2019-10-17 TOEFL: writing practice

Greg Malivuk
gmalivuk@staffordhouse.com
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-truth-about-electroconvulsive-therapy-ect-helen-m-farrell
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Homework: exercise 9.2 questions 1-7
1 D
2 B
3 A
4 D
5 C
6 A
7 C
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Look at the comments and scores on your writing from last week. Do you understand everything I wrote?

Remember, it’s “on the other hand”, not “in the other hand”.
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Writing Section: fourth and final section, two tasks, about 55 minutes total
1 integrated: read a text, listen to a lecture about the same topic, write about how the lecture’s points relate to the text’s points
2 independent: read a choice question prompt, write an essay to explain your answer
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Common issues in independent writing

- If your thesis is comparative (e.g. young people enjoy life more than older people), then each supporting point should address both sides of the comparison.
- Make sure your supporting points relate to the specific question you’re responding to. (If you’re arguing that email makes people worse writers, things like email addiction and social isolation are irrelevant.)
- “Finally” introduces the last supporting point (of at least three), NOT the conclusion.
	(In conclusion, / In summary, / Overall, / To sum up, - These are conclusion transitions.)
- Give yourself only 5 minutes per body paragraph at first. Then you can go back and complete them, and add an intro and conclusion. Then check for mistakes. (Bigger isn’t always better.)
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Pay close attention to words from your language that can have multiple translations in English:
por = for/by
para = for/to (especially for+noun or to+verb for the purpose)
ganar = win/earn/gain
hacer = do/make
en = in/on/at
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Parallel Structure / Parallelism
- Within a single sentence, parts connected with a coordinating conjunction (and/but/or) should be parallel or it may be ungrammatical.
- Across two or more sentences, parallelism makes it smoother and clearer, but it’s not ungrammatical if you don’t use it.
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Practice - Identify the one that isn’t parallel, and if you can, fix it so that it is.
1 boat rides -> boating
2 They are digging for clams. -> They dig for clams.
3 his eyes -> [preposition] his eyes
4 painting pictures -> paintings/pictures
5 sadly -> sadness
6 into the Rolls Royce -> driven in a Rolls Royce (These are all passive phrases.)
7 strong -> strength
8 fly -> flew
9 eating meat pies -> meat pie stands
10 in the fall -> [adjective] in the fall
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BREAK
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Writing Practice - ETS 2.3
Review the points from the lecture.
For the independent task, the question is about access to large amounts of information.
	- It is NOT about communication, commerce, entertainment, or anything else we do online.
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A professor can hurt _____ reputation by appearing on TV.
- “his”: This feels sexist nowadays. Not all professors are men.
- “his or her”: This is correct but can get awkward if you have to use it a lot.
- “their”: This is fine in speaking and probably on TOEFL writing, but some say it’s incorrect.
- “Professors can hurt their…”: Everyone agrees this is correct (but pluralizing isn’t always possible).

Make sure, especially with “they”, that it’s always clear who you’re referring to.
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Homework: part B of the parallelism handout