Table Of ContentHOW TO PREPARE FOR THE
2ND EDITION
Choose Barron's Method for Essay-Writing Success
• Read and understand the author's • Write a first draft, then follow the
overview of the TOEFLEssay author's directions for editing it
• Select an essay topic that interests you • Write a final draft and proofread it
carefulIy
• Organize your main ideas
• Analyze your essay, referring to the r'
I
book's model essays for guidance
ISBN 0-7641-2313-0
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It's Your Path to a «
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{JUl 1 5 2004
HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE
TEST OF ENGLISH
AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
2ND EDITION
lin Lougheed, Ed.D.
President, Instructional Design International, Inc.
Former TESOL Executive Board Member
,
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Contents
HOW TO USE THIS 800It: 2
TomE TEACHER 4
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT
THE TOEFL ESSAY 6
TOEFL ESSAY BASICS 8
SCOmNG THE ESSAY
13
STRATEGiES AND TIPS
22
SELF·TEST ESSAY #:1 24
, PlANNING THE ESSAY 30
WRITING THE ESSAY
32
REVISING THE ESSAY 35
20 Planniot2lhe Essa-q
ADDRESSING THE WRITING TASI\: 40
ORGANIZING THE ESSAY 47
DEVELOPING THE TOPIC 74
DEMONSTRATING FACILI'IY WITH ENGLISH 85
CONCLUDING THE TOPIC
111
4@Re\Jisi the Ess
CHECliING THE CONTENT AND CLARIty 122
CHECliING THE PUNCTUATION AND SPELLING 130
USING THE PROOFING CHECIiLIST ' 133
MODEL ESSAYS 158
ANSWER KEY 271
Introduction
HOW TO USE mIS BOOK 2
PLAN 2
WRITE 2
REVISE 3
TO THE TEACHER 4
EXPANDING THE ACTIVITIES 4
GETTING STUDENTS TO DO MORE 4
PLAN 5
> •••••
WRITE 5
REVISE 5
OUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
ABOUT THE TOEFL ESSAY 6
TOEFL ESSAY BASICS 8
TO TYPE OR NOT TO TYPE 8
TEST DAY 9
THE TOPIC 11
TIME SCHEDULE 11
COMPUTER TUTORIAL 12
KEYBOARD FOR THE ESSAY 12
> ••••••••••••••
COMPUTER SCREEN FOR THE ESSAY 13
SCORING THE ESSAY 13
RATING SCALE 14
SCORED ESSAYS '.' 14
STRATEGIES AND TIPS 22
SPECIFIC TOEFL WRITING IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES 22
GENERAL WRITING IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES 23
TIPS ON TEST DAY 24
SELF-TEST ESSAY #1 : .. 24
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,
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o
HOW TO USE THIS BOO){
There are three stages in creating an essay: planning, writing, and revising. 'When you write the
TOEFL essay,you will have only thirty minutes to do allof this. In that short, thirty minutes, your
writing must make an impression. Yourwriting must be clear,coherent, and correct. This book will
help you do that.
How toPreparefor the TOEFL Essay,2nd Edition provides a step-by-step guide for planning,
writing, and revising your essay.
PLAN
This book will help you plan your essay.Youwill learn how to
understand the essay topic,
write athesis statement, and
organize yourthoughts with concept maps.
Youalso must have aplan for studying. Start with the first chapter of this book. Do every activity
on every page until you reach the end. Follow the sequence of the book. When you write an essay,
you start with the first word of the first sentence and end with the last word of the conclusion.
Study this book the same way.Begin atthe beginning and work your way through the book.
Youwill need to measure your success. The answer keyin the back ofthe book will tellyou how
wellyou are doing. Atthe end ofeach chapter, there areFree Practice activities that askyou towrite
something on your own. There is,of course, no answer keyfor these activities. Share your writing
with friends or teachers. They will tellyou how wellyou are doing. Youcan find additional essays
and topics, including any new topics from ETS, on Dr.Lougheed's Web site:www.lougheed.com.
WRITE
This book will help you write your essay.Youwill learn how to
state opinions,
write topic statements,
write supporting details,
write aconclusion, and
use syntactic and semantic variety inyouressay.
2
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4 HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE TOEFL ESSAY
This book is perfectly suited for use in the classroom. The activities are caretully structured and
can easily be completed in class. The activities can also be done as homework and corrected in
'
dass.
This book contains two types ofa ctivities: structured and free,T he structured aaivitiespres$ 4:. .:,
models and controlled writmg activities for the students. The free activities encourage them to
write on their own using the controlled, structured activities as models.
EXPANDING THE ACTIVITIES
This book is a gold mine. Each chapter has examples and structured activities showing how a partic-
ular part of an essay is developed. In addition, the model essays in the Appendix provide further
examples of essay development. Use these essays to expand the activities in the book.F or example, in
Chapter 3 the students are asked to identify the topic sentence and supporting details in an introduc-
tory paragraph. There are five examples in the exercise in that chapter, but more than one hundred
introductory paragraphs in the model essays in the Appenchx, which can be used to continue the
exercise. You can have the students use the model essays to look fbr examples of transition words,
cohesion, condusions, or any other aspect of essay writing that you want to illustrate. All of the essays
in this book, both those used in the text and those in the &pen& follow a model of essay organi-
zation. This model is presented at the end of Chapter 1a nd is repeated next to every essay in the book
to show how each essay is o r g dY ou can have the students use this model to analyze the essays
in the book Ask them to fmd where the theme is stated in an essay, where each point is rkntioned,
and where the examples are exp1ained.Your students need to follow this model in their own writing.
You might advise your students that the model essays show a great diversity of writing.
Everyone has a different writing style and the essays reflect this difference. This book is prescrip-
tive in its approach to essay writing, but one can present one's ideas in many ways. 3y analyzing the
style of a model essay (how the writer developed an idea and how the writer introduced and con-
hdedt he essay), your students will gain a broader understanding of essay writing.
GETTING STUDENTS TO DO MORE
Writing is a very personal activity, and students must be encouraged to write on their own. The
Strategies and Tips section contains activities that the student a nd o to improve general writing
ability (General W1-8'tinglm prwement Strategies).
Students, of course, don't want to waste their time learning 'general"w iting, even though it will
improve their essay writing. They want their preparation to be TOEFL-specific. To this end, there
INTRODUCT10hl 5
are more than 133 topics in the Appendix that have appeared or could appear on the actual TOEFL
test. Assign essay topics from this list kquently Have the students do one a night or one a week.
Use these essays for practice in class as the students work through the stages of planning, writing,
and revising the essay
Have the stdents work together as they -1 to p h ,w rite, and revise their essays. In order ta be
able to address the Mthg.&pic.sst,u dents need to begin to form opinions on these topics, They
must get used h thmhga bout why a school needs more tachen, or why a landscaper is needed
by our community In small groups d~qa nb rainstom and discuss their ideas on the various
writing topics presented throughout the book and in the Appendix, Foliciwing these discussions,
they anp ractice writing thesis statimnts and developing concept maps on the same topics. ney
can do this in groups, or they can do it alane and bring their work to the group for ciitique.
me there is a topic sentace in each paragraph, Have them &eck the introduction to make sure
the theme and its supporting pints are all mentioned After they have done the exercises an con-
clusions, have them look at the condwions of their own work to see if they summarize the theme
that was pented in the introduction, They can also look at the use of transition words in their
own or their b a t e ' se ssays; they can look for passive and active voice, and the other items that
are cove red in the^.
After the students have worked on the exercises about run-on sentences and sentence fragments in
Chapter 4, have them check &ch other's work for these problems. Have them correct the spelhg
and punctuation. This chapter provides sweral model essays for revision practice. They can con-
tinue this practice by revising each other's essays in groups. They should also get used to using the
Proohg Checklist on page 28 to revise their own and their classmates' work.
Whatwer your students write, they will profit fiom doing it again. Even though they can't revise
extensively on the TOEFL Essay, learning to rethink and redo will help them develop sound writ-
A word of caution. Please remind the students not to memorize the essays in this book. An essay
will not be rated if the reader suspects it was taken from the model essays.
6 HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE TOEFL ESSAY
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
-.:' . P BUT TAE TOFJ?L ESSm
i; I,.
i~
1 1.Haiongdolhm~*mMth~%~sa]n 10, Can I bring paper with me?
Thirty minutes. No. Nothing can be brought into the test
room.Scratch paper and paper on which to
1 2, Do I haw to use the computer?
I write your essay will be supplied.
Mo,you can write your essay by hand.You
4
candecideontestday.(SeethesectionTo 11. Whathappenstothenotesltake?
:I; T wo r Not to Type.) You can write your notes in English or your
I. first ianguage.They will be collected and
3. Do I have a choice of topics?
discarded.They will not be seen by the
No, you will only be given one topic.
raters.
4* ''I test4ahs (he I2 , Is them a spell decker or a grammar
No. Not every test-taker will have the same
checker on the computer?
No.You will have to do your own proof-
5. What will happen if 1 don't understand reading. (See the section, To Type or Not to
the question? Type.) Don't worry about a few spelling
If you study this book, that won't be a prob errors or a few mistakes with punctuation
lem.You will understand all the possible or grammar. A few small errors will not
topics. On the day of the test, you will not count against your score. Hint: If you are
receive any help with the topic, unsure how to spell a word, use a word you
do k~iowh ow to spell.
6. What will happen ifI don't understand
Row to work the computer? 13. How long should the essay be?
There will be test administrators in the It should be around 300 words.You should
room who can answer your questions about be able to address your topic completely in
using the computer.They will not answer three to five short paragraphs.
any question about the use of English.
14. What's more important in the essay:
7. What kind of pencils should I bring? organization or grammar.
None. Everything you need to write your Both are important. A reader judges an
essay witi be given to you at the testing essay on its organization, your use of details
center. If you need extra pencils or paper, to support your opinions, and your facility
ask your test administrator.
with English. (See the section, Scoring the
8. Can I bring a dock with me? Essay.)
No. Nothing can be brought into the test
15. Do 1 need a title?
room-You can wear your watch or look at
No. However, a title helps the readers focus
the clack on the computer xreen.There
attention on your thesis. It helps them
will be a clock in the upper left corner that
understandy our point of view.
counts down the time remaining.
16. Do I need an introduction?
9. Can I bring a dktionary with me?
You need something to introduce your
No. Nothing can be brought into the test
readers to your topic.This will help them
room.
understand what you are going to say and
how you plan to develop your ideas.
