Ace the toefl essay part 2

PART I: Writing the Essay Patterns of Development Simply put, a pattern of development is the method you employ to write a paper. These patterns are very simple to learn. Fortunately, they do not take much time, and employing them gives you the advantage needed to earn that outstanding score on the essay section of the TOEFL. Understand this: every essay question is worded in such a way that it requires a specific manner of response. The TOEFL reviewers do not care about the personal details in your response, but they do look for coher-ence in your answer. For example, one question from the TOEFL could ask, “Which would you prefer, a traditional home or a modern home?” Believe me, no one cares what your personal preference is, but the scor-er cares if you know that this question requires your answer to be in a comparison-contrast pattern of development. There are two different approaches to that pattern, hereafter called a pod (pattern of develop-ment). Now, let’s look at the process of scoring. Scoring The essay is graded by two people. Scores range from 0, for not answer- ing the question you are given, to 6, the highest possible, which translates 2 Ace the TOEFL Essay (TWE) to 800. If there is a great difference between the two scores given, a third grader will be called in. Roughly speaking, if you receive a 4, you are above average. Length The length is 300 to 500 words. That translates to two handwritten pages or one typed page. The time limit is thirty minutes. Your time and your length all funnel into a set number of paragraphs for each type of ques-tion you could encounter. Therefore, set up the essays exactly as I have presented them, at least regarding the number of paragraphs and the number of sentences in the introduction of each type of essay. Presentation The book contains: (1) a general introduction to the types of pods, includ- ing outlines for easy reference and fast viewing; (2) a component on punc-tuation; and (3) real answers to real sample essay questions. In the third section, you will be given the essay question first. Then, I will identify the type of question. Next, the possible pods you may use will be listed in order of importance. For instance, if you see words such as definition or comparison-contrast, you should first employ the definition pod. If for some reason you are blank about how to do that, you can use the comparison-contrast pod. In addition, if you get halfway through the essay and go blank, you could rely on your back-up pod, which is comparison-contrast here, for an additional paragraph. The key is to look at the right words in the question itself and proceed from there. CHAPTER ONE: Essay Formats This chapter deals with rough patterns for essays. These patterns are vari-able and therefore rough; later on, I include essays that answer specific TOEFL questions. Look over the outlines carefully, and familiarize your-self with the various essay elements, such as transitional sentences and phrases, evidentiary statements (ESs; i.e., ones that provide evidence of the points you develop in your paper), examples, types of topic sentences for different pods, types of thesis statements, and finally sentence struc-ture, which is determined by your pod. Do not be intimidated. You are capable of earning a 6. Good luck. (For further explanations, see the list of terms at the end of the book.) Comparison-Contrast When writing a comparison-contrast paper, use words that suggest a rela- tionship of similarity or dissimilarity, such as opposite, alike, unlike, in com-mon, or any other words with the same meanings. Be aware of signals that will give you ideas on how to address the topic. The ease with which a professor, or anyone else for that matter, reads a pod is based on the reader’s ability to move back and forth from point to point, comparing 4 Ace the TOEFL Essay (TWE) each in a relatively short time. Such a point-by-point structure facilitates the reading of the pod, but the writing of the pod is usually time-consuming for the student. However, on the exam, the points are there and relatively easy to write out. Therefore, I suggest the point-by-point pod for exams, especially if the exam is only four paragraphs in length. As a final note, remember that the number of paragraphs in a paper is directly related to the number of ESs in the introduction. The ES is the sentence that provides evidence to support your thesis statement (ThS). The following example, though, features two ESs despite having only one paragraph in the body. This is a rare exception, and is only com-mon in a point-by-point pod wherein the two topics are dealt with in the body of the essay together. It is commonly called an ABAB pod, because every sentence jumps back to the subject. For example, one sentence is about A and the next is about B. This allows the reader to compare the two items fairly well without loss of time, which is impor-tant to a grader who does a lot of reading. Let’s look at a point-by-point pod that deals with a tangible subject. The transitions will be highlighted so that you can see exactly how to glue the ideas together. First, look at the diagram below. With a point-by-point pod, you can look at the possibilities in several ways. Primarily, with a really short paper, the ABABABAB style works, but it fails if you have a longer paper, say around four to five typed pages. Plus, we do not want to have a singsong rhythm that becomes monotonous. This style may still work, but we can apply it to one topic, perhaps encompassing four to five sentences. Actually, the length is up to you. The first example of this type of paper is set up in the following format: AAABBB. The sentences should be equally grouped. For now, look over the next paper. Note the places where I have written notes to you. I have highlighted the transitions so that you can observe how we manipulate our sentence structure, reader attention, and the focus on the content. This paper is a response to the following essay exam question: Which would you prefer, an older home or a modern home? ... - tailieumienphi.vn