{"id":2167,"date":"2015-09-08T16:26:25","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T23:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2167"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:45:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:45:18","slug":"toefl-tuesday-vocabulary-for-the-independent-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-vocabulary-for-the-independent-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"TOEFL Tuesday: Vocabulary for the Independent Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re returning to our TOEFL vocabulary this Tuesday, and we\u2019re going to focus on a new type of word: vocabulary <\/span><b>you <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">can use in your essays. Of course, many of the other words we covered in past TOEFL Tuesday videos also could be used in essays, but the three I discuss below are all particularly helpful for the <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/the-toefl-independent-writing-task\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">independent essay<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"TOEFL Tuesday: Vocabulary for the Independent Essay\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9ndHj-Ri8qk?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><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before I get started with definitions and examples, though, all the example sentences in this week\u2019s post are on the same topic. Here is the sample topic for the TOEFL independent essay that we\u2019re going to use for our examples.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? See\u00a0specific reasons and examples to support your answer. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b><i>We should stop spending money on space exploration, in order to use the funds on other purposes.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><\/h2>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conviction<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This word is actually more common in its other meaning, a use you won\u2019t see on the TOEFL. A \u201cconviction\u201d is a decision by a judge that somebody committed a crime. For example, if I stole money from a bank, and the police caught me, after going court a judge might <\/span><b>convict <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">me of the crime. And after that conviction I might go to jail.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In reality, I don\u2019t have any convictions (I hope you\u2019re not surprised by that!). At least, I don\u2019t have any convictions of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">legal<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> type. The other type of conviction, more helpful for the TOEFL, is really just a <\/span><b>belief.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is a very strong, belief, though. It is something you absolutely, definitely think to be true. Writing \u201cIt is my conviction that we should not spend more money on space travel\u201d is a bit strange, because most people don\u2019t have such strong opinions on that topic. Avoid that mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But for opinions that are almost never going to change and that you have already thought a lot about, you can say \u201cIt is my conviction that\u2026\u201d or the more idiomatic \u201cI\u2019m of the conviction that&#8230;\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Example<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m of the conviction that government money should be spent carefully on only essentials.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ostensibly<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This word is great because it carries a lot of meaning. When you say that something is \u201costensibly\u201d true, it means that other people say it\u2019s true, but you don\u2019t really believe it or are unsure. So this gives you the opportunity to introduce an idea that you disagree with, then state how and why you disagree. It also helps if you want to introduce a theory or idea that doesn\u2019t match the facts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After you use it, use the word \u201cbut\u201d to return to your opinion\u2014the information you say is actually true.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Example<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The money spent on space exploration will ostensibly pay us back with priceless discoveries, but there are few recent examples of that happening. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Granted<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While \u201costensibly\u201d helps you to provide opinions or information that is opposite your belief but is <\/span><b>false, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cgranted\u201d helps you provide facts that contradict your beliefs but are <\/span><b>true. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Very generally, here is the structure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>A <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is true. <\/span><b><i>Granted<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, some information suggests <\/span><b>B <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is true, <\/span><b><i>but<\/i><\/b> <b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is more important because\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notice that at the end, I again used that word \u201cbut\u201d and returned to my argument for A. \u201cGranted\u201d is not a way to argue for the opposite side. It is simply a way to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recognize<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that side, but you still have to contradict it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In my example below, I recognize that we can save money in other parts of government spending\u2014not just space exploration. But I also point out why that\u2019s not important, and why space exploration should <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">still <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">be stopped.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Example<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Granted, we spend more on military efforts and education than we do on space exploration, but those expenses have clearer purposes than does space exploration, which has few clear benefits. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019re returning to our TOEFL vocabulary this Tuesday, and we\u2019re going to focus on a new type of word: vocabulary you can use in your essays. Of course, many of the other words we covered in past TOEFL Tuesday videos also could be used in essays, but the three I discuss below are all particularly [&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-2167","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: Vocabulary for the Independent Essay - 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-vocabulary-for-the-independent-essay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TOEFL Tuesday: Vocabulary for the Independent Essay\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We\u2019re returning to our TOEFL vocabulary this Tuesday, and we\u2019re going to focus on a new type of word: vocabulary you can use in your essays. 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