Урок №19

В этом уроке мы расскажем об общих принципах написания сочинения и критериях его оценки.

S: What are the six criteria for evaluating an essay?

T: Here’s the list of the criteria:

1. Does it follow a clear plan of organization?
2. Does it answer the question that is asked?
3. Does it offer effective support for the ideas it puts forward?
4. Is there a clear relationship between all the parts and the whole essay?
5. Does it show your command of the language?
6. Does it use appropriate grammatical constructions, vocabulary and style? 

The essay should be written in a formal academic style, but the degree of formality will depend on the topic of the essay. It can be less or more formal. Remember, no contractions or slang expressions should be used. And one more important point – it is not quantity here, but quality that matters. No marks can be gained for writing more than two pages, and writing too much may mean that the quality of your work suffers as a result.

S: With all this talk about structure, logical progression, and so on, this seems a long way from literature!

T: It is. All this has nothing to do with literature, and it shouldn’t have! If you were asked to write "literature" you wouldn’t have a thirty-minute time limit or a suggested 200–300-word length, even if you were writing in your own language. Literature often involves breaking rules; here you are only have to show that you can follow them.

S: And one more question. If I can think of better arguments for one side, should I support that side in my essay even if I don’t really agree with it?

T: Certainly. The writing task in this section has no right or wrong answers. Really, there’s no correct answer to any of the questions, and you are free to express your own opinion.

You’re not expected to have any specific knowledge of the topic and you won’t be evaluated on the factual accuracy of the information, either. You must simply show that you can develop your ideas clearly and logically with the best English you are capable of.

В следующем уроке мы опубликуем список тем сочинений под нумерацией, приведенных в информационном справочнике за 1999–2000 гг. (TOEFL Information Bulletin for Computer-Based Testing).