{"id":2068,"date":"2015-08-11T10:09:01","date_gmt":"2015-08-11T17:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2068"},"modified":"2015-08-11T09:34:42","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T16:34:42","slug":"toefl-tuesday-writing-can-i-argue-both-sides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-writing-can-i-argue-both-sides\/","title":{"rendered":"TOEFL Tuesday: Writing &#8211; Can I Argue Both Sides?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are two essays on the TOEFL. On the first, you\u2019ll have to summarize a lecture and text. On that essay, your opinion doesn\u2019t matter. But on the second essay, you\u2019ll have to pick a side. There will be an \u201cA\u201d and a \u201cB,\u201d or maybe just a \u201cyes\u201d or a \u201cno,\u201d and you\u2019ll choose which you agree with. It\u2019s often very tempting to agree a little bit with both. After all, the world is complex, and few decisions are so simple that you don\u2019t at all agree with the opposite side. In real life, we have to consider the benefits and disadvantages of both sides when we make decision.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the TOEFL isn\u2019t the real world. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The short answer is <\/span><b>no<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, you shouldn\u2019t argue both sides.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe title=\"TOEFL Tuesday: Writing - Can I Argue Both Sides?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l2GRmkZ7N10?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<h2>Clarity<\/h2>\n<p>Clarity is king on the TOEFL. It is, after all, a test of communication. You want your thoughts to be perfectly clear, so that the grader knows exactly what you think. If you can\u2019t explain your thinking clearly, then it seems you don\u2019t have a good command of the English language. And when you make your thinking more complicated, that makes communication more difficult, too. But because the TOEFL isn\u2019t a test of your thinking skills\u2014like the GRE is, for example\u2014there\u2019s no good reason to make your thoughts more complex. It only endangers the clarity of your essay.<\/p>\n<p>We can see the clarity issue particularly well if we consider the simplest way to make a clear point: your essay\u2019s structure.<\/p>\n<h2>Structure<\/h2>\n<p>The simplest independent TOEFL essay looks like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Intro, including the main idea<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First body paragraph, including one reason and details<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second body paragaph, including another reason and details<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conclusion<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In that structure, there is a clear relationship between all of the main points. In comparison, when students talk about both sides, the result often looks like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Intro, including the main idea<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First body paragraph, including one reason and details<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second body paragaph, including another reason <\/span><b>that contradicts the main idea.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conclusion<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In this structure, the essay grader will understand your main point through the first two paragraphs, but then the third paragraph will confuse them. Unless you are very careful about your phrasing, the second body paragraph will not connect clearly to your main point.<\/p>\n<p>At that point, the grader may wonder \u201cwhat is the main idea, again?\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The Risk<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You might think you are above this. You might think that you can make this type of mixed-opinion essay work well. And you might be right, because it\u2019s absolutely possible to make this work. But consider this:<\/span><b> it won\u2019t help you, but it might hurt you. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s equally possible to write a great essay that argues only one side, and that runs no risk of confusing the reader if you don\u2019t transition well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you do go against this advice and choose to talk about both sides, make sure that the other side is just a few words\u2014one or two sentences. And even then, within that paragraph, you should have a connection back to the side that you mostly agree with, your main point. Don\u2019t talk about the two sides equally, because if you do, you simply don\u2019t answer the question; the TOEFL asks you to choose a side, and that\u2019s what you should do.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are two essays on the TOEFL. On the first, you\u2019ll have to summarize a lecture and text. On that essay, your opinion doesn\u2019t matter. But on the second essay, you\u2019ll have to pick a side. There will be an \u201cA\u201d and a \u201cB,\u201d or maybe just a \u201cyes\u201d or a \u201cno,\u201d and you\u2019ll choose [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13614],"tags":[13621],"ppma_author":[13628],"class_list":["post-2068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-task-2","tag-video"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TOEFL Tuesday: Writing - Can I Argue Both Sides? - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-writing-can-i-argue-both-sides\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TOEFL Tuesday: Writing - Can I Argue Both Sides?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are two essays on the TOEFL. 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