托福写作整体结构(一)

智课网 TOEFL备考资料 托福写作整体结构（一） 摘要： 托福写作应该怎么写？才能得高分呢？下面主要讲解托福写作整体结构（一）的构思，希望 对大家备考托福写作有所帮助。 托福 写作整体结构（一） Learning the Correct TOEFL Essay Structure Learning howto use the correct essay structure is the first step in increasing your TOEFL writing score. The TOEFL essay is usually four paragraphs long and has three parts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Each part of the essay has a different function, and readers expect certain information in each of these parts. Learning the Correct TOEFL Essay Structure PAGE 2 OF 3 Heres a brief explanation of the three main parts found in the TOEFL essay structure: Introduction The introduction is the first paragraph of your essay. The first few sentences of this paragraph simply introduce the the reader to the topic. The last sentence is called the thesis statement and clearly states your opinion. This is the most important sentence in the essay. Body The body of the essay is usually two paragraphs long. Each paragraph begins with a topic sentence that tells the reader what the rest of the paragraph is going to be about. The remaining sentences are called supporting ideas because their main function is to “support“ the topic sentence. Conclusion The conclusion is the last paragraph of the essay. It restates the thesis and gives the reader a brief summary of the essays main points. This paragraph is usually about 3 sentences long. Learning the Correct TOEFL Essay Structure PAGE 3 OF 3 Importance of the TOEFL essay structure Do not underestimate the importance of the essay structure. In fact, not using this structure is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make. When you use this structure in your essay, your ideas will be presented in a clear and logical way. Your essay will really begin to flow, and this makes it much easier for the reader to understand. Even with mistakes in spelling and grammar, an essay written in this structure is better than one with perfect grammar that is not. For more TOEFL essay writing help, read our advice about how to write a good introduction,body, and conclusion. How to Write a TOEFL Essay Thesis Statement The thesis statement is the most important sentence in your TOEFL essay. After you have introduced the reader to the subject of the essay, you write a thesis statement. This is the last sentence of the first paragraph, and it should do two things: Directly answer the essay question Tell the reader what your opinion is The thesis statement is the most important sentence in the essay. It does not include specific details that appear later in your essay, but it should answer the essay question clearly and directly. If somebody reads your thesis sentence, they should be able to answer these two questions: What is the essay about? What is your opinion? Step one: get an opinion If you do not have an opinion on the topic, it is not possible to write a thesis statement. The thesis statement must give an opinion-it tells the reader exactly what you think. On the next page we will take a look at some examples of good and bad thesis statements. Examples of good thesis statements As soon as you have decided what your opinion is, you can write your thesis statement. Lets say you get this essay question: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Police officers should carry guns. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. If you agree with the statement, your thesis could be as simple as this: Police officers should carry guns. On the other hand, maybe you would like to disagree. In that case, your thesis could be just as simple: Police officers should not carry guns. These are both acceptable thesis statements. They are simple and direct, telling the reader what your opinion is and what the essay is going to be about. It is good idea to write your thesis statement using key words or phrases from the original essay question. In one of our examples above, we simply copied the essay question directly! Well talk more about this later, but first lets take a look at a few thesis statements that are unacceptable. How to Write a TOEFL Essay Thesis Statement PAGE 3 OF 5 Examples of bad thesis statements Before we look at examples of unacceptable thesis statements, lets have another look at our sample essay question: Do you agree or disagree withthe following statement? Police officers should not carry guns. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Now take a look at an unacceptable thesis statement: Police officers work hard. This thesis statement doesnt give us an opinion. It also doesnt tell us what the essay is about. In fact, its not related to the essay topic at all. Heres another one thats not so good: Guns help to protect police officers. Unacceptable. It may be true that “guns help to protect police officers,“ but we still dont know what the writers opinion is. And heres a third example: Police officers dont needguns. Again, it may be true that “police officers dont need guns,“ but what is the writers opinion? Should police officers carry guns? How to Write a TOEFL Essay Thesis Statement PAGE 4 OF 5 Strong thesis statements Now that weve seen a few examples of both good thesis statements and bad thesis statements, the next question is this: how can we write a great thesis statement? Lets start with a thesis statement that we already know is good: Police officers should not carry guns. This is a good thesis statement, but its not a great one. We can improve it by making the language stronger. Do this by using stronger language, words such as no or never. Heres what it looks like when weve made our improvements: Police officers should never carry guns. We could also say something like this: No police officer should ever carry a gun. If our thesis statement is a positive sentence, we can strengthen the language with a word like always . Heres an example: Police officers should always carry guns. Next well look at other ways of strengthening our the thesis statement. Very strong thesis statements Okay, we have written our thesis statement. Here it is: Police officers should never carry guns. Its already good, but we can make it even stronger by using a few phrases to emphasize our point. Here are some that we can use: regardless of, under no circumstances, at no time, without exception. This is what our final thesis statement will look like: Regardless of the situation, police officers should never carry guns. Or it could look like this: At no time should a police officer ever carry a gun. We can also use these same phrases to give the opposite opinion in our thesis statement,as in this example: Regardless of the situation, police officers should always carry guns. Continue to practice writing thesis statements-it really is the most important sentence in the essay, and your hard work will be rewarded by a higher TOEFL score! Howto Write a TOEFL Essay Introduction The introduction is themost important paragraph of your TOEFL essay. The introduction is the first paragraph of your essay, and it is important to make a good impression here. If you dont start out well, it will be difficult to convince your readers (or the TOEFL assessor!) to take your writing seriously. Heres what you should know about the introduction: First paragraph of the essay Usually 3 to 5 sentences long Introduces the essay topic Clearly gives your opinion Has a strong thesis statement All introductions must meet these five conditions. If it is missing one or two of them, then it is a weak introduction. Beginning the introduction The best way to begin the introduction is with a general statement about the essay topic. This explains what the essay is going to be about and mentally prepares the reader for the arguments that will follow. Do not give your opinion in this sentence-this is only a general statement about the topic. Howto Write a TOEFL Essay Introduction PAGE 2 OF 4 Heres an example of what a typical first sentence looks like: Many communities have beendebating whether or not police officers should carry guns. You can see that there is no opinion in this sentence; it is only a general statement about the essay topic. Developing the introduction After we have written our first sentence, it