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English Today's TOEFL Writing Course it is essential that students planning to do well in the TOEFL test receive help in both the speaking and writing skills as these are both productive skills, while the listening and reading are both receptive that can be learnt with self study.
How this course is organized There are four main sections and one practice test in this book.
Introduction Understanding what each section requires you to do Unit 1 Practicing the basic writing skills of brainstorming, organizing, and paraphrasing Unit 2 Developing writing skills by connecting and supporting ideas Unit 3 Focusing on sentence structure and word choice Practice Test Practicing with questions designed according to the real test format
Writing The writing section of the test is designed to assess your ability to organize and support your ideas in essay format. You will have two writing tasks. One task is based both on a reading and on a lecture. You will be required to summarize the information you have heard, and to relate the information heard in the lecture to the information in the passage. The second task requires you to generate an essay based on your own experience. In this second task, you will be given no material to work with; it will be based completely on your own ideas.
Question Types: Questions for the writing section of the TOEFL will appear in the following order:
Study Tips
Integrated Writing Look for magazine or newspaper articles that are about 300 words long. Time yourself as you read the articles. You should aim to read 300 words in less than three minutes. After reading, try to outline the article. Then, without looking back at the article, try to write a summary of the article from your outline.
Practice listening to short reports given in English. There are many websites where such reports are available online. While you listen to a report, take notes. Try to summarize the report from your notes.
Look for a variety of exercises in writing books you have studied that practice paraphrasing. Study the methods such books suggest for paraphrasing. Focus especially on exercises that practice the usage of synonyms and/or changing the grammar of given sentences in order to paraphrase them.
Review useful phrases and expressions for citing sources. Pay attention to where these citation phrases can be placed in sentences and how the phrases should be punctuated.
Practice your typing skills in English. You must type your essay for the TOEFL.
Independent writing Practice writing TOEFL Essay. Select a topic at random and write a 30-minute draft essay. Correct the essay, with the assistance of a teacher if possible, and rewrite it with the suggested corrections.
When you are studying a group of writing topics, practice sorting the topics into “opinion” or “experience” topics. This will help you quickly determine the appropriate writing task you will have when you take the test.
Practice outlining ideas before you write. You can do this by taking five or six topics for writing and making a short outline for each one. Don’t write the essays, just write the outlines. You can also use different techniques for prewriting, such as making simple charts of information, drawing bubble diagrams, or creating lists of ideas.
Look for variety of exercises in writing books you have studied that practice writing introductions and conclusions. Study the methods that these books suggest for writing introductions and conclusions. Pay attention to tips for beginning and ending introductions and conclusions.
Practice your typing skills in English. You must type your essay in the actual TOEFL.
How writing will be scored
ETS Graders will score test takers’ essays for integrated writing tasks according to the following scale:
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