2019-06-20 TOEFL: writing practice

Greg Malivuk
gmalivuk@staffordhouse.com
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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Homework: p. 37-39 - Answer the test questions in parts 1L14 and 1L15
p. 39 exercise 1L15
1 b
2 d
3 d
4 c
5 a b
6 - 3 2 1 4 (top to bottom) / c b a d (left to right)
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Writing Section: Fourth and final section (after speaking)
Two tasks:
1 integrated: read an article, listen to a lecture on the same topic, write about how the lecture relates to the article
2 independent: state and support your answer to a choice question (agree/disagree or some people / other people)
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Integrated Writing
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- Take 3 minutes to read the text about Jane Austen (ETS 2.4). What are the main points?
R0 (overall idea, which the supporting points give evidence for) = the professional painting is Jane Austen
R1 (first supporting point) = her family gave permission to use the painting in a book of Jane’s letters (they would recognize her)
R2 = the painting clearly resembles Cassandra’s sketch, which we know was Jane
R3 = style is similar to Ozias Humphrey, who painted portraits at the time Jane was a teenager
- The lecture almost always contradicts the text. While you read and take brief notes on the points from the text, you can also think about possible counterpoints. These are predictions of what the lecture might say.
P0 = the painting isn’t Jane
P1 = the family gave permission 65 years after she died and around 90 years after she was a teenager; how could they know what she looked like?
P2 = the sketch was her as an adult, not a teenager, so we can’t really be sure
P3 = maybe many painters had a similar style; with no signature or date we can’t be sure it was Humphrey
- Listen to the lecture and note its main points.
L0 = the painting was not Jane Austen
L1 = she’d been dead nearly 70 years, so no one knew what she looked like as a teenager
L2 = it was a large family with many girls who would have looked similar; some people believe the painting was of Jane Austen’s niece
L3 = there’s a stamp on the canvas linking it to a man who didn’t sell canvas in London until Jane was 27, which is much older than the girl in the painting
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Your response can be organized point-by-point like this:
paragraph 1 - Introduce the topic and summarize R0 and L0 (what are the main points?) and how they relate
paragraph 2 - summarize R1 and L1 and be clear about how they relate
paragraph 3 - summarize R2 and L2 and be clear about how they relate
paragraph 4 - summarize R3 and L3 and be clear about how they relate
(After 4 paragraphs, it’s better to use your time making corrections than writing a conclusion.)
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Use citation language to show where each idea comes from.
Use contrast language to show that the ideas from the lecture contradict those from the text.
Use support language to show that the details from the lecture support the main ideas from the text.
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Text: three proposed solutions to the problem of large ships colliding with whales
Lecture: problems with each solution
- There’s not really an R0 or L0 in this case. Your introduction could include a sentence like, “The text proposes three solutions to the problem, and the lecture describes drawbacks of each proposal.”
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If the lecture illustrates the points from the text, you might have a supporting paragraph like this:
	First, according to the text, people with high emotional intelligence can accurately identify other people’s feelings. The speaker describes an experiment in which _______ were shown photographs of strangers, and were able to correctly identify the emotions those strangers were feeling 90% of the time.
(The lecture might give specific details to support the general ideas in the lecture, similar to the most common organization in speaking task 4.)
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The Cambridge TOEFL book does a good job building up the skills, though a lot of the skill-building practice questions are unlike TOEFL questions. (True/False, for example)
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Independent Writing - You have 30 minutes, so you can spend some of that time preparing. (3-5 minutes to brainstorm reasons and examples supporting both sides, pick the side with better reasons and examples, and write a brief outline (putting the reasons and examples in order))
- If the independent prompt is about which “life choice” is better, start by thinking through a few typical situations where one action can be better or worse than another:
    Does one option cost more than the other?
    Does it help or hurt in different areas of life?
        education
        career
        relationships (friends or family)
        liesure activities
        necessary activities (chores, taxes, etc.)
        budget
        responsibilities
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After you make an outline, write your thesis statement and lead-in (“I have three reasons for this opinion.”) and then start on the body paragraphs. Give yourself 5 minutes each for three or 7-8 minutes for two. (This means force yourself to go to the next paragraph after that amount of time.)
- After 15 minutes writing the body paragraphs, go back to finish any ideas you left unfinished. Then write a conclusion, add to your introduction, fix mistakes, etc.
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BREAK
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Writing Practice (ETS 2.5, both parts)