Agree or disagree with a statement. Take a position and explain it.

E f f e c t i v e E s s a y s a n d t h e W r i t i n g P r o c e s s Experienced writers know that good writing doesn’t happen all at once. Rather, it develops in stages. That’s because writing is a process, not just a product. And it’s difficult to get a good product without going through each step in the writing process. The writing process can be divided into three basic steps: 1. Planning 2. Drafting 3. Revising and editing When you are under pressure to write a winning essay in just a half an hour, you may be tempted to skip these steps and just write your essay in one shot. You may end up with a successful essay with this approach. But your chances of doing well on the TOEFL exam writing test—indeed, on any writing task—will increase dramatically if you take the time to work through each step. Even though you only have a half an hour, the five to ten minutes you spend planning and proofreading your essay will be time well spent. In fact, for essay exams, the planning stage is so important that we have divided that stage into four separate steps in the sec- tion below. WHEN your time is limited, how long should you spend on each step in the writing process? On an essay exam, use this general rule of thumb for dividing your time: 1 ⁄ 4 of the time: planning 1 ⁄ 2 of the time: writing 1 ⁄ 4 of the time: revising and editing Your 30 minutes on the TOEFL exam, then, can be divided as follows: 5–10 minutes planning 15 minutes writing 5–10 minutes revising and editing How to Divide Your Time on an Essay Exam – W R I T I N G – 1 1 6 S i x S t e p s t o a S t r o n g E s s a y Step 1: Understand the Writing Prompt Before you can begin to plan your essay, you need to be sure you understand the kind of essay you need to write. As noted earlier, it is essential that you respond accurately to the writing prompt you are given on the exam. If you write about a different topic, you will not receive credit for your essay. It’s therefore critical to understand exactly what the prompt is asking you to do. Though earlier in this chapter we divided the essay prompts into five types, it’s worth noting again that they are all essentially the same kind of prompt. They are all designed to get you to state a clear thesis and support that thesis with specific reasons, details, and examples. The writing prompts also have three main parts: 1. A statement, situation, or pair of opposites for you to consider. 2. A question or questions for you to answer. 3. Directions for you to follow. Notice how the following prompts can be broken down into these three parts: 1-statement Nowadays, communicating with others is faster and easier thanks to technology like email, cellular phones, and beepers. 2 Has this change improved the way people live? 3 Use spe- cific reasons and examples to support your answer. 1-pair of opposites Some people prefer to travel widely and live in faraway places. Others would rather stay close to home and live near family. 2 Which would you prefer? 3 Use specific reasons and details to support your answer. 1-situation You have been asked to choose two items to include in a time capsule. 2 Which items would you choose for the capsule? 3 Use specific reasons and details to support your answer. Some prompts will skip the statement, situation, or pair of opposites and begin directly with a ques- tion. Others may include the statementsituationopposites in the question itself. Notice how this is done in the following examples: 2 What are some of the most important characteristics of a good leader? 3 Use reasons and spe- cific examples to explain why these characteristics are important. 1 and 2 combined Do you agree that money is the root of all evil? 3 Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. – W R I T I N G – 1 1 7