Let's review real quick: Please listen up.
Step 1: Brainstorm and choose two reasons. When you choose the 2 reasons, go with what you know.
Step 2: Create your thesis statement and topic sentences. Remember you need to write these quickly.
Now today let’s look at writing an explanation and later we will look at some writing samples.
A couple of things to remember when preparing your explanation:
I.Don’t forget to get the facts by going with what you know.
Let’s practice with this topic: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Learning about the past has no value for those of us living in the present.
Let’s say we agree because we don’t want to repeat mistakes from the past and let's say we are going to write a paragraph about it.
We want to do specific facts. Let’s think about our sources of support: family, friends, education/major, job, city, country, current events, something you’ve read or listened to.
PLEASE REMEMBER:
You can do positive or negative facts.
You can use a quote. What is a quote? My friend said, "...."
You can also use a question in your explanation?
So the question for you is can you think of a mistake from the past from one of these categories?
II.When writing an explanation, you can also get specific facts by considering what the other side would say. For example, let’s look at this topic: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Parents are the best teachers.
To do this, follow 3 steps:
1. Think of one reason from the other side.
On our topic, let’s say we agree. Now let’s consider what others would say. So if another person disagrees, how do you think they would disagree?
They might say others have expert knowledge that parents don't have.
2. Then think what could you say to attack that idea? Create a question or two to attack.
Yes, parents don't have knowledge on every topic but don't they have knowledge on the most important topics? Don't they have the knowledge that matters most?
3. Then answer the question or questions you asked.
Parents have the knowledge to get their kids through adolescence and they help them enter adulthood. THey launch them into life.
III.TOEFL gives you leeway in organizing your paper. If they give you a topic that is agree or disagree, you could disagree and give 2 reasons. They will also give you leeway and let you write the advantages and disadvantages of the topic.
Let’s look at this topic: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Always telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
Instead of choosing a side and agreeing or disagreeing, let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of the topic. So what are the advantages of telling the truth? What are the disadvantages?
Now please read this sample essay from ETS (the official site) here and notice that they did the 3 things we just talked about:
1.They wrote about what they knew. They can do positive or negative explanations.
2.They considered the other side and wrote questions and used that as an explanation.
3.They also organized it not by reason but by writing about the advantages and
disadvantages of the topic.