IELTS & TOEFL Writing Task 2 - The Introduction

Hi. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. Nice to see you again. Today's lesson is for

IELTS and TOEFL students, and so because these students need a little extra practice in listening

to more natural speed English, I will speak a little bit faster. If you're a beginner

English learner, watch anyway. It's still good practice, but don't worry if I'm speaking

a little bit too fast. So more specifically, I'm going to be looking at the Writing -- Task

2, the essay of the IELTS and/or TOEFL. They're very similar. That's why I'm doing them together.

There're not big differences, but I will point them out. And what I'm doing is I'm concentrating

on the introduction today, the introduction paragraph. I'm not showing you the whole essay;

I'm just showing you the introduction. Now, you're wondering, "Why? It's just the introduction.

It's a short one, right?" No. This is probably the most important paragraph in your whole

essay. This is where you, basically, make or break your score, okay? Why? Because here

is where the reader understands what you're about to do. This is where the grader -- the

person who's giving you your score -- understands if you understood the question; understands

if you know what you're talking about; and understands if you knew how to plan well,

okay? Very, very important the first paragraph, the introduction. So what are you going to

do? Of course you're going to plan first. You're not going to start writing. Do not

write one word of your essay until you have your plan ready. Once you have your plan ready,

your essay is done. You just have to, basically, translate this plan into sentences. You're

basically going for three to five sentences. Less than three, you missed something; you

didn't do enough. More than five, you're going for words. You don't have time; don't worry

about it. Three to five -- get down what you need to get down. Get into your bodies where

you're going to be writing the most, okay? There are four questions you want to answer

in the introduction. You will already have these answers once you've planned properly,

okay? What do you want to answer? "What is the topic?" "What is the question?" "What

is your opinion?" And "What are your reasons?" These are the four things that must be included

in the introduction. Now, a lot of you think, "Well, 'topic' and

'question' is the same thing, right?" But no; they're not. This is where a lot of people

lose points because they don't realize that these are two different things. The "topic"

is the general idea of what the question is about. The "question" is, specifically, what

are you asked to do. Now, the most common type of question you will see on both the

IELTS and the TOEFL is a question that asks you to choose between two things. They want

you to choose one and argue why that one is better than the other one, or why that one

is so good. Now, what I'm going to show you today will mostly apply to these types of

questions. But if you have a question that asks you to compare and contrast two things,

keep in mind even if they ask you to compare two things, they're still going to ask you

to lean towards one of them, to choose one as better than the other, in which case you're

still going to need to give your opinion, okay?

"What is the topic?" You're going to keep this very, very general. All you're doing

is giving the idea of what the essay is about. So I know all of you have probably practiced

this question: "Is it better to live in the countryside or in the city? Explain your reasons,

giving examples, etc." Your first sentence, very, very general: What is the topic of this

question? City life? Country life? No. The topic is "where to live". So your first sentence

introduces the idea of living -- choosing a place to live. The question is then more

specific, so your sentence narrows a little bit, becomes a little bit more focused. The

question is: "Is it better in the country or the city?" Okay?

Then, you have to give your opinion. You must say, "I believe", "I think", "in my opinion".

You don't have to use these words. There're other ways to say your opinion, but if you're

not sure of those, put one of those; make it very, very clear what you're saying. This

is your thesis. This is a very specific sentence. After reading this sentence, I, the grader,

must understand which side you've chosen and what you're going to argue. And then you see

the last sentence gets a little bit more general. Why? Because you're giving your reasons. You're

not giving me details. You're giving me general reasons of why you have this opinion, okay?

So four sentences, or you can squeeze them -- you can squeeze, for example, this one

and this one. You can squeeze this one and this one and make three sentences. Or you

can add extra information. You want to make this one two sentences? Go for it. Make it

five. Don't go more than five. More than five means you've lost focus, okay? Three means

you have very good command of the language. Personally, if you can do a very strong introduction

paragraph in three sentences, it could actually be better for you than five. But three to

four -- three to five, four is the average; go for that. We're going to look at an example,

and you'll understand better what I'm talking about here.

Okay, so here's our first example. The first example... I made it a little bit more basic.

I've got four different sentences answering each question individually, okay? Just to

refresh our memories, what is the question? "Is it better to live in the city or the country?"

Or "Is it better to live in the country or the city?" Doesn't matter. So remember: I'm

starting with a very general idea of the topic. "Deciding where to live is one of life's more

difficult choices." "Where to live" -- here is your topic. Very general. Have I given

any information? No. Have I expressed an opinion? No. All I'm doing is introducing the topic.

That's all I want the reader to know: We're talking about where to live.

Next sentence. "One may opt for life in the country or the city." Now, just in case you're

not sure, "opt for" means "choose". I used "choice" here; I used "deciding" here; I want

to use as much different vocabulary as I can. "Opt for", if you know it, use it. A little

bit extra points for nice language. Okay. "One may opt for life in the country or the

city." This is your question. Country? City? Very clear. "In my opinion" -- very, very

direct and to the point. State your thesis. State what you believe. "In my opinion, life

in the city is more advantageous." -- "I choose city; it's better." That's all I want to say.

I'm answering the question. This is my stance. This is my opinion. "This is due to the fact

that the city offers better economic and social opportunities." So I'm going to present the

reader with two reasons: economic and social. Am I giving any idea what the economic reasons

are? No. Am I giving you any ideas what the social reasons are? No. They're very, very

general. I've made it a bit more general, okay? So I've answered all four questions.

I'm doing exactly what the essay's supposed to do, what the essay's asking me to do.

Now, the only thing I would suggest about this one -- again, very basic. The only thing

I would recommend you could do: Make this -- take out the period. Take out this. "In

my opinion, life in the city is more advantageous due to the fact that the city offers better

economic and social opportunities." All I did was join the last two sentences. So now,

I have a three-sentence paragraph and a little bit more complex sentence because I have more

clauses and more phrases in it. So it shows a little bit of sentence variety. And it's

very simple. All you have to do is just take out the beginning. If I want, I can just take

out the whole thing -- "due to the fact" is a good expression. Use it; remember it -- and

just put "because". If you're stuck, if you don't know another expression to show reason,

just use "because". Preferably, you don't use "because" because a thousand other people

taking the test with you are also using "because". You want to be a little bit different. You

want to stand out a little bit. But if you're panicking, if you're stuck, use "because".

Now, again, I mentioned there's a -- slight differences between TOEFL and IELTS. The only

difference is time and number of words. For IELTS, you have 40 minutes to write your essay.

TOEFL you have 30 minutes. That's -- ten minutes is a huge difference, right? You have to write

-- for IELTS, you have to write your paragraph up to -- your first paragraph, sorry -- up

to eight minutes. More than eight minutes, maybe ten with the planning, you're getting

into a bit of trouble. TOEFL, you have maybe five, six minutes to do this, right? So you

have to be a little bit quicker. You have to be better prepared. All that means is just

practice, practice, practice. Write lots of essays.

Another difference is the IELTS, you need a minimum 250 words, whereas TOEFL you need

more words, okay? So write more. If you can add another sentence but not get off topic,

put it in for the TOEFL. But I'm going to show you another example, a little bit more

complex, a little bit fancier if you want to say it, and one that I can use for a "choose

one", or a "compare and contrast and choose", okay? Let's do that.

Okay, so let's look at now -- at another example. I made this one a little bit more multipurpose,

depending on what kind of questions you're asked. If you're asked to compare and contrast,

you can use this. If you're just asked to choose between two, you can still use this,

okay? First thing you'll notice after we read it: only three sentences, but it's actually

longer than the last example, okay? First sentence: "As a person reaches adulthood,

he needs to decide on where he would prefer to live." Again: topic, "where to live". You

can introduce another topic, adulthood, because you can incorporate that into your reasons,

okay? I'm not saying much. I'm just -- my topic is still "where prefer to live". Okay.

Next: "While there are advantages to both living in the country and the city" -- so

here, I'm introducing the fact that I might be comparing. "Both have advantages" -- so

I'm going to compare these." "I believe that for economic reasons -- I have your thesis

and your main reason -- life in the city is more beneficial" -- I've chosen one. Here's

my general reason. Now, you're thinking, "Okay. Done, right?" No, because here's an example

of where you can use one reason for your whole essay. You don't have to have two reasons

-- we think. "This is because the city offers more employment opportunities, as well as

a more affordable cost of living." So now, you realize, I actually do have two reasons

under the umbrella of the one reason. Okay? So many people think, "Oh, I can't think of

ideas. I don't know what to say about this." If you can have one idea, that's fine. Split

it into two categories, right? "Economic reasons": jobs and cost of living. It's cheaper to live

in the city because more people, more things come in, etc.

Now, a couple of things to keep in mind. One, I only have three sentences. This is a very

-- this sentence, this second one is a very long, complex sentence. If you can write a

sentence that has more than one clause, more than one phrase, you're going to get bonus

points because it show a very strong command of the language, okay? I'm doing three things

here almost. I'm showing that I'm going to talk about the advantages; I'm giving you

my opinion; and I'm giving you my major reason all in one sentence. And then, I'm getting

a little bit more specific how I'm going to split this up.

Now, another thing to keep in mind -- two things to keep in mind: One, whatever -- however

way or whatever order you list your reasons, make sure that the body paragraph follows

suit. So I talked about employment opportunities first, my next paragraph -- if I'm comparing,

then the paragraphs are by comparing. Then the next one is employment opportunities and

cost of living. If I'm only making a choice, then my first body paragraph is about employment;

my second body paragraph is about cost of living, okay? But keep that in mind. If you're

comparing and then choosing: first paragraph, make the comparisons; second paragraph, first

reason for your choice; third paragraph, second reason for your choice. Or if you want, if

you have enough reasons -- you're going to need more than one -- you can compare throughout

the body: Each paragraph compares one point. "The city offers more employment opportunities.

In the countryside, there's a limited number of jobs because there're not that many people

-- there aren't that many people.", etc. in the next one.

Another thing I want to mention: Some of you may be angry with me right now because I said

"he", okay? "He" is okay. "She" is okay. Please do not do this. Do not do: "he/she", he/she,

him/her, him/her, himself/herself". It -- (A) it doesn't count as extra words, and (B) this

gets it really, really annoying for the reader. If you're a girl, say "she". If you're a guy,

say "he". If you're a guy and you want to say "she", say "she". If you're a girl and

you want to say "he", say "he". But only choose one. Don't worry about it. You're not going

to lose points for this, okay? Now, again, I can't stress enough how important

it is to practice writing. And ideally, get someone to check it for you and give you feedback,

okay? But write your essays, and go over them. Make sure all your pronouns are okay, all

your prepositions are okay, your subjects and your verbs agree. Try to have different

vocabulary, different sentence structures, okay? And practice, practice, practice. When

you start preparing for the IELTS and the TOEFL, start with the essay. Learn to write

first. Because that takes the longest time to improve, and it's usually where people

get their lowest score on the test, okay? Anyway, go to www.engvid.com. There will be

a quiz there to give you a little bit more practice with this. And of course, go to my

YouTube channel and subscribe there if you like. And come back again real soon. Bye.