How to Write a TOEFL iBT Essay
Posted: Saturday, August 02, 2008
by William Sullivan
Cz-Training
It's not difficult to write a good essay, but you do have to learn the basics. There are some things that every essay must have. Here they are:
Essay structure
Your essay has to follow the English essay structure. In fact, even native speakers of English have to use this essay structure when they write-if they don't use it, then their essay won't be a very good one! Fortunately, the essay structure is easy to learn. There are only three main parts:
- introduction
- body
- conclusion
Thesis statement
Your introduction must have a thesis statement. This is the last sentence in the first paragraph. It is also the most important sentence in your essay because it tells the reader exactly what your opinion is. It should be simple and direct. Here are some examples:
- Violence on television contributes to violence in society.
- In my opinion, studying with a group of people is always better than to studying alone.
- My favorite room in the house has always been my bedroom.
Topic sentences
Every paragraph in the essay body begins with a topic sentence. A good topic sentence does two things. First, it gives one reason why your thesis statement is true. Second, it tells the reader what the paragraph is about. In other words, the topic sentence looks forward and backwards: it refers to the rest of the paragraph and it refers back to the thesis statement.
Supporting ideas and statements
This is what comes after a topic sentence. Supporting ideas give specific details and examples related to the topic sentence. These details and examples could be almost anything: a personal experience, something you've read, an example from history, a statistical finding, or a philosophical or scientific argument. Basically, whatever supports your topic sentence can be in the paragraph.
Conclusion
This is the last paragraph in the essay. It is also a very important paragraph. Put simply, it is a summary of the main points of your essay: thesis statement + topic sentences. Of course, you shouldn't copy your thesis and topic sentences exactly.
If you organize your writing by following this essay structure, you will see a big improvement. All of the essay parts (introduction, thesis statement, topic sentences, supporting ideas, conclusion) work together and not only make your writing stronger, but also make your ideas easier to understand.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)thnx.. its life savin..
Awesome.........it really helps
yes very much
Thank you very much for the article. I've been teaching this structure and some of my students weren't sure about the effectiveness of this method. I'll copy the article ONLY for pedagogical reasons acknowleding the source and its author. My students are spearkers of latin spanish.
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