مقاله شماره دو - مستقل

Essay 2 - Independent

The second Toefl essay is an independent task, meaning it’s only writing. No listening, no reading. So, what question will you answer? Here’s a sample. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Print media, including magazines and newspapers, will soon be completely replaced by internet news sources.

Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. This is very typical, very normal for the second essay question. And it should look very familiar. You can see this same type of question. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement in speaking task number two.

It’s not very common in the speaking task, but it’s extremely common in the writing task. There are many different ways that, many different statements that you might have in the middle here. Here are some other possible statements you could see. It is important that we listen to the advice of those who are older than us.

A classroom education is more helpful in life than lessons learned at home. Historic artwork should always be carefully preserved. Okay, so notice a couple of things here. One, this one. Education is a very popular topic in ETS. They talk about teachers and school a lot, and that’s for a good reason.

It is an education test. You need to know, you need to pass this test to go to school. So they know that the people taking the test have this in common. Here’s another one that’s important to notice. The advice of people who are older than us. This is very general.

It’s something that might involve your family, your friends, or other people who you have met in your life. And anybody can answer this question. These other ones, though, are a little bit different, about magazines and newspapers. About artwork.

This is something that, maybe, you’re not interested in. And maybe you don’t have many thoughts. It makes it a little bit more difficult. Anybody can answer this question. It’s, it’s not very academic.

It’s not about science, but it is a little bit more specific. You might get questions about government, about politics, you might get questions about space travel. Anything, really, that people generally have opinions about. Again, you don’t need any specific knowledge to answer these questions, but you do need thoughts.

You need opinions. And sometimes, it might be difficult to form those opinions by the topics. Now, there are other types of questions you could see. Here are a couple others. If you had a visitor staying in your town or city, would you prefer to bring them to a restaurant or cook for them at home?

Why? Give reasons and examples to support your answer. And another. Some people believe that clothes can give us information about the people who wear them, while others think that clothes are not a good way to judge personality. Which do you believe?

Explain your answer with reasons and examples. Okay, again, notice that there is usually a choice between two things. Some people believe while others think, this is a very common form in speaking task two also. And here, would you prefer to bring them to a restaurant or at home? You have a choice between the restaurant and home.

This type of question is a little less common, but it’s important to know about. The if question. This is a hypothetical situation. You have to imagine it. It’s not real. The other questions, you might talk about real world situations, real world experiences.

This one is not a real world experience. It is only imaginary. All right, the clock. You’ll have 30 minutes to write your essay. Well, not just write your essay, of course. 30 minutes to plan, write and edit your essay.

Remember to do all three parts. You need to spend time planning, and you need to spend time editing. Many students forget this. Altogether, 30 minutes is not a lot of time to write an essay. You need to practice working with the clock, definitely. And that’s all for this video.

Thank you for listening.