Welcome to Dr. Byrnes’ TOEFL Writing Course. In this self-study course, you'll learn how to craft high-scoring essays for academic discussion and Integrated essays. The two require different writing skills. The academic discussion response requires creative writing, as you need to come up with your own ideas and present them as persuasively as possible. On the other hand, the integrated essay requires analytical writing skills as your job is to summarize the given material as accurately, comprehensively, and coherently as possible.
To explain in more detail, the integrated essay task requires you to summarize the lecture in the listening section, where the professor provides counterarguments in response to the arguments presented in the reading. To summarize well, you need to understand how the professor breaks down the reading’s arguments. A high-scoring summary must be comprehensive (capturing all the relevant details), accurate (narrating truthfully from the reading and listening), and coherent (progressing ideas in a logical order). When you take organized notes while reading and listening, composing a TOEFL integrated essay is almost an automatic process. In this course, you'll learn the necessary tools to craft this type of high-scoring integrated essay: note-taking, templates, and sample responses.
By contrast, for the Academic Discussion response, to contribute to the already ongoing discussion of the two students in the question, you need to provide your own arguments. This is not an easy task to accomplish in the allotted 10 minutes. For some, it would take the total allotted time just to read the question itself, as the question includes the professor’s brief lecture on the background for the question and two arguments by two students. To be prepared for this writing task, you need to be as informed as possible with current social issues. For instance, student protests on campuses ignite the clash between students' rights to free speech and the university's obligation to maintain safety and order. When you shed light on related issues, your response is positioned to score high. You should also review past TOEFL Independent Essay questions, as many of them serve as excellent topics for academic discussions. In this course, you'll find hundreds of sample responses on potential academic discussion questions, organized by topics. By studying the example responses, you will gain insights into not only what issues are at stake but also how to craft persuasive arguments.
Course Syllabus
Part 1. Integrated essay
Note taking
Templates
Sample answers
Part II: Academic Discussion
ETS-scored sample responses and raters' comments
Templates
Writing strategies
Sample Answers
Government policies
Gender-separated schools
School uniform requirement
Fitness testing requirement
Restriction on work hours
Ban on homeschooling
Ban on recording lectures
Solution to housing shortage
Affordable public housing
Assistance to the unemployed
Guarantee of universal minimal income
Public transportation tax
Policy to promote rural life
Prioritization of economy over environment
Policy on air pollution
Global environment problem
Stimulus for locally sourced food
Promotion of tourism
Endangered species
Taxation on unhealthy products
Restriction on targeted advertising
Punishment of drunk drivers
Ban on street cellphone use
Electronic voting
Sociology
Declining social skills
Addiction to cell phones
Addiction to social media
Libraries disappearing
Decrease in reading books
Decline of cinema
Internet, equalizer or divider
E-sports
Purchasing mistakes with tech devices
Future of AI
Future of augmented reality
Mars colonization
Zero waste society
Gap between rural and urban areas
City history
Museums’ value
Old buildings in city
Suburban neighborhood
Urban planning
Celebrity as a role model
Celebrity charity
Wearing fashionable clothes
News about foreign countries
News watching frequency
Learning culture through TV
Business
Best investment for companies
Factors for business success
Employee productivity
Employee satisfaction
Employee retainment
Job perks vs more money
Photos on resumes
Business travel
Reverse mentoring
Outgoing person more successful
Perfectionism at work
Big company or a start-up
Small company or large company
Different tasks or routine tasks
Multitasking vs mono-tasking
Group work or solo work
One job or many different jobs
Working on weekends
More money or achievement
Job satisfaction for happiness
Work close home for less money
Personal email during work hours
Money or education
Job before college
Field research before career
Job creation by AI
Robots in the future
Fewer work hours in the future
Consensus leader vs charismatic leader
Communication or technical skills
Free will vs determinism
Company’s social responsibility
Individual’s social responsibility
Reporting violation of rules
Animal rights
Education
Math requirement as general education
Humanity course requirement
General education requirement
Writing course requirement
Library resource requirement
Best subject to study
Choice of major
Summer classes
Controversial guest speaker
Quitting a club
Campus eliminating a club
Jobs or club activities
Gap year
College education age
Friends as roommates
Roomates with the same major
Character education
Music requirement
Cultural awareness requirement
Benefits of field trips
Field trip requirement
Optional attendance
Two professors for one class
Online learning
Video classes
Books or lectures
Journal writing in classroom
Elimination of computer labs
Group discussion
Classroom experiment
Free class period
Homework usefulness
Quantity of homework
Assignment over vacation
Note reviewing
Reading list of books
Research topic assignment
Live or recorded presentation
Games as learning tool
Study group or tutor
Teaching others as a learning method
Facts or concepts
Doing math in head
Intelligence or hard work
Hard work or natural talent
Physical activity for academic success
Extra work to improve grades
Effort-added grading
Grading based on short assignments
Grading based on performance of projects
Teacher’s admitting making mistakes
Experienced or young teacher
Humorous teacher or harsh teacher
Close teacher supervision
Promoting class discussion
Teacher’s answering questions in class
Disagreeing with instructor
Teacher mandate on professional courses
Feedback methods
Evaluation by senior colleague
Promotion through evaluation
Childhood as the best moment
Physical activities leading to aggression
Benefits of team sports
Visiting relatives or friends
Better learning with friends
Friends of the same age
Learning basic living skills
Learning about ancestors
Learning computer skills
Learning another language
Computer use at an early age
Educational computer games for children
Part-time jobs for teenagers
Kids’ spending their earned money
Limiting social media access
Children rearing easier
Activities for family bonds
Advice on being well-liked
Advice on future jobs
Giving advice to children
Teaching money management
Children having cell phones
Banning children using electronic devices
Promoting children’s independence