized categories. The problem with such an assumption is that tragedy, comedy, and fairy tale are not the kinds of categories one would expect. I admit I originally felt ‘fairy tale’ was nothing more than cheeky book cover clickbait. Nevertheless, it enticed me enough to rescue it from Goodwill despite its red tag not being the half-off color of the week. What kept me reading was Buechner’s uncanny attention to the human experience told in the prose of a true artist.

Few people are transformed by even the most erudite charts of narrative parallelism. Rather, we are gripped and dragged into being by living light. Such light is not a matter of photons but of living people. Sown throughout Buechner’s incisive apology for a greater depth of truthfulness from the pulpit are vignettes of mean, crooked, and broken people. They stand not as proof texts but as proven lives to the mystery that is truth-telling in all of the purity and meanness that honesty demands.

Before my eyes, as Jesus stands before him, “Pilate let the cigarette smoke out of his mouth to screen him a little from the figure before him,” and “Job sits at the table with his head in his arms so that he won’t have to face the empty chairs of his children.” Characters I have read thousands of times are infused with a fresh, resonating life. This is the particular magic of Buechner’s prose and, I suppose, the true sense of scripture: an uncanny witness to life.

We are all Job and Pilate screening ourselves from the concrete truth of the living Word and the cryptic silence of death. The gospel is the message of a Nazarene whose face was set like a flint toward his victorious demise. That unwavering gaze into tragedy is the very thing that calls us to live truthfully.

And yet, Buechner doesn’t leave us alone with Job in his cold dining room, rather, he insists that truth goes beyond tragedy to reveal a “joy beyond the walls of the world more poignant than grief.” A stone rolls away from a tomb, a phoenix is born from its ashes, and a child’s faith is confirmed.

I find this is the most compelling and repulsive aspect of the way of Jesus: a truthfulness that does not dismiss irrational pain with trite distractions and invites us to remain childlike. We’d all rather trade our weeping for distraction than joy. Joy is come by honestly, and honesty is much more than tragedy.

Buechner unwittingly best explains his approach to writing when describing Jesus’s teachings as “not in the incendiary rhetoric of the Prophet or the systematic abstractions of the theologian but in the language of images and metaphor, which is finally the only language you can use if you want not just to elucidate the hidden thing but make it come alive.” It makes sense then that Telling the Truth would follow suit. A servant isn’t greater than his master, and that is what we find: a masterful book in the service of the gospel.

Abe Figueroa is a speaker, writer, editor, and teacher living in his natural habitat: Portland, Oregon. His rich prose explores the sacred in the mundane, inviting readers to rediscover the gift of living that is all around them. You can find him at   abefigueroa.com .

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The Ethics of Truth-Telling in Health-Care Settings

Can a lie be justified if it saves a human life or a community, or if another great evil is avoided? The article proposes that health professionals need not always tell the truth, depending on situation; but, this does not refute the significance of telling the truth. It also elucidates the value of telling the truth, and the challenges for telling the whole truth. Two prominent theories of ethics, Deontological and Consequentialism are deliberated, together with the integration of examples to illustrate main areas of interest.

Introduction

The truth hurts, as most people say. Yet while honesty has always been understood as the best policy, it has also played a role in the temptation to lie. Health professionals are expected to always tell the truth to their patients simply because it is the right thing to do. Still, arguably, if they were to examine their work every day, there are demands in which the truth is not always a definite matter. This brings us to the question: Is there a special moral duty and obligation for health professionals to always tell their patients the truth, or are there situations where some degree of dishonesty may be justifiable to avoid more serious harm to a patient? If there are reasons for not telling the truth, what are they? When could incomplete disclosure be justified, and under what circumstances? In the past, where the value of not doing harm (non-maleficence) was so strong, lying to the patient was considered acceptable whereby the arguments maintained that health professionals’ primary moral obligation was to help and not cause harm to patients. Therefore, lying was generally accepted, and news that is perceived as causing stress was withheld to avoid for what is judged as the best interest of the patient. Today, many things have changed, and telling the truth has emerged among the most widely praised qualities of health professionals in contemporary biomedical ethics ( 1 ).

The Value of Truth-Telling in Health Care

One of the most pre-disposed values to being truthful is associated with respect for the patient as a person who is able to make decision. This is because, to determine a course of action and governance of care for a patient, the patient requires nothing less than truthful information. The provision of truthful information to patients is one way to enable them to make correct decisions which benefit their overall health. Without knowledge of the truth, it would be uncertain whether patients can make informed decisions and would lead to failure of health professionals to respect them as autonomous individuals. Lying is held to be a breach of the autonomy of the person, and this contradicts concepts such as patient empowerment, shared decision-making and patient-centred care. This is essentially significant to a health professional obtaining informed consent, whereby the potential risks involved in the proposed treatment and intervention need to be disclosed truthfully. To consent to any health intervention, a person requires sufficient and truthful information to make an informed and conscious choice; arguably, patients cannot make effective decisions without truthful information.

The second value is on duty and trust, whereby Kant ( 2 ), one of the leading Western philosophers, believed that everyone has a strict duty to tell the truth even if it might be harmful. He believed that lying could never be an excuse, as it was always harmful to a particular person or to mankind in general. If harm results from telling the truth in a compassionate manner, then it is an ‘accident’, but if harm results from a lie, then the liar is responsible. Kant further supposes that telling the truth is always a duty, whether it relates to the other’s right to know or results in innocent people being severely harmed. In other words, from a deontological point of view, competent patients should be told the truth regardless of the consequences. It can also be argued that, given the value of trust in any health professional–patient relationship, then such trust must be properly facilitated and fostered throughout patient care. This may not be possible if patients discovered that they have been deceived by health professionals who are otherwise trusted to not tell lies. Furthermore, while lying may be justified at times, its main effect soon becomes evident, that despite liars believing their actions to be benign and in good faith, those deceived may feel upset and wary ( 3 ).

The third value is the physical and psychological benefits of telling the truth. One of which is the positive benefits on the patient; those who are well informed tend to collaborate with health professionals and seek to be treated. This is based on the belief that once the patient knows their diagnosis and prognosis, they can tolerate the treatment and the pain more positively. Meanwhile, in the absence of disclosure, harm may result from not seeking treatment. We must not forget that telling rather than withholding information will allow a patient to plan their care, seek other opinions and put personal and financial affairs in order ( 4 ). Therefore, it is very difficult to think of a situation where lying can ever be acceptable in the therapeutic relationship. Moreover, honesty also helps protect the patient from overtreatment, which is neither kind nor beneficial ( 5 ). In terms of psychological benefit, knowing one’s prognosis and diagnosis is far less debilitating than worrying about the unknown because patients who are not given the opportunity to reveal their own fears and worries may be left anxious and convinced that they have the most horrible fate ahead ( 6 ). As a result, this avoidance of communication about the reality of a patient’s situation may actually expose the patient to considerable psychological distress. Concealment, once started, and even with good intentions, would probably have to be continued ( 7 ). There is some evidence to support the notion that informing patients the full truth about a life-threatening disease does not result in a greater incidence of anxiety, despair, sadness, depression, insomnia or fear ( 8 ). In fact, informed patients engage in better communication with health professionals, resulting in greater trust in the care provided. Furthermore, it is alleged that not informing patients of the natural course of their illnesses deprives them of what is called a ‘good death’ ( 9 ). If, for example, patients were made more miserable by being given information about their condition and risk of alternative treatment, if it is what the patients wish to know, then health professionals are morally obliged to tell them the truth.

The Challenge of Truth-Telling in Health Care

Respect for patient as a person to be told the truth may possibly contradict with a patient’s right not to know such truth. In some cases, patients prefer not to be told or have full information of their health conditions, of a serious diagnosis, but would rather wish a family member be informed ( 10 ). In other words, some are happy not to be given the unpleasant information and are happy to leave the decision making to the health professional or family. Autonomous individuals are free to use their autonomy as they see fit, even to delegate it when this seems right, or if they find themselves unwilling or unable to cope with the information ( 8 ). For example, an elderly patient who had just numerous blood tests, was exercising her right to making decision, by asking that the doctor discuss the results with her daughter. To force or exert the truthful information on someone who might not be ready to deal with the impact of the information can be seen as oblivious and possibly damage the relationship between the health professionals, the patient and the family. For example, deception to a depressed, tearful patient who is in need of comfort may actually promote greater respect for autonomy than the oblivious truth. Successful deception may possibly infringe the patient’s immediate autonomy but does not mean it fails to respect the patient’s overall autonomy ( 11 ). Therefore, would recognising this wish symbolise a violation or respect to the patient’s autonomy? In any health care codes of ethics, it is generally established that health professionals ought to respect their patients’ wishes and preferences. Yet, this respect of wishes is not just about the patient’s right to know, but extends to respect a patient’s right not to know. This suggests that while there is a compelling argument for safeguarding respect for individual autonomy in being truthful, there is robust evidence emerging that such notion is not always absolute, particularly when a patient does not wish to be told the truth or to possess truthful information about them.

In the earlier arguments, it is part of health professional’s duty to tell the truth. Given the duty of openness and honesty is increasingly recognised as critical in any health professional relationship with patients, there are some uncertainties to such duties. For example, in patients with conditions of cognitive deficit such as dementia, it remains debatable if they are entitled to be told the truth in the first place. Generally it is perceived as justifiable to withhold information from certain patients and not tell the truth to patients who appear incompetent in accepting the information, or who have cognitive defects ( 12 ). It can also be argued that telling the truth is only a prima facie obligation, in other words, when there is conflict with other obligations, one can override the other obligation ( 1 ). This is in particular relevant to the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence which are used to justify for not telling the truth to patients. Previous arguments perceive that telling lies may potentially lead to physical and psychological harm, but what if, by telling lies offer greater benefits to patient, than causing harm? Should we then promote beneficence instead whilst taking into account our primary duty not to harm patients? Consider the following case study ( 13 ). There was a car accident whereby a man was badly injured while the family have been killed. This badly injured man regains consciousness in a hospital bed and he is critically ill and fighting for his life after a road accident. If this man were to ask about his family as soon as he has regained consciousness, would lying to him be justified? It certainly be difficult to see how it makes moral sense to tell him the truth, that his wife and three other daughters have been killed, until his condition is no longer critical, and the news, at that point, is unlikely to risk his life, although it would be a different matter if he were about to die. Therefore, perhaps it is good to reflect that if illuminating the truth would cause harm and a lie is told with the clear intention of achieving good, then lying can sometimes be morally justified. This is also based on the consequentialism point of view, insisting that the decision to tell or not to tell the truth depends on the details of the clinical situation, and the doctor should decide which course of action might be least harmful in producing the best results for the patient ( 7 ). It is further argued that there is a difference between ‘telling the whole truth” and “giving a patient a true picture”. Since health professionals involve specialist knowledge, therefore to tell the client “the whole truth” about a particular condition, explaining the biochemistry, physiology, and histories of like conditions in other people, might not be pragmatic. It is also impossible to provide the patient with such knowledge particularly where there may be little time whilst proper understanding might require the patient to have considerable prior knowledge. To some extent, patients will vary in their ability to understand the complexity of medical information and of course, ‘the whole truth’ is usually an illusion ( 8 ). Giving the patient a ‘true picture’ about their condition or medical treatment is more pragmatic than telling them the whole truth, as inevitably, the most relevant points will be selected by the health professionals to tell the patients ( 13 ). Besides the truth can be ambiguous, situational and personal, and that telling the truth depends on how each of the health professionals define what ‘truth’ actually is.

Meanwhile, from a utilitarian’s perspective whereby the emphasis on the maximisation of the happiness and interests of all concerned, then perhaps not telling the truth is arguably justified in certain condition. For example, patients are not always necessarily told that novice doctors are performing treatments, nor are they informed of the risks associated with treatments performed by novice doctors. As greater benefits, via an increased physical knowledge from treatment, are achieved for a large number of future patients when a novice doctor practices a procedure. To disclose this would potentially discourage patient participation and reduce the learning of the profession, would impact on future practice and treatment outcomes ( 14 ). Another example is when a nurse, who puts medication to a patient’s food, is an elderly patient with cognitive impairment, being acutely disturbed and represents a significant risk of harm to them self or to others. Of course, the issue of covert administration of medication given to an autonomous individual against his or her will is both legally and ethically unacceptable ( 15 ). The presence or the true nature of the medication was denied because truthful disclosure would cause the patient to refuse the drug, which could result in a negative outcome with regards to the patient’s treatment. Therefore, could the benefit of giving, for example, a sedative outweigh the possible harm caused? Indeed, telling the patient the truth can sometimes appear to be more harmful to the patient and it may well be justified for the nurse to withhold information or even use benevolent deception ( 7 ).

The Best Way Forward

Whilst most health professionals are always keen to treat patient with honesty, they must also carefully recognise and reflect on the assumption that all patients wish to receive truthful information directly, particularly when patient preferences do indeed vary. The meaning of truth and acceptance of it means differently across cultures, which necessitates treating people sensitively and sharing information using excellent communication skills. Health professionals also ought to approach cases on an individual basis and handle them delicately through careful deliberation and dialogue with the patient, their family and other multidisciplinary professionals. In cases where the overall welfare and long-term autonomy of the patient may possibly be maximised by means of deception, then such action must be clearly documented with justifications, and the decision must be reviewed on a regular basis. In the context of dementia care, for example, health professionals should seek to understand their patients’ preferences and act according to their choices rather than routinely disclosing or concealing such information. Patients with dementia require affirmation because they are individual people who may neither fully understand nor remember the truth, which could be challenging for health professionals ( 16 ).

At the same time, health professionals must be cautious of giving too much (truthful) information, as it can be overwhelming for some, if not all. It is common for people to misinterpret or misjudge new or too much information given to them, and therefore, health professionals must take note of considerations to recognise factors that can affect patients’ responses to information given. All this is necessary so that health professionals are encouraged to avoid undermining the obligation to be honest and truthful and to ensure that robust strategies are in place to effectively deliver information. At the same time, as part of addressing the psychological needs of the patients, preserving hope is seen as essential for patients to carry on with their life as normally as possible, and this may occasionally be maintained through avoiding certain information.

The above case examples direct medical doctors to carefully consider and bridge the cultural context and dimension as a salient point. Not only is there a need for established good rapport with patients, but increased awareness and understanding of cultural differences in truth-telling also helps frame the ethics of truth-telling. Such cultural sensitivity allow doctors to respect and accept the patient’s values, religious and cultural beliefs, whilst at the same time echoed on the significance availability and benefits of appropriate psychosocial, spiritual and religious support mechanisms (for example, clinical psychologist or counsellor). This could be one of the positive approaches to provide great support in doctor-patient cross-cultural communication and decision-making, hence giving patients the best care possible.

Health professionals are expected to always tell the truth. This is based on the argument that, lying is wrong and disrespecting the person’s autonomy is not right. However, this may not necessarily be the case, as the ‘right not to know’ the truth, should as well be respected by them. In the discussion, it appears that the truth is an essential moral good, but, sometimes truth does come into conflict with other essential moral good like beneficence, nonmaleficence and autonomy. When conflict arises, a line ought to be drawn between respecting one’s autonomy for the truth of information and the promotion of the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence. Whilst physical and psychological implications of telling the truth to patients are addressed accordingly, it needs further consideration on both the harm of lies and the harm of telling the truth. Each patient nevertheless must be approached individually, and at a level that addressed his or her needs and interests. Hence, having considered the arguments where telling the truth stands in health care practice, health professionals may need not always tell the truth. These however necessitate them to not disregard the importance of telling the truth to patients and that in all situations, justification is needed before applying the notion of telling the truth.

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I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.

Uri Berliner, a veteran at the public radio institution, says the network lost its way when it started telling listeners how to think.

By Uri Berliner

April 9, 2024

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You know the stereotype of the NPR listener: an EV-driving, Wordle-playing, tote bag–carrying coastal elite. It doesn’t precisely describe me, but it’s not far off. I’m Sarah Lawrence–educated, was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother , I drive a Subaru, and Spotify says my listening habits are most similar to people in Berkeley. 

I fit the NPR mold. I’ll cop to that.

So when I got a job here 25 years ago, I never looked back. As a senior editor on the business desk where news is always breaking, we’ve covered upheavals in the workplace, supermarket prices, social media, and AI. 

It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding. 

In recent years, however, that has changed. Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population. 

If you are conservative, you will read this and say, duh, it’s always been this way.

But it hasn’t.

For decades, since its founding in 1970, a wide swath of America tuned in to NPR for reliable journalism and gorgeous audio pieces with birds singing in the Amazon. Millions came to us for conversations that exposed us to voices around the country and the world radically different from our own—engaging precisely because they were unguarded and unpredictable. No image generated more pride within NPR than the farmer listening to Morning Edition from his or her tractor at sunrise. 

Back in 2011, although NPR’s audience tilted a bit to the left, it still bore a resemblance to America at large . Twenty-six percent of listeners described themselves as conservative, 23 percent as middle of the road, and 37 percent as liberal.

By 2023, the picture was completely different: only 11 percent described themselves as very or somewhat conservative, 21 percent as middle of the road, and 67 percent of listeners said they were very or somewhat liberal. We weren’t just losing conservatives; we were also losing moderates and traditional liberals. 

An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America. 

That wouldn’t be a problem for an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience. But for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it’s devastating both for its journalism and its business model. 

Like many unfortunate things, the rise of advocacy took off with Donald Trump. As in many newsrooms, his election in 2016 was greeted at NPR with a mixture of disbelief, anger, and despair. (Just to note, I eagerly voted against Trump twice but felt we were obliged to cover him fairly.) But what began as tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth-impaired president veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency. 

Persistent rumors that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia over the election became the catnip that drove reporting. At NPR, we hitched our wagon to Trump’s most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff. 

Schiff, who was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, became NPR’s guiding hand, its ever-present muse. By my count, NPR hosts interviewed Schiff 25 times about Trump and Russia. During many of those conversations, Schiff alluded to purported evidence of collusion. The Schiff talking points became the drumbeat of NPR news reports.

But when the Mueller report found no credible evidence of collusion, NPR’s coverage was notably sparse. Russiagate quietly faded from our programming. 

It is one thing to swing and miss on a major story. Unfortunately, it happens. You follow the wrong leads, you get misled by sources you trusted, you’re emotionally invested in a narrative, and bits of circumstantial evidence never add up. It’s bad to blow a big story. 

What’s worse is to pretend it never happened, to move on with no mea culpas, no self-reflection. Especially when you expect high standards of transparency from public figures and institutions, but don’t practice those standards yourself. That’s what shatters trust and engenders cynicism about the media. 

Russiagate was not NPR’s only miscue.

In October 2020, the New York Post published the explosive report about the laptop Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware computer shop containing emails about his sordid business dealings. With the election only weeks away, NPR turned a blind eye. Here’s how NPR’s managing editor for news at the time explained the thinking : “We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.” 

But it wasn’t a pure distraction, or a product of Russian disinformation, as dozens of former and current intelligence officials suggested. The laptop did belong to Hunter Biden. Its contents revealed his connection to the corrupt world of multimillion-dollar influence peddling and its possible implications for his father.

The laptop was newsworthy. But the timeless journalistic instinct of following a hot story lead was being squelched. During a meeting with colleagues, I listened as one of NPR’s best and most fair-minded journalists said it was good we weren’t following the laptop story because it could help Trump. 

When the essential facts of the Post ’s reporting were confirmed and the emails verified independently about a year and a half later, we could have fessed up to our misjudgment. But, like Russia collusion, we didn’t make the hard choice of transparency. 

Politics also intruded into NPR’s Covid coverage, most notably in reporting on the origin of the pandemic. One of the most dismal aspects of Covid journalism is how quickly it defaulted to ideological story lines. For example, there was Team Natural Origin—supporting the hypothesis that the virus came from a wild animal market in Wuhan, China. And on the other side, Team Lab Leak, leaning into the idea that the virus escaped from a Wuhan lab. 

The lab leak theory came in for rough treatment almost immediately, dismissed as racist or a right-wing conspiracy theory. Anthony Fauci and former NIH head Francis Collins , representing the public health establishment, were its most notable critics. And that was enough for NPR. We became fervent members of Team Natural Origin, even declaring that the lab leak had been debunked by scientists. 

But that wasn’t the case.

When word first broke of a mysterious virus in Wuhan, a number of leading virologists immediately suspected it could have leaked from a lab there conducting experiments on bat coronaviruses. This was in January 2020, during calmer moments before a global pandemic had been declared, and before fear spread and politics intruded. 

Reporting on a possible lab leak soon became radioactive. Fauci and Collins apparently encouraged the March publication of an influential scientific paper known as “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2.” Its authors wrote they didn’t believe “any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible.” 

But the lab leak hypothesis wouldn’t die. And understandably so. In private, even some of the scientists who penned the article dismissing it sounded a different tune. One of the authors, Andrew Rambaut, an evolutionary biologist from Edinburgh University, wrote to his colleagues , “I literally swivel day by day thinking it is a lab escape or natural.”

Over the course of the pandemic, a number of investigative journalists made compelling, if not conclusive, cases for the lab leak. But at NPR, we weren’t about to swivel or even tiptoe away from the insistence with which we backed the natural origin story. We didn’t budge when the Energy Department—the federal agency with the most expertise about laboratories and biological research— concluded , albeit with low confidence, that a lab leak was the most likely explanation for the emergence of the virus.

Instead, we introduced our coverage of that development on February 28, 2023, by asserting confidently that “the scientific evidence overwhelmingly points to a natural origin for the virus.” 

When a colleague on our science desk was asked why they were so dismissive of the lab leak theory, the response was odd. The colleague compared it to the Bush administration’s unfounded argument that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, apparently meaning we won’t get fooled again. But these two events were not even remotely related. Again, politics were blotting out the curiosity and independence that ought to have been driving our work. 

I’m offering three examples of widely followed stories where I believe we faltered. Our coverage is out there in the public domain. Anyone can read or listen for themselves and make their own judgment. But to truly understand how independent journalism suffered at NPR, you need to step inside the organization.

You need to start with former CEO John Lansing. Lansing came to NPR in 2019 from the federally funded agency that oversees Voice of America . Like others who have served in the top job at NPR, he was hired primarily to raise money and to ensure good working relations with hundreds of member stations that acquire NPR’s programming. 

After working mostly behind the scenes, Lansing became a more visible and forceful figure after the killing of George Floyd in May 2020. It was an anguished time in the newsroom, personally and professionally so for NPR staffers. Floyd’s murder, captured on video, changed both the conversation and the daily operations at NPR. 

Given the circumstances of Floyd’s death, it would have been an ideal moment to tackle a difficult question: Is America, as progressive activists claim, beset by systemic racism in the 2020s—in law enforcement, education, housing, and elsewhere? We happen to have a very powerful tool for answering such questions: journalism. Journalism that lets evidence lead the way. 

But the message from the top was very different. America’s infestation with systemic racism was declared loud and clear: it was a given. Our mission was to change it.

“When it comes to identifying and ending systemic racism,” Lansing wrote in a companywide article, “we can be agents of change. Listening and deep reflection are necessary but not enough. They must be followed by constructive and meaningful steps forward. I will hold myself accountable for this.”

And we were told that NPR itself was part of the problem. In confessional language he said the leaders of public media, “starting with me—must be aware of how we ourselves have benefited from white privilege in our careers. We must understand the unconscious bias we bring to our work and interactions. And we must commit ourselves—body and soul—to profound changes in ourselves and our institutions.”

He declared that diversity—on our staff and in our audience—was the overriding mission, the “North Star” of the organization. Phrases like “that’s part of the North Star” became part of meetings and more casual conversation.

Race and identity became paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace. Journalists were required to ask everyone we interviewed their race, gender, and ethnicity (among other questions), and had to enter it in a centralized tracking system. We were given unconscious bias training sessions. A growing DEI staff offered regular meetings imploring us to “start talking about race.” Monthly dialogues were offered for “women of color” and “men of color.” Nonbinary people of color were included, too. 

These initiatives, bolstered by a $1 million grant from the NPR Foundation, came from management, from the top down. Crucially, they were in sync culturally with what was happening at the grassroots—among producers, reporters, and other staffers. Most visible was a burgeoning number of employee resource (or affinity) groups based on identity.

They included MGIPOC (Marginalized Genders and Intersex People of Color mentorship program); Mi Gente (Latinx employees at NPR); NPR Noir (black employees at NPR); Southwest Asians and North Africans at NPR; Ummah (for Muslim-identifying employees); Women, Gender-Expansive, and Transgender People in Technology Throughout Public Media; Khevre (Jewish heritage and culture at NPR); and NPR Pride (LGBTQIA employees at NPR).

All this reflected a broader movement in the culture of people clustering together based on ideology or a characteristic of birth. If, as NPR’s internal website suggested, the groups were simply a “great way to meet like-minded colleagues” and “help new employees feel included,” it would have been one thing. 

But the role and standing of affinity groups, including those outside NPR, were more than that. They became a priority for NPR’s union, SAG-AFTRA—an item in collective bargaining. The current contract, in a section on DEI, requires NPR management to “keep up to date with current language and style guidance from journalism affinity groups” and to inform employees if language differs from the diktats of those groups. In such a case, the dispute could go before the DEI Accountability Committee.

In essence, this means the NPR union, of which I am a dues-paying member, has ensured that advocacy groups are given a seat at the table in determining the terms and vocabulary of our news coverage. 

Conflicts between workers and bosses, between labor and management, are common in workplaces. NPR has had its share. But what’s notable is the extent to which people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview. 

And this, I believe, is the most damaging development at NPR: the absence of viewpoint diversity. 

Today on Honestly Bari talks to Uri about this essay and his decision to publish it. Listen here:

There’s an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed. It’s frictionless—one story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad, and the dire threat of Republican policies. It’s almost like an assembly line. 

The mindset prevails in choices about language. In a document called NPR Transgender Coverage Guidance—disseminated by news management—we’re asked to avoid the term biological sex . (The editorial guidance was prepared with the help of a former staffer of the National Center for Transgender Equality.) The mindset animates bizarre stories—on how The Beatles and bird names are racially problematic, and others that are alarmingly divisive; justifying looting , with claims that fears about crime are racist ; and suggesting that Asian Americans who oppose affirmative action have been manipulated by white conservatives.

More recently, we have approached the Israel-Hamas war and its spillover onto streets and campuses through the “intersectional” lens that has jumped from the faculty lounge to newsrooms. Oppressor versus oppressed. That’s meant highlighting the suffering of Palestinians at almost every turn while downplaying the atrocities of October 7, overlooking how Hamas intentionally puts Palestinian civilians in peril, and giving little weight to the explosion of antisemitic hate around the world. 

For nearly all my career, working at NPR has been a source of great pride. It’s a privilege to work in the newsroom at a crown jewel of American journalism. My colleagues are congenial and hardworking. 

I can’t count the number of times I would meet someone, describe what I do, and they’d say, “I love NPR!” 

And they wouldn’t stop there. They would mention their favorite host or one of those “driveway moments” where a story was so good you’d stay in your car until it finished.

It still happens, but often now the trajectory of the conversation is different. After the initial “I love NPR,” there’s a pause and a person will acknowledge, “I don’t listen as much as I used to.” Or, with some chagrin: “What’s happening there? Why is NPR telling me what to think?”

In recent years I’ve struggled to answer that question. Concerned by the lack of viewpoint diversity, I looked at voter registration for our newsroom. In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans. None. 

So on May 3, 2021, I presented the findings at an all-hands editorial staff meeting. When I suggested we had a diversity problem with a score of 87 Democrats and zero Republicans, the response wasn’t hostile. It was worse. It was met with profound indifference. I got a few messages from surprised, curious colleagues. But the messages were of the “oh wow, that’s weird” variety, as if the lopsided tally was a random anomaly rather than a critical failure of our diversity North Star. 

In a follow-up email exchange, a top NPR news executive told me that she had been “skewered” for bringing up diversity of thought when she arrived at NPR. So, she said, “I want to be careful how we discuss this publicly.”

For years, I have been persistent. When I believe our coverage has gone off the rails, I have written regular emails to top news leaders, sometimes even having one-on-one sessions with them. On March 10, 2022, I wrote to a top news executive about the numerous times we described the controversial education bill in Florida as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill when it didn’t even use the word gay . I pushed to set the record straight, and wrote another time to ask why we keep using that word that many Hispanics hate— Latinx . On March 31, 2022, I was invited to a managers’ meeting to present my observations.

Throughout these exchanges, no one has ever trashed me. That’s not the NPR way. People are polite. But nothing changes. So I’ve become a visible wrong-thinker at a place I love. It’s uncomfortable, sometimes heartbreaking.

Even so, out of frustration, on November 6, 2022, I wrote to the captain of ship North Star—CEO John Lansing—about the lack of viewpoint diversity and asked if we could have a conversation about it. I got no response, so I followed up four days later. He said he would appreciate hearing my perspective and copied his assistant to set up a meeting. On December 15, the morning of the meeting, Lansing’s assistant wrote back to cancel our conversation because he was under the weather. She said he was looking forward to chatting and a new meeting invitation would be sent. But it never came.

I won’t speculate about why our meeting never happened. Being CEO of NPR is a demanding job with lots of constituents and headaches to deal with. But what’s indisputable is that no one in a C-suite or upper management position has chosen to deal with the lack of viewpoint diversity at NPR and how that affects our journalism. 

Which is a shame. Because for all the emphasis on our North Star, NPR’s news audience in recent years has become less diverse, not more so. Back in 2011, our audience leaned a bit to the left but roughly reflected America politically; now, the audience is cramped into a smaller, progressive silo. 

Despite all the resources we’d devoted to building up our news audience among blacks and Hispanics, the numbers have barely budged. In 2023, according to our demographic research, 6 percent of our news audience was black, far short of the overall U.S. adult population, which is 14.4 percent black. And Hispanics were only 7 percent, compared to the overall Hispanic adult population, around 19 percent. Our news audience doesn’t come close to reflecting America. It’s overwhelmingly white and progressive, and clustered around coastal cities and college towns.

These are perilous times for news organizations. Last year, NPR laid off or bought out 10 percent of its staff and canceled four podcasts following a slump in advertising revenue. Our radio audience is dwindling and our podcast downloads are down from 2020. The digital stories on our website rarely have national impact. They aren’t conversation starters. Our competitive advantage in audio—where for years NPR had no peer—is vanishing. There are plenty of informative and entertaining podcasts to choose from. 

Even within our diminished audience, there’s evidence of trouble at the most basic level: trust. 

In February, our audience insights team sent an email proudly announcing that we had a higher trustworthy score than CNN or The New York Times . But the research from Harris Poll is hardly reassuring. It found that “3-in-10 audience members familiar with NPR said they associate NPR with the characteristic ‘trustworthy.’ ” Only in a world where media credibility has completely imploded would a 3-in-10 trustworthy score be something to boast about. 

With declining ratings, sorry levels of trust, and an audience that has become less diverse over time, the trajectory for NPR is not promising. Two paths seem clear. We can keep doing what we’re doing, hoping it will all work out. Or we could start over, with the basic building blocks of journalism. We could face up to where we’ve gone wrong. News organizations don’t go in for that kind of reckoning. But there’s a good reason for NPR to be the first: we’re the ones with the word public in our name. 

Despite our missteps at NPR, defunding isn’t the answer. As the country becomes more fractured, there’s still a need for a public institution where stories are told and viewpoints exchanged in good faith. Defunding, as a rebuke from Congress, wouldn’t change the journalism at NPR. That needs to come from within.

A few weeks ago, NPR welcomed a new CEO , Katherine Maher, who’s been a leader in tech. She doesn’t have a news background, which could be an asset given where things stand. I’ll be rooting for her. It’s a tough job. Her first rule could be simple enough: don’t tell people how to think. It could even be the new North Star.

Uri Berliner is a senior business editor and reporter at NPR. His work has been recognized with a Peabody Award, a Loeb Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and a Society of Professional Journalists New America Award, among others. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @uberliner .

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