2016-06-30 Pre TOEFL: intro to integrated writing

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - Notes from all my classes
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Homework: Write an essay from one of your outlines. (My advice: time yourself for 20-25 minutes, and write as much of an essay as you can in that time.)
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Read your partner’s essay. Think about the things we discussed yesterday with the sample answers.
What is good about their essay? What can be improved? Are the answer and supporting ideas clear?
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What can you do in order to finish your answer more quickly?
- Have very clear organization (so everything can easily go into the framework).
- Write the topic sentences of each paragraph first. Then add details.
- Think in English, don’t think in your language and translate.
- Remove distractions (this is more applicable to writing at home than on the TOEFL).
- Practice typing in English whenever you can.
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Integrated Writing combines reading, listening, and writing
	(Integrated speaking combines reading, listening, and speaking.)
First you will have three minutes to read a short text passage (you should take notes on main ideas).
Then the text will disappear and you will listen to a lecture or class discussion about the same topic.
	(For this especially you have to take notes. You will only hear it one time.)
Finally, you will read the question and the text will reappear. You have 20 minutes to write your answer.

	In many organizations, perhaps the best way to approach certain new projects is to assemble a group of people into a team. Having a team of people attack a project offers several advantages. First of all, a group of people has a wider range of knowledge, expertise, and skills than any single individual is likely to possess. Also, because of the
numbers of people involved and the greater resources they possess, a group can work more quickly in response to the task assigned to it and can come up with highly creative solutions to problems and issues. Sometimes these creative solutions come about because a group is more likely to make risky decisions that an individual might not undertake.
This is because the group spreads responsibility for a decision to all the members and thus no single individual can be held accountable if the decision turns out to be wrong.
	Taking part in a group process can be very rewarding for members of the team. Team members who have a voice in making a decision will no doubt feel better about carrying out the work that is entailed by that decision than they might be doing work that is imposed on them by others. Also, the individual team member has a much better chance to
“shine,” to get his or her contributions and ideas not only recognized but recognized as highly significant, because a team’s overall results can be more far-reaching and have greater impact than what might have otherwise been possible for the person to accomplish or contribute working alone.
(from https://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TOEFL/pdf/ibt_writing_sample_responses.pdf)

Main idea: Teamwork is better than individual work.
- more creativity
- spread responsibility and riskier decision
- more productive and work more quickly
- wider knowledge and skills (they know more as a group than individually)
- better motivation
- more opportunity to shine and show individual skills, because the result might be bigger than an individual project
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After you listen (we’ll do that tomorrow), you have to respond to this:
“Summarize the points made in the lecture you just heard, explaining how they cast doubt on points made in the reading.”

to cast doubt on = to make something uncertain; to question or contradict it