TOEFL Test - Writing Topics

INFORMATION ON THE TOEFL TEST:

PLEASE READ FOR CLASS ON OCTOBER 12th.
Robert

----------------------------------------
TOEFL Test - Writing Topics: "TOEFL Test Writing Topics

The TOEFL test includes a writing exercise, which requires you to write about a specific assigned topic. Examples of TOEFL writing topics can be found in the TOEFL Information Bulletin. This section of the TOEFL test allows you to display your ability to create a standard written English composition, with organized ideas and supporting evidence or examples.
Basic Paragraph Structure
Paragraphs consist of several sentences that are grouped together. A group of sentences in a paragraph together discuss one main subject. Formal paragraphs have three principal parts, which are: the topic sentence, body sentence(s), and the concluding sentence.
Paragraph Coherence and Unity
When writing has coherence, all of the ideas in a paragraph progress easily from one sentence to another. With coherence, the reader easily understands ideas that are expressed. Paragraph unity means that one paragraph is about only one main topic.
Basic Essay Structure
The TOEFL includes an essay that is more than one paragraph long. Academic essays usually have a similar format. They are over four paragraphs long and frequently much longer. The basic structure includes the points mentioned above. Paragraphs in the U.S. academic essay can also be divided into three basic kinds: the introductory paragraph, the body paragraphs, and the concluding paragraph.
Types of Paragraphs
Some TOEFL writing topics will ask you to consider the relationship between two things. For example, some people like to eat at restaurants but others prefer to eat at home. Such topics allow you to organize your essay either around the similarities between these two subtopics (for example, eating at restaurants versus eating at home) or around the differences between them. If you write about the similarities, the essay will be a comparison essa"

The UVic Writer's Guide: Writing Exam Essays

The UVic Writer's Guide: Writing Exam Essays: "The UVic Writer's Guide

STUDENTS: HELLO! I know you are busy working with your translations. Tomorrow in class, we will discuss another edited piece of student work and briefly discuss the following topic from a very good website you should become familiar with.

Thanks for your hard work.
Robert
========================
Writing Exam Essays


Bereft of the luxury of revision, students often lose control of their writing skills during examinations. Writing an exam essay is essentially a two-part process: outline and first draft. There is no time for rewriting, so it is incumbent upon the student to make that first draft as coherent as possible under the circumstances.
Because the student has a limited amount of time and only a nervous and fallible memory to work with, instructors are much more lenient on exam essays than they would be on papers written at home. However, the principles of organization that govern any piece of written work still operate in an exam. You must still develop a thesis and stick to it. Some students panic in exam situations and produce garbled streams of information that demonstrate their capacity for memorization but fail to develop any kind of logical thought. Writing a very brief outline will help you avoid this pitfall.
Never lose sight of the question being asked. It is a good practice to include some of the key words from the question in your opening paragraph, and to return to it in your conclusion. The effect will be to make clear that you have indeed kept your answer on the topic.
Question the question:
Why is it being asked?
Is it a multi-layered question, one that can be answered on more than one level?
Does it invite a largely factual response?
Is it looking for a specific critical stance?
The professor wants to see that you know the material well enough to make a critical judgement upon it, not that you can throw out a collection of unrelated details. The more information you are able to recall and use effectively the better, but always relate what you write to the thesis. A good question will allow yo"

11 Rules of Writing -- a concise guide to important grammar, punctuation, and writing style rules

11 Rules of Writing -- a concise guide to important grammar, punctuation, and writing style rules

Text-to-Speech

Text-to-Speech

OCTOBER 5th, 2004 (PLEASE POST YOUR TRANSLATION ASSIGNMENT BELOW AS A COMMENT.)

Dear Students:

On October 5th, we started out with a quick timed writing. Then, we discussed RJ's corrections on a student's first essay and, briefly, went over the CLASSIC FIVE-PARAGRAPH ESSAY format that, for better or worse, represents the GENERAL FORMAT of much of the writing you will be required to write for a Western-educated instructor.

Finally, we discussed the homework assignment, which is to go to the University of Texas at Austin Writing Center homepage and translate the materials I gave you on the HANDOUT (EVERYONE RECEIVED DIFFERENT HANDOUTS!!!) into Mandarin.

Your homework is ONLY to do the translation and post it as a comment here. Next week, we will continue to discuss websites and online writing centers and begin to look more into what it means to do a research paper/academic publication.

Thank you,
Robert