Here we are TOEFL writing templates explained. So, whether you're new to the TOEFL or you know
quite a bit about it, you might be confused about templates. And you might want me to just get to
the point immediately. Should I use a template, yes or no? Well, it depends, I guess is the best
answer. Everybody's different, every student has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, but I think
if you don't have a lot of confidence, you should use a template. If you have pretty good confidence
in your writing, I think that you should learn about templates, but I don't think you actually
need to use a template. And I'm going to talk about this in a lot more detail.
Basically, when the writing comes from your own words, you feel more comfortable and confident, but
templates could help you get there. All right, so let's talk about it together.
My name is Josh MacPherson, I'm the head instructor of TST Prep, an online TOEFL school where our
mission is simple, to help you get the TOEFL score you need as quickly and as easily as possible.
So, let's get into the details, the pros and cons of TOEFLwriting templates.
So, there are some common objections that I hear when talking about TOEFL writing templates.
ETS creators will know I'm using a template, won't they? TOEFL writing templates sound too robotic,
don't they? What if I get a question where the template will not work? So, I'm going to address all
these questions in this lecture, but I'll give you quick answers to each of them. The first one, I know
that ETS graders will not know that. They sound too robotic. Well, it depends. If you if you use too much
of a template, and then you might get a question where the template doesn't work, that could happen.
Usually, it doesn't, but could happen, is definitely a possibility. So, let's talk about these issues
together. By the end of this video, you're going to investigate what a template is and how it relates
to the TOEFL writing, you're going to identify the pros and cons of TOEFL writing templates,
and you're going to determine whether or not you should use a template. So, what is a TOEFL
writing template? It's a basic structure for other students to copy, anybody can use this template.
It provides organization for your response, so even if you're new to the TOEFL and you're
really confident with your writing, it'll help you organize your writing. Here's a quick example.
If you look at the introduction, I know there's a lot of text here, try to focus on the introduction,
where it says template. There's no shortage of opinion on... that's the first sentence.
In my opinion, that's the second. I feel this way for two reasons which I will explore
in the following paragraphs. So, you can use those words, and phrases, and sentences in any
TOEFL writing independent question. That's what a template is pretty much. Alright so why am I
making this video? Well, I made a video before called How to Score 24+ in the Writing, and
I introduced an advanced template. I got a lot of questions about the advanced template. And a lot
of students really liked it. They said that they scored well on it. And then I had some people feel
that it was either too advanced, or it doesn't, it's not helpful, or whatever. So, basically my point here
is that you should not blindly follow a template. This had an advanced template in it. So, if your
writing is really simple, and you use this kind of advanced language, your writing is really weird.
It doesn't improve your writing. So, I don't think that you should use a template
to kind of, like cover up your writing. You want to use a template to help you feel organized,
to help you feel confident, and to help you feel comfortable. When you don't feel organized,
confident, comfortable, then you shouldn't use a template. I'll say that again. When you don't feel
organized, confident, comfortable, you shouldn't use a template, okay. You shouldn't use a template if
you feel uncomfortable using it. So, I felt like I had to follow up on this video and make it really clear
about what templates are, how to use them, and when to use them. So, that's why this video. Pro Tip here.
The best way to use templates is to create your own. I'm going to show you how to create your
own. Look at multiple essay examples and use the TOEFL Writing 24+ Guide to create your own.
So, this is a guide, I'm going to put a link in the description below, you can download it
for free, and use this information to help you create your own template. That's what I'm going
to encourage you to do, because if you blindly follow me, a simple template, complex template, if
you just copy exactly what I say, you're not going to feel so comfortable, because it's not your words.
You want to feel comfortable. If copying my template you feel comfortable, okay, but for
the most part, you want to feel comfortable, so I'm going to encourage you to build your own. And we're
going to talk about that together. So, what are the pros and cons of using the same words and phrases
every time? Let's get into it. The pros. Start the same way every time. Starting is one of the hardest
parts for students. They feel pretty nervous, they don't know how to begin their essay. So, here are
some examples of introductory sentences for the independent essay. There's no shortage of opinion
on, there are positive and negative aspects of, there's a great debate on, and so on. You can use
any of these, pick one that you feel comfortable with. Now, you might get a question where this
doesn't work. So, you have to be careful of that, and that's the con. The template might not fit.
If I try to use something like there's no shortage of opinion on what is the best new hobby to learn,
I don't really, that phrase does not fit the question, what is the best new hobby to learn,
let's say, for example, is the question. That doesn't really fit there. So, you want to make sure that
you feel comfortable and confident using whatever template language you learn. Or, if I say, recently
there has been a ton of debate as to whether it is best to play an instrument or a sport.
Is that a debate? Is there a lot of debate about instrument or sport? that sounds pretty weird. So,
that's why I want you to make sure that you build your own and you have ideas of how to use these
words and phrases to help improve your writing, not make you feel stuck, not make you feel nervous,
not make you feel uncomfortable, but instead, give you the confidence that you need. All right, pro
of writing template is that it structures your thoughts, and that's what that's why
I teach them, that's why we talk about them. Your introduction, body, and conclusion for both essays
have a structure, and these templates help give you that structure so you don't have to worry about
how you should begin your body paragraph, how you should end your body paragraph, how
you should start in the introduction. It's all set using a template. Nut the con of that is to
you might develop a strange writing style, and it's again, it's a little bit awkward.
So, let's look at this advanced template here. There's some kind of strange vocabulary. Let's
look at the first sentence. There's no shortage of opinion on what should be a student's priority
when deciding which classes to enroll in. So, that sounds a little bit maybe awkward to you.
It's not very common to hear the phrase there's no shortage of opinion on, so you want to be
careful when using these templates. You want to make sure that you understand them and you feel
comfortable using them. So, that's why I'm going to just keep going to this idea over and over again.
The main idea of this lecture is that you're comfortable using the words and phrases that you
pick for your template. So, this might feel a little awkward using this type of advanced template.
So, you got to be careful of that. A couple more pros here. It's easy to remember and it organizes
your response. So, just like structures your thoughts, it organizes your response. The structure
is here, the template is there. And maybe it's easy to remember, some students will disagree with me,
but it could be easier than just coming up with ideas of your own, right. So, having a template
makes it less of a strain, you don't have to be as creative, not everything has to come
from you. Some of it comes from you, some of it comes from the template. So, it's a little less
pressure on you to come up with all of the writing. But the con is that your response could
feel too structured, it could feel like, you know, it always has to fit this very specific structure,
and maybe you want to do something a little bit different. It's okay to do something different,
this is just in our opinion, TST Prep after working with hundreds of students, thousands
by now, is that this is the best approach because it's clearest and simplest compared to others.
But you might want to try something different, but it is very structured. Also, it limits your
creative thinking. So, that might be helpful for your independent essay where you might want to
be a little more creative, but the TOEFL is not a really creative test, it is not, it's not meant
to test your creativity, it's meant to test your English ability. So, you want to be clear,
direct, and simple. Keep it simple, whenever possible. Templates make your life easier and simpler,
and that's and that's what it's doing here. It looks a little complicated, but actually
it's making it a lot easier to write your essay by knowing what to write first, second, third, and so on.
All right, last pro here for the writing template is that you can focus on other
parts of your essay, you don't have to worry about the introduction, you don't have to worry about
the conclusion. You don't have to worry about how to start your sentence. All you have to
worry about is these other parts of the essay. You have to focus on those. That helps kind of
relax your mind a little bit. You don't, there's not, everything does not have to come from you.
It gives you a little less pressure. And, as you can see here, these parts in yellow are part
of the template, and I can just kind of fill in the blank. It's a lot easier for me. And again,
I've said it before, but one more time. You want to feel comfortable. This is an example of an advanced
template, and a lot of students feel uncomfortable using it. And if that's you, then you should try to
maybe use some of it and have some ideas of your own that you feel more comfortable using. So, this
is an example of a paragraph using this advanced template. And maybe some of this is okay for you,
you feel like, okay, I understand this, it makes sense, and other parts are a little too confusing.
So keep that in mind when you're actually using templates. You want to feel comfortable with them,
and again, you want to feel natural when you write. Build a template that will help you feel
comfortable and confident on test day. Here are some examples from the Guide of TOEFL Writing
24+, some different ways to say the same thing. I'm not going to read all of these, but I'll just
read the one that says opinions. In my opinion, I do believe that, it's certainly clear to
see why I feel that, if I were asked, I would say that, personally. Those are all different ways of
using phrases in a sentence that would include your opinion. So, there's a lot of different ways
to give your opinion. So, look at the synonym list on the TOEFL Writing 24+, I keep talking about
this, it's in the link in the description below, and there is a synonym list there.
There are different templates, there's a lot of good stuff there that you always want you to kind of
look through, and kind of pick and see what you like and build your own. But if you're somebody,
if you're in a hurry, and you just want to get your score quickly and you don't want to think too much,
then you might want to just use one of these templates and hope for the best on test day.
So, it's up to you. So, hopefully by now, you feel like you've achieved your objectives, you'd
investigated what a template is, you've identified the pros and cons, and now you know whether or not
you should use an advanced template. Again, download the guide in the description below. Build your
own. If you're in a hurry, just use a template, totally fine. All right, that's it guys. Thank you
for watching. Please hit the subscribe button and I'll see you next time. Alright, take care.