hi I'm Michael from ETS and welcome to
inside the TOEFL test
today we're going inside the TOEFL IBT
writing section specifically question 1
the integrated writing so in the next
few minutes we're going to look at how
the question is structured how to
approach the question how your response
is scored we'll look at a sample
response that received a high score and
we'll give you some tips for improving
your writing skills
so here's generally what question 1 will
look like for this task you will first
read a passage about a topic then you'll
listen to a short lecture related to the
same topic and then you will have 20
minutes to type your response at the
computer there is no maximum length for
your response but typically an effective
response has between 150 and 225 words
now let's look more closely at what the
integrated writing question is asking
you to do first you'll see the reading
passage and you'll have three minutes to
read it so as you read look for the main
idea of the passage and take notes about
key points that relate to that main idea
you don't need to memorize the passage
because it will reappear on your screen
when it's time to write next you'll
listen to a lecture the speaker will
talk about the same topic from a
different perspective for about two
minutes as you listen you can take notes
on your scratch paper listen for
information that responds to the points
in the reading passage you will only
hear the listening passage once and when
it's finished the reading passage will
reappear on your screen along with the
question and the question will always
ask you to summarize the points made in
the lecture and explain how they relate
to specific points in the reading
passage
now that you understand how the question
is presented here are some strategies
for what to do as you prepare and write
your response as we mentioned about the
reading passage it's important to
identify the main idea which is usually
in the first paragraph and see how it's
developed usually there will be three
points that support that main idea for
this passage about computerized voting
the main idea is stated in the first
paragraph it basically says that current
voting systems are inaccurate and
unreliable and should be replaced by
computerized voting systems you'll find
the three supporting points in the next
three paragraphs computerized voting
would reduce the mistakes people make
when they vote it would reduce the
mistakes people make when they count the
votes and it isn't any riskier than
other widely use electronic transactions
like in banking in the listening passage
the speaker is going to indicate his or
her perspective near the beginning of
the lecture so be sure to listen
carefully in this case it's clear that
the speaker opposes a change to
electronic voting it's doubtful that
computerized voting will make the
situation any better then when you're
taking notes during the listening
passage remember that you're looking for
specific points that relate to the
points in the reading machines these
voters can easily cast the wrong vote or
be discouraged from voting altogether
because of fear of technology
furthermore it's true that humans make
mistakes when they count up ballots by
hand but are we sure that computers will
do a better job after all computers are
programmed by humans so human error can
show up in mistakes in their programs
and in many voting systems there is no
physical record of the votes so a
computer recount in the case of a
suspected error is impossible as for our
trust of computer technology for banking
and communications remember one thing
these systems are used daily and they
are used heavily but voting happens only
once every two years nationally in the
United States and not much more than
twice a year in many
local areas this is hardly sufficient
for us to develop confidence that
computerized voting can be fully trusted
in this example the speaker makes
several points so after you find those
key points in the lecture you may be
able to match up those points with the
main points from the reading finally and
this may sound obvious make sure you
answer the question the question will
always ask you to summarize the lecture
and it will always ask you how the
lecture responds to the points made in
the reading passage so if you only write
about what's in the reading passage
you're not answering the question
before the test make sure you understand
what the Raiders are looking for and how
each question is scored the tasks in the
writing section will each be given an
overall score from 0 to 5 for question 1
the integrated writing question raters
are looking for three main things
accurate development organization and
language use first accurate development
the raters are looking for how well
you're able to select important
information from the lecture then
clearly present it in relation to the
relevant information from the reading
2nd organization this basically means a
reader can read your essay from
beginning to end without becoming
confused you can help the reader follow
your ideas by writing in paragraphs and
using good transitions and avoid
redundancy which is saying the same
things over and over just using
different words the third criterion is
language use raters are looking for
things like sentence structure word
choice and vocabulary it's also
important that your use of grammar is
strong and consistent though it doesn't
have to be perfect to get a top score
now let's look at a sample response to
this same question about computerized
voting that received a score of five on
a five-point scale this response is very
well-organized and it does a very good
job of selecting the important
information from the points made in the
lecture and explaining how the
information relates to each of the
claims made in the reading passage first
it says that many voters are unfamiliar
with computers so some voters may end up
not voting at all and this counter is
the argument that computerized voting is
more user friendly and prevents the
voting results from being distorted
second it directly challenges the
argument that computerized voting will
result in fewer miss counts by saying
that computer programming errors could
result in even larger miss counts or the
loss of voting records third it rejects
the idea that computerized voting would
be similar to computerized banking by
pointing out that the computerized
banking is only reliable because it is
so frequently used and that does not
apply to voting so overall the response
is well-organized and it shows the
writer really understands how to explain
the ways in which one source disagrees
with another there are occasional minor
language errors like some people are not
used of computers instead of some people
are not used to computers and making
miscounted to words instead of one but
there aren't very many of these kinds of
errors and most important they don't
make the content of the response unclear
or inaccurate
so this response would receive the
highest score of five out of five it's a
good example of how your response
doesn't have to be perfect to get a high
score for more details about scoring
this type of question look at the
integrated writing rubrics
now here are a few tips that can help
you improve your writing skills first
practice paraphrasing which is
expressing the same idea in different
ways knowing how to paraphrase is
important because it gives you more
options when you need to respond to a
question you can practice paraphrasing
just about anything a news article a
television ad an email from a friend a
poem basically anything you read or hear
to be able to paraphrase well and to
write well you need to build your
vocabulary it's important to be able to
use synonyms of keywords when you write
next remember how we said it was
important to be able to identify main
points you can practice this by
listening to recorded lectures and
writing down what the main points are
this is a great activity to do with a
study partner because you can compare
notes here's another tip read two
articles that are on the same topic and
write a summary of each then explain the
ways in which they're similar and the
ways that they're different there are
lots of ways to improve your English
skills whatever you do keep practicing
and good luck on your TOEFL test