Lesson 42. Checking and Editing Your Essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

LESSON 42: CHECKING AND EDITING YOUR ESSAY



4. Singular and Plural Words

Check nouns to make sure a singular form is used when needed and a plural form is used when needed.

Also, remember that there is no plural adjective form in English as there is in some languages.

research

In my opinion, medical researches should receive more funding.

scientific

Many scientifies experiments still need to be performed.



5. Word Forms

Be sure you are using the correct form (adjective, adverb, noun, or verb) of the word.

institution

To me, the most important institutional in any country is the legal system.

There are, of course, many other types of grammatical errors. If you have ever taken a writing class, look

at the corrections the teacher made on your papers to see what kinds of mistakes you commonly made,

and look for those mistakes when you check your essay.



CHECKING



AND



EDITING MECHANICAL ERRORS



1. Spelling Errors

Look for words that you may have misspelled. Look especially for words that are similar in your language

and English but have different spellings. However, don’t spend too much time looking for spelling mistakes—the scorers will not subtract much for misspellings unless they are especially frequent and make it

difficult to understand your essay.



2. Punctuation Errors

The most important thing to check is that each sentence ends with a period or, in the case of questions,

with a question mark. Also check for commas after initial adverb clauses, between cities and states or cities

and countries, and between dates and years.

I come from the West African country of Togo. My country became an independent

republic on April 27, 1960.

When I first came to the United States, I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts.



3. Capitalization Errors

Be sure that you have capitalized the first word of every sentence, the names of people and places, and

the word I.



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SECTION 4: ESSAY WRITING



EXERCISE 42.1

Focus: Correcting grammatical and mechanical errors in essay paragraphs

Directions: Each of the following paragraphs contains several mistakes. Find the mistakes, cross

them out, and, when necessary, write the correction above the error.



Paragraph 1

There is many species of animals in the world threatened with extinction. One threatened

animal is tiger. I believe that is very important that governments protect tiger. In Indonesia

tigers protected by the government. Many of them is killed every year.



Paragraph 2

The technology has had major impact in many field. Nowadays we can’t even suppose

business, communication, or traveling without computers. I want to discuss about the

impact of computers on the education. The modern technology has made live easy for

students and professors. If a student want to contact with a professor, you haven’t problem.

It is enough only to send professor’s an e-mail and you haven’t to go to office. More over,

many university created special network for students in order to make the studying process

easy for its students. For such kind net you could enter only by using your pass word and

identification number. There are many categories you can chose to enter, such as “student

tools” or “assignment box” where you can know about your homeworks. Also is possible to

access to the university library to make researches. Computers also give students opportunity to gather informations about various topic from the internet. It is one of most easiest

ways of making research for student. One other way that computers can help students,

especially those from another countries, to stay touch with their freinds and family at their

home, personally I could not study in usa if not contact with my family, because I am both

student as well as work as a manager in my families business so I must stay in touch with

my assistents.



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LESSON 42: CHECKING AND EDITING YOUR ESSAY



Paragraph 3

One of the most interesting book I am reading recently was a biography of winston

churchill. he was prime minister of the great britain during the world war II. of course

many peopel know what a great leadership he was during the war. but I found his life

before and after the war were also very interesting.



Paragraph 4

Some people are believing that is impossible falling in love with someone “at first sight.” In

the other hand, there are others people who are believing that you recognition a person that

you love immediately. I know its possible falling in love at first sight. Because this happened

to my wife and I.



Paragraph 5

If you are ever in thailand in month of may I suggest you to go to the Rocket Festival. It

held every year in a small town called yasothon about 300 mile from bangkok. bangkok has

many beautiful temples, including the temple of the dawn. This festival is well known and

famous in thailand. People from all over the country join the local people in celebrate. The

local farmers launch hundred of colorful rockets for gaining the favor of spirits who they

believe will bring rain to their rice crops. However, if you go, you need being careful. Both

farmers or tourists sometime injure or even kill by rockets that goes out of control.



Paragraph 6

When I was child I live in the town of Sendai, the biggest city in the north part of japan. My

grandmother live in Tokyo. Which is in the center part of Japan. While I was live in Sendai,

I often went to see my grandmother, but it takes five hours to get to tokyo by local train.

Since 1983, the high speed express train called the “Shinkansen” built, and connected

between Sendai and Tokyo. For me personally, this was most importent development in

transportation. It now take only a hour and half to travel to Tokyo from Sendai. The trip

become very easy. It also was a great impact on sendai. Economics development there

increased. In the negative side, prices for housing and other things went up. In the whole,

however, this development was very big benefit for the city.



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SECTION 4: ESSAY WRITING



EXERCISE 42.2

Focus: Checking and editing your own writing

Directions: Look back at the three introductions, bodies, and conclusions you wrote for Exercises

40.1, 40.2, and 40.3. Look for organizational, grammatical, and mechanical errors and make corrections. Don’t spend more than 5 minutes per essay.

If you intend to word process the essay, you should practice taking this Review Test on the

computer by using any word-processing program. You can use the cut, paste, and undo functions,

but don’t use the spell-check, grammar-check, or thesaurus functions.



REVIEW TEST I: ESSAY WRITING

• Before you begin, think about the prompt. You may want to make some notes to organize your

thoughts. Use the space for notes that has been provided.

• Write only on the topic that is presented.

• If you finish in less than 30 minutes, check your essay for errors.

• Stop writing after 30 minutes.



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LESSON 42: CHECKING AND EDITING YOUR ESSAY



ESSAY PROMPT

Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

The most important knowledge does not come from books.

Use specific reasons and examples to explain your choice.



NOTES

Use this space for essay notes only. Write the final version of your essay on the next two pages.



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SECTION 4: ESSAY WRITING

Name:

Write your essay here.



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LESSON 42: CHECKING AND EDITING YOUR ESSAY



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PRACTICE TEST

Taking the Practice Test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Section

Section

Section

Section



1.

2.

3.

4.



Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Essay Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .



301

306

309

317



TAKING THE

PRACTICE TEST

One of the best ways to prepare for the TOEFL test is to take a realistic practice test. The test included

with this program is an up-to-date version of the latest computer-based tests and includes all the new

item-types found on the computer-based test. As closely as possible, it duplicates the actual test in terms of

format, content, and level of difficulty. Of course, it is not possible to completely duplicate the computertesting environment in a book, but if you can do well on this version of the test, you should do well on

the computer-based test when you take it.

There are certain guidelines you should follow for each section when you take these tests in the book:

• Listening

To take the Listening Section, you will have to use the audiotapes or CDs. The items in this part

are timed as the items were on the paper-and-pencil version of the TOEFL test—in other words,

they are 12 seconds apart. However, if you are taking this test alone, you can stop the recording or

use the fast forward to give yourself more or less time. If possible, listen to the recorded material

through headphones. If your book does not include audiotapes or CDs, ask a friend or teacher who

speaks English to read out loud from the script at the end of this book.

While the questions are being read, look only at the questions. Don’t look at the four answer

choices until you have heard the questions. Don’t skip items and don’t go back to any items after

you have finished.

• Structure

Use a watch to time yourself for this section. Do not skip any items and don’t go back to any items

after you have answered them.

• Reading

Use a watch to time yourself. When working on this section, you CAN skip items and go back to

them after you have marked the answers.

• Essay Writing

Time yourself carefully. If possible, write your essay on a computer.



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TAKING THE PRACTICE TEST



SCORING THE PRACTICE TESTS

You can use the charts on the next pages to calculate a range of scores for the test in this book. After

completing the test, obtain a raw score by counting the number of correct answers in the three sections.

Then, look at the conversion chart to determine the range of scaled scores for each section. Add the three

low scores from the range of scores for each section, then the three high scores. Your “actual” score on

the TOEFL test will lie somewhere in that range of numbers. You will then have to estimate your score for

the Essay Writing section and add that number to your Structure score before you arrive at a final score.

You can use the chart on the next page to estimate your Essay Writing score.

Suppose that, on the Practice Test, you had 28 correct answers in Listening, 21 in Structure, and 40

in Reading. Suppose also that your estimated score on Essay Writing is 4. Your adjusted structure scores

are now 24–25. Your score on the practice test would lie between 230 and 240.

Raw Score

(Number Correct)



Range of Scaled Scores

(from Conversion Chart)



28

21

40

4



21–22

13–14

24–26

Add 11 to

both Section 2 scores



Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Estimated score on

Section 4



Score Conversion Chart

Section 1



Section 2



Section 3



Raw

Scores



Range of

Scaled Scores



Raw

Scores



Range of

Scaled Scores



Raw

Scores



Range of

Scaled Scores



36–38

33–35

30–32

27–29

24–26

21–23

18–20

15–17

12–14

9–11

6–8

3–5

0–2



28–30

25–26

23–24

21–22

19–20

17–18

15–16

13–14

11–12

9–10

7–9

5–6

3–4



24–25

21–23

18–20

15–17

12–14

9–11

6–8

3–5

0–2



14–15

13–14

12–13

11–12

10–11

8–10

7–9

6–8

4–6



48–50

45–47

43–44

41–42

39–40

37–38

35–36

33–34

31–32

29–30

27–28

25–26

23–24

21–22

19–20

17–18

15–16

13–14

11–12

9–10

7–8

5–6

3–4

0–2



28–30

27–29

26–28

25–27

24–26

23–25

22–24

21–23

20–22

19–21

18–20

17–19

16–18

15–17

14–16

13–15

12–14

11–13

9–12

8–10

7–9

6–8

5–7

4–6



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