Beginner’s Guide to the TOEFL Independent Essay

This guide is for low-level students writing their first TOEFL independent essays. Advanced students may wish to skip right to our advanced guide.

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(note, students pretty quickly may wish to skip straight to our TOEFL essay templates)

Start by making an overview of the essay. Consider the picture below:

The student starts by writing a point that is“main at the top the chart. That is her “answer” into the relevant question posed by the exam.

The student writes two “reasons” to support the key point below the main point. These are broad and never too specific. However, they have to be unique. The causes really should not be much like each other.

Below each one of the reasons, the student writes two “details.” they are more specific. They support the good reasons and explain why they have cited the reasons. They may likewise incorporate examples from the student’s life that support the causes.

Here’s an illustration outline for the question: “What is the gift that is best to give to a child?” It had been published by an actual student. Consider it closely:

The student has filled within the outline point-form that is using (not complete sentences). Her main point is gift that is“Best pet.”

Her two reasons are “it is educational” and “it is a great friend.”

The main points through the reason that is first “learn responsibility” and “learn stages of life.” The main points through the reason that is second “never judgmental” and “children often alone these days.” The student has bigger ideas. this woman is going to write about how caring for the pet teaches responsibility and she actually is likely to write that students are along because their parents in many cases are away. but the outline is simply her ideas that are initial.

The rest of this article will show how exactly to turn this outline into a essay that is complete. I’ll use simple English throughout the article. High level students should probably use more vocabulary that is advanced sentence structure.

I teach my students to publish a four paragraph essay in the independent writing section. This kind of essay is for enough time and certainly will be completed in the right time allowed. Higher level students might try writing a five paragraph essay.

The four paragraph structure is:

• Introductory Paragraph
• Body Paragraph 1
• Body Paragraph 2
• Concluding Paragraph

Let’s start with the paragraph that is introductory

My students use a sentence-by-sentence way to write their introductions. The technique is it:

• Sentence one: A “hook.” This can be an sentence that is interesting comes before most of your point. It references the question and draws your reader to the essay.
• Sentence two: most of your point. In one single good, clear sentence state your main point. Don’t be too long. Get to the purpose!
• Sentence three: a sentence that is transitional. Try something such as “I feel this real means for two reasons.”
• Sentence four: a single sentence summary of your first reason. Begin this sentence with “first” (you can leave this out if you’re low on time).
• Sentence five: A one sentence summary of your second reason. Begin this sentence with “second” (you can leave this out if you are low on time).

Talking about the question above and with the given template, you could write an introduction like this:

“There are many gifts that are great could be given to a child. I believe that the best gift to offer a young child is a pet. I feel that way for just two significant reasons, which I will explore into the essay that is following. First, a pet can be extremely educational. Second, a pet can be a good friend to a child that is young.

Remember that there aren’t any references to your details in this paragraph. Save those for the physical body paragraphs.

Next step: Writing a physical body paragraph

This is your chance to show your essay off writing ability. I don’t teach a strict model for this the main essay.

I actually do however, have some basic rules. They are:

1. Each reason gets a unique paragraph. Do not combine your reasons into one paragraph.
2. Start your first paragraph with a transitional word or phrase like “first,” “to start with,” and your next paragraph with “second” or “secondly.”
3. At the beginning of each body paragraph, clearly state your reason. Don’t use a hook, just get to the point. Next, state your details one after another, expanding every one to three or four sentences. You are able to expand by including a personal example from your life. Including examples that are personal your lifetime in the essay is okay. In reality, i will suggest it.
4. You will need to use transitional phrases in betwixt your details (“moreover,” “furthermore,” “also”).

Here’s a good example body paragraph made using the outline that is above

“to start with, a pet is a tremendously educational gift. Having a pet teaches children responsibility. A pet has got to be fed every day and get given to be able to exercise. The master of a pet has also to observe the health of the pet and do something if it becomes sick. Practicing this type or style of responsibility will likely make a child more mature. Moreover, a pet can help teach a young child about the stages of life. Animals grow even faster than humans and a child that is young learn a whole lot by observing how their pet grows up. I had a pet gecko as a child and watching it grow from an infant to a adult that is full-sized me a lot and got me very thinking about biology and nature.”

Observe that this paragraph followed the outline above quite closely. I stated my reason and then supported it with details. I expanded the information significantly through the point-form utilized in my outline.

My second body paragraph is written in much the way that is same

“Secondly, I feel that a pet makes great friend. It really is good for children to possess pets since they are never judgmental. A kid may have a www.paytowriteessays.net/ day that is bad school or he might get in a fight along with his friends, but he can never fight along with his pet. It shall love him unconditionally. Furthermore, pets can possibly prevent children from being lonely. These days parents are often too busy to expend time making use of their children. They often times leave their kids home alone. This may leave some kids feeling lonely, but people that have pets will never feel alone.“

And that is the entire body of my essay! Pay attention to how I used transitional words (“moreover” and “furthermore”) in the middle the two details in each paragraph.

I’m not a large fan of lengthy concluding paragraphs, mainly because the independent essay is pretty short. But i really do teach a three sentence technique:

• Sentence one: re-state your main point and start with a phrase like “to sum it up…”
• Sentence two: restate your two reasons, starting with a transitional phrase like “this is because…”
• Sentence three: yet again, restate your point that is main but different words

Here’s a conclusion for the essay we’ve been using the services of:

“To sum it up, personally i think that a pet is the absolute best gift to provide to a young child. This is because pets are very educational, plus they make great friends. There actually is no better gift that a young child can receive than a pet.”