- General Strategies
- Paraphrasing
- Though preparation time is limited in the writing portion of the test, it is nevertheless important to use this time to plan the organization of your response.
- You will not see the prompt until after you finish reading and listening, so taking notes is essential. Take notes on major points from both the reading and the lecture.
- Identify what kind of relationship between the reading and the lecture the prompt asks you to discuss.
- Choose the points you need to discuss. Think about how points in the lecture relate to points in the reading. The listening passage will present details that challenge information presented in the reading, present a counter example, or describe the consequences of an attempt to solve a problem presented in the reading.
- Include information from both the reading and the lecture. Clearly show the relationship between information presented in the lecture and that presented in the reading. Limit the time for organizing to less than two minutes in order to give yourself more time for writing and editing.
- Try to paraphrase the information in your own words as much as possible, using different vocabulary and sentence structure.
- Use related words and phrases, including synonyms and antonyms of words and concepts in the original passage.
Example: The average daytime temperature in the Gobi desert does not often go below 38°C. – The average daytime temperature in the Gobi desert is usually at or above 38°C. - Change word forms, and rephrase to make things simpler.
Example: for organization – in order to organize;
people at the age of thirty – thirty-year-old people - Use different sentence structure.
Example: Many Asian countries export rice to North America. – Rice is exported to North America by many Asian countries. - Change the order of presentation of the information.
- Cite information from the original source by using signal words.
Example: According to the professor/passage...
The professor says/mentions/states/argues/believes/found that.
