{"id":2436,"date":"2015-11-23T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T17:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2436"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:44:44","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:44:44","slug":"sentence-variety-in-toefl-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/sentence-variety-in-toefl-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Sentence Variety in TOEFL Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The official TOEFL Writing rubrics<\/a> talk about the importance of writing \u201ccoherently and accurately,\u201d and avoiding \u201cinaccuracy, vagueness, or imprecision.\u201d They also mention the importance of using \u201csyntactic variety\u201d and \u201ca range of vocabulary.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of these writing skills are closely linked to sentence variety<\/em>\u2014the writing of sentences using many different grammar structures. Your writing is much clearer if you treat each sentence as unique, using specific grammar and vocabulary that fits the exact meaning in the sentence.<\/p>\n

If the types of words, phrases and grammar you know how to use are limited, then the meaning of your writing will be limited too. Certain kinds of ideas, ones outside of your grammar\/vocabulary \u201ccomfort zone,\u201d will be a lot harder to express. How can you express something if you literally can\u2019t find the words?<\/p>\n

The good news here is that you can learn how to find the words, phrases, and structure that you need in order to express yourself. Part of the trick here is to really study grammar<\/a> and vocabulary<\/a>. But you don\u2019t want to just memorize wordlists and grammar rules. You also need to develop a sense<\/em> of grammar and vocabulary. It\u2019s important to make a connection in your mind between grammar, vocabulary and the expression of meaning<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the whole reason that different<\/a> verb<\/a> tenses, different conditionals<\/a>, different words with different connotations<\/a>, etc\u2026. exist. Use the variety found in the English language to express specific ideas clearly in writing. Master the use of language variety in your sentences, and your reader will always understand you, no matter what you\u2019re trying to say.<\/p>\n

Sentence variety sounds kind of challenging, doesn\u2019t it? Luckily, there are some simple things you can do to master this complicated, useful writing skill.<\/p>\n

I often have my students do a very basic writing exercise to improve their sentence variety. Here\u2019s how it works: Write a short sentence. For TOEFL practice, use a short sentence that gives a brief, partial response to the TOEFL Independent Writing task\u2014see a good list of example questions here<\/a>. Once you\u2019ve written this response sentence, rewrite the sentence and expand it. Add to it more and more until you have a nicely long and unique sentence. This will help you practice more complex sentences. Here’s an example:<\/p>\n

Starter question:<\/em><\/strong> Some people move out of their parents\u2019 home and live independently as soon as they finish high school. Others prefer to continue living with their parents, even as adults. Which living arrangement do you think is best, and why?<\/em><\/p>\n

Starter sentence:<\/strong> I prefer living independently.<\/p>\n

Expansion 1:<\/strong> I prefer to live independently, because I think it’s better than living with parents.<\/p>\n

Expansion 2:<\/strong> As an adult, living independently is preferable to living with parents, as living with parents does not provide as much freedom.<\/p>\n

Expansion 3:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Expansion 4:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Etc\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Notice that with each expansion of the sentence above, I also changed my choice of words and grammar a little bit different, a little more complex. That’s because the purpose of this exercise is to practice saying things in different ways and<\/em> practice making longer sentences.<\/p>\n

The trick here is to figure out a few different ways to say the same thing, so you can think of alternate, more varied sentences. This is called paraphrasing<\/a>. Paraphrasing exercises help you become a better writer who can make more varied sentences. While paraphrasing is often done to rewrite someone else\u2019s idea, it\u2019s also good to practice paraphrasing with your own original sentences, as seen above.<\/p>\n

This activity really only has three steps: Write a simple sentence, expand the simple sentence to make it more varied, and repeat sentence expansion as needed. Of course, if you expand the sentence too many times, it will get long, awkward, and hard to follow.<\/p>\n

But during writing practice, making that mistake is OK, and can even be useful. By letting yourself sometimes overextend your sentences, you can learn how to make your sentences longer and more varied and<\/em> learn when to stop expanding on a simple idea. In this way, you\u2019ll gain the ability to vary your writing style just enough, without using overly complicated grammar or overly varied vocabulary that makes your meaning become less clear.<\/p>\n

So have fun with this activity. Play with sentence structure. Experiment with it. Build on it. And if you get bored with writing response sentences to the TOEFL Independent Writing task, do this exercise with any other kind of sentence you like\u2014variety really is the spice of life!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The official TOEFL Writing rubrics talk about the importance of writing \u201ccoherently and accurately,\u201d and avoiding \u201cinaccuracy, vagueness, or imprecision.\u201d They also mention the importance of using \u201csyntactic variety\u201d and \u201ca range of vocabulary.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13619],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-2436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSentence Variety in TOEFL Writing - 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\/sentence-variety-in-toefl-writing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sentence Variety in TOEFL Writing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The official TOEFL Writing rubrics talk about the importance of writing \u201ccoherently and accurately,\u201d and avoiding \u201cinaccuracy, vagueness, or imprecision.\u201d They also mention the importance of using \u201csyntactic variety\u201d and \u201ca range of vocabulary.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/sentence-variety-in-toefl-writing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-23T17:00:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-10T21:44:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2016\/09\/Facebook-SEO-Default.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Recine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MagooshTOEFL\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Recine\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/sentence-variety-in-toefl-writing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/sentence-variety-in-toefl-writing\/\",\"name\":\"Sentence Variety in TOEFL Writing - 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C50&q=Recine+magoosh&btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2436"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}