2016-03-11 Pre TOEFL: writing corrections

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk
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Homework: Do the writing you should have done yesterday, if you haven’t already.
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Transitions: words that signal the relationship between ideas (contrast, examples, consequences, etc.)

Where should “finally” go in a five-paragraph essay?
- “Finally” is a transition to give the last thing in a list, so it can go before the last example in a paragraph, or at the beginning of the last supporting paragraph, before the concluding paragraph.

“Nowadays” is almost never necessary, and it sounds pretty informal.
If you feel like you must mention that something is unique to the present, you can start with something like, “In recent years,...” or “Since 2000,...”, for example.
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Parallel Structure: things linked with “and” or “or” should have the same structure or form

*I prefer to live in a small town because people are friendly, low cost of living and good environment.

people are friendly - sentence
low cost of living - noun phrase
good environment - noun phrase

-> because of the friendly people, the low cost of living, and the good environment.
(noun phrase, noun phrase, and noun phrase)

-> because people are friendly, the cost of living is low, and the environment is good.
(sentence, sentence, and sentence)
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In a short essay, once you choose your main reasons, you need to remember what they are and focus on those reasons.
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Quantifiers with and without “of”

all people
(all the people - this is an exception for “all”)
all of the people
*all of people (WRONG)

most people
most of the people
*most of people (WRONG)

many friends
many of my friends
*many of friends (WRONG)

a couple friends
a couple of my friends
a couple of friends (This is okay for “a couple”.)
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A few quantifiers must use “of”, with or without “the”:

A lot of people. / A lot of the people.
A great deal of time. / A great deal of the time.
(These don’t necessarily have the same meaning.)
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Homework: read p. 112 and 113 (on the reading handout) and answer p. 114