THE ESSAY - THE INDEPENDENT WRITING TASK (TOEFL WRITING 3)

WELCOME TO THIS POST!

HERE’S A LOVELY NATURAL SCENE FOR MY READERS

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In my previous post on the topic of the Independent Writing task for the TOEFL, I was discussing the difficulties I had observed when working with my ESL students who were attempting to write essays.

In this post I want to refer to the “brainstorming for ideas”, to be continued in the next post with a simple guide to planning the structure of the essay.

THE BRAINSTORMING

This is the moment when you read the proposed topic for the essay that has been provided on the test screen, and you start to collect your ideas for actually writing the essay. 

As I’ve pointed out in the previous post, you have only about 2 minutes available for this step.

Unfortunately, many students discover that they HAVE NO IDEAS! What I mean is that they have no experiences, they have never discussed the topic, they have never read about it or they simply have never thought about the issue.

When this has happened during one of my classes, I have provided my own ideas, trying to offer a model of how to think round the topic. 

I have found that after about two or three weeks in which I have been the sole provider of “bright ideas” my student begins to pick up the thread and finally takes over the class. 

It seems obvious to me that it is necessary to do all this before taking the test. You don’t want to arrive at the test and then just stare blankly at the screen!

Another simple conclusion is that the designers of the test are looking for candidates who read newspapers and magazines, and who participate in insightful discussions with their friends. 

In other words, the candidates are supposed to have ideas and opinions stored away in their brain about any amount of topics. 

This is something that cannot be improvised in a short period of time.

One solution is to search on the Internet for lists with proposed topics for the TOEFL essay; there are lots of these lists available. 

The next step is to “brainstorm” right through the list! So get started, the quicker the better.

And don’t forget that this is a test of English! That’s what the E in TOEFL stands for, so all this must be done in English.

DO YOU NEED TO PRODUCE AN ESSAY IN PERFECT ENGLISH?

This is another issue connected to the Independent Writing Task. The answer to the above question is that you don’t have to have a perfect command of the English language!

However, you do need to write your essay in the best possible way, otherwise you will lose points that could make all the difference to your overall results.

Again, this is something that can’t be improvised; you need to achieve a medium to high level of English before you start your TOEFL preparation.

As I said in my first post on the TOEFL, this is a demanding test! But it CAN be done if you set your mind to it.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

I hope you haven’t found this post too depressing! That has not been my intention by any means.

My aim here is to relate what I have seen and done with my students, who have all been ESL students. 

What I want to avoid is the false feeling of security with which a candidate could possibly venture into the exam room, only to find that he or she doesn’t really have a clue!

So on to the next post, which will definitely be about the elements that form the main structure of the essay. 

See you on that next post. It will be an important one, so don’t miss it!

FOR MY READERS, A PRESENT OF A CHEERFUL FLOWER!

 

SO KEEP UP YOUR SPIRITS!

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 Source: Pixabay, Public Domain

© 2013  joveron  (Joan Robertson)

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