{"id":3912,"date":"2016-09-06T19:01:31","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T02:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=3912"},"modified":"2016-09-06T19:01:31","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T02:01:31","slug":"toefl-tuesday-worst-mistake-toefl-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-worst-mistake-toefl-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"TOEFL Tuesday: The WORST Mistake in TOEFL Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s talk about the <\/span><b>worst<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> mistake I see in people\u2019s essays when they are preparing for the TOEFL. This is a large, obvious mistake, and it\u2019s completely avoidable, so every time I see it, I feel terrible for the person who wrote the essay. If only they knew this advice, they would score higher!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"TOEFL Tuesday: The WORST Writing Mistake\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GerjUpGYxqQ?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>The mistake is simple: copying the text in your integrated essay. If you use in your essay a phrase or sentence copied from the text that you read, you will lose points. To be clear, I don\u2019t mean individual words, generally, although using a synonym is often a good idea, if possible. The real problem is when test-takers use phrases of 3, 4, or even more words.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s Obvious<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The person who will read your TOEFL essay knows the text that you read. They will be able to see that text, and they will be able to see that you simply copied what you read. Every time I see this in a student\u2019s essay, I wonder if the student thought I wouldn\u2019t notice. It\u2019s almost always <\/span><b>very <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">noticeable, not only because I know the text, but also because there is suddenly a phrase or sentence that looks like it was written by a native speaker, surrounded by sentences that are written by a non-native. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But again, more importantly, the grader already knows the text. They can see clearly what is copied and what is your own words. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s Big<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A grammar mistake or a vocabulary mistake can affect just one word, or sometimes more, but it is restricted to a small impact. Copying, on the other hand, can mean a full sentence is all problematic. Even worse, when students make this mistake, it\u2019s usually not just once. Usually, they do it several times in an essay. That means this one mistake can lead to a large part of an essay hurting your score. It\u2019s better to make a couple mistakes in trying to paraphase using your own words than it is to copy and have the whole sentence hurt you. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s Avoidable<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is why the mistake of copying is so sad to see: you can choose not to do it. Grammar mistakes happen; vocabulary mistakes happen. There are many types of mistakes that are only partly under your control. But copying is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">completely<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> your choice. Just don\u2019t do it!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And that\u2019s actually a good thing. Simply by watching this video or reading this advice, you have learned something that can help you avoid a low score on your TOEFL. Use your own words, and you\u2019ll score higher!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s talk about the worst mistake I see in people\u2019s essays when they are preparing for the TOEFL. This is a large, obvious mistake, and it\u2019s completely avoidable, so every time I see it, I feel terrible for the person who wrote the essay. If only they knew this advice, they would score higher! The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13613],"tags":[13621],"ppma_author":[13628],"class_list":["post-3912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-task-1","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: The WORST Mistake in TOEFL Writing - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Let\u2019s talk about the worst mistake I see in people\u2019s essays when they are preparing for the TOEFL. 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