Tmu english test preparation writing revised

In the first task, you have to write an email of around 80-100 words to your friend to giveinformation, ask for permission, tell a story or make an appointment, etc.. MARKING CRITERIA Yo

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH

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TMU ENGLISH TEST PREPARATION

WRITING

Hanoi, 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WRITING OVERVIEW 1

MODULE 1: SENTENCE WRITING 2

MODULE 2: EMAIL WRITING 5

MODULE 3: PARAGRAPH WRITING 13

MODULE 4: ESSAY WRITING 19

SAMPLE TEST 1 24

SAMPLE TEST 2 25

SAMPLE TEST 3 26

WRITING OVERVIEW

TEST FORMAT

The writing test consists of 2 tasks with the total time of 40 minutes

In the first task, you have to write an email of around 80-100 words to your friend to giveinformation, ask for permission, tell a story or make an appointment, etc

In the second task, you have to write an essay of about 200 words presenting the advantages anddisadvantages of something

MARKING CRITERIA

Your writing competence is rated on 4 criteria as follows together with some advice given onhow to meet each criterion:

Task achievement

(TA)

Coherence and Cohesion (CC)

Lexical Resource (LR)

Grammatical Range and Accuracy (GRA)

how well is your text structured

how good is your vocabulary

how good is your grammar

How to

meet the

criteria

To increase score for TA, you should:

 present the information accurately

 answer all parts

of the task

 provide a clear overview

 include the prompts in the email (Task 1)

 give a clear position (Task 2)

To increase scorefor CC, you should:

 manage paragraphing

 make sure that each paragraphhas a central idea

 use linking words and cohesive devices

To increase score for LR, you should:

 use a wide range of vocabulary

 use less common lexicalitems

 avoid errors in spelling and word formation

To increase score for GRA, you should:

 use a wide range

of grammatical structures and tenses

 manage punctuation

 avoid errors in sentences

* Each of these criteria receives a score from 0 to 10 points An arithmetic mean is calculated to determine the writing total score.

MODULE 1: SENTENCE WRITING

Classified by its structure, a sentence can be of four types: simple sentences, compoundsentences, complex sentences and compound-complex sentences

1 SIMPLE SENTENCES

- A simple sentence contains a subject and a verb

- It expresses a single complete thought that can stand on its own

Examples:

1 The baby cried for food

^ There is a subject and a verb that expresses a complete thought

2 Professor Maple’s intelligent students completed and turned in their homework

^ A simple sentence does not necessarily have to be short It can have adjectives In thiscase, there are two verbs “completed” and “turned in.” However, the sentence expresses onecomplete thought and therefore is a simple sentence

3 Megan and Ron ate too much and felt sick

^ Although there are two subjects and two verbs, it is still a simple sentence because bothverbs share the same subjects and express one complete thought

2 COMPOUND SENTENCES

- A compound sentence has two independent clauses An independent clause is a part of asentence that can stand alone because it contains a subject and a verb and expresses acomplete thought

- Basically, a compound contains two simple sentences

- These independent clauses are joined by a conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so –FANBOYS for short)

Examples:

1 The shoplifter had stolen clothes, so he ran once he saw the police

^ Both sides of the conjunction “so” are complete sentences “The shoplifter had stolenclothes” can stand alone and so can “he ran once he saw the police.” Therefore, this is acompound sentence

2 They spoke to him in Spanish, but he responded in English

^ This is also a compound sentence that uses a conjunction to separate two individualclauses

3 COMPLEX SENTENCES

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- A complex sentence is an independent clause joined by one or more dependent clauses Adependent clause either lacks a subject or a verb or has both a subject and a verb that doesnot express a complete thought

- A complex sentence always has a subordinator (as, because, since, after, although, when)

or relative pronouns (who, that, which)

Examples:

1 After eating lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, Tim went to the gym to exercise

^ The independent clause is “Tim went to the gym to exercise.” The subordinating clausebefore it is dependent on the main, independent clause If one were to say “after eating lunch

at The Cheesecake Factory,” it would be an incomplete thought

2 Opinionated women are given disadvantages in societies that privilege male accomplishments

^ The subject is “opinionated women” and the verb is “are given.” The first part of thesentence “opinionated women are given disadvantages in societies” is an independent clausethat expresses a complete thought The following “that privilege male accomplishments” is arelative clause that describes which types of societies

3 The woman who taught Art History 210 was fired for stealing school supplies

^ The dependent clause in this sentence is “who taught Art History 210” because if removed,the rest of the sentence would stand as an independent clause “Who taught Art History 210”

is an adjective clause that provides necessary details about the subject, woman

^ If we remove the dependent clause “after the two soccer players lost their game,” we have

a compound sentence The dependent clause makes this sentence compound-complex

2 The man believed in the system, and he knew that justice would prevail after the murderer was sent to jail.

KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER: A summary to help you remember the four types of

sentences

Compound Two or more None

Complex One One or more

Compound-Complex Two or more One or more

PRACTICE:

Identify whether the sentences are simple, complex, compound or compound-complex

Please underline dependent clauses where it applies

1 Vampires Dairies is my favorite television show, but I also love True Blood

2 The student wiped the white board that was filthy with last week’s notes

3 The trendy fashion designer released her new line on Wednesday

4 Trina and Hareem went to a bar in Hollywood to celebrate their anniversary

5 Wicked Regina cast a spell on the entire city, so the citizens decided to rebel

6 While waiting for the paint to dry, Angela went to Home Depot, and Martin organized thekitchen appliances

7 After listening to the Kanye West CD, I have new respect for his music

8 After the teacher chose groups, John and Sara were selected as partners for a project, yet Sarahdid most of the work

9 She smiled sweetly, and he grinned shyly

10 Mary and Tom agreed to meet after school

11 I had a poor background, and the subject was quite difficult; however, the teacher explainedthe concepts very clearly

12 Because the store was closed, we returned home Complex

13 The old prospector was discouraged; however, when I suggested giving up, he was indignant

14 Although my friends were lost for a while, they eventually found the restaurant that yourecommended

15 The runner, who had trained for many months, won the race easily

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MODULE 2: EMAIL WRITING

Email is a system of sending written messages electronically from one computer to another.Email is an abbreviation of ‘electronic mail’ (Collins)

1 INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING AN EMAIL

In this part of the test, you are given an email from an English friend or relative, and you areasked to respond to it in about 100 words This email contains annotations which help youidentify exactly what you need to respond to

As regards the topics, they are usually not very difficult, as you are expected to write at an

intermediate level about topics you are familiar with: sports, hobbies, TV programmes, weather, your town / city, best friend etc Here is a sample email:

Write your email to Sandy using all the notes

As you can see in the example above, we have received an email from a person so-calledSandy, who is a friend of ours In addition, we have made some annotations, which are thepoints we need to address in your email:

 Me too!

 Say which I prefer

 No, because…

 Ask Sandy…

You must answer this question Write your answer in about

100 words on the answer sheet.

Read this email from your English-speaking friend Sandy and the notes you have made.

From: SandySubject: Your visit!

Hi,I’m so excited that you’re coming to stay with me for a week!

On your first evening here, there’s a rock concert in our town

Would you like to go to the concert or would you prefer us torelax at home?

Also, shall we go climbing in the mountains while you’re here?

Let me know if you have any questions

See you soonSandy

2 EMAIL STRUCTURE

The first thing you need to know is the different parts of an email, and these are:

 Greetings: we greet the other person (i.e say “hi” or “hello”)

 Opening paragraph: we react to the other person’s news and ask them how they are

feeling and whatever else you feel is appropriate

 Main paragraph 1: in this paragraph we deal with the first important point, which we

can identify in the instructions

 Main paragraph 2: if there is a different point to deal with, this paragraph will do so

(We might have more main paragraphs, depending on the task.)

 Closing paragraph: in this paragraph we “start” to say goodbye by wishing the other

person well and asking them to reply to your email

 Goodbye: we use a short expression to say goodbye.

 Signature: we sign the email with our name.

3 SAMPLE EMAIL

Let’s take a look at the following example of the email where we can see an answer to the sampletask we saw above:

In the example above, the different parts of an email are well defined It’s important that

the writing is visually appealing, apart from having good grammar and vocabulary This

means that the paragraphs should be well defined, with a space in between, and that you

should know when to break lines This is especially important after greetings, after openingand closing paragraphs, and after saying goodbye This will make your text visuallyappealing, as it will look like a real email

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Thanks a lot for writing back I’m also really excited about visiting you!

On my first evening, I’d like to relax at home I will probably be very tired from the trip, so I need to rest and get ready for the other days Is that okay?

As for climbing, I’m afraid I can’t I forgot to tell you, but I hurt my knee last week, so I can’t do sport now.

How about visiting some art galleries in your town? If you want, we could

go You know I love art! What do you think?

Well, I have to go now, but please let me know what you think.

Take care, Luis

4 EXPRESSIONS TO USE IN AN EMAIL

In this section, we are going to focus on different expressions to use in the different parts

of the email While the main paragraphs will vary completely depending on the topic of the

writing, most of the other parts in the email can be practised and memorized almostcompletely Let’s take a look:

Note: Notice how “Hi” is less formal than “Hello” or “Dear” Also, don’t forget to write a

comma (,) right after greeting your friend or relative After greeting the addressee (i.e the

person who will read the email), you must start the opening paragraph in a new line.

4.2 OPENING PARAGRAPH

The opening paragraph is the place to react to your friend’s or relative’s email In order to

do so, you can use a number of different expressions Here we have some examples:

It’s nice / great / good to hear from you.

It’s nice / great / good to read your email.

I’m glad to hear your news.

I’m excited about … (your news.)

It’s great to hear that…

I’m sorry to hear that…

I’m really sorry to read your news.

Thanks a lot for writing!

It was good to receive your email.

Thank you very much for your email.

Also, it’s a good idea to ask your friend or relative how they are feeling, which you can do

like this:

Hope you are doing well.

How’s it going?

How are you (doing)?

How are things (going)?

You can also add some information that you think is relevant or necessary, but don’t expand

this paragraph very much, because the important information must go in the main

paragraphs.

4.3 MAIN PARAGRAPHS

For the main paragraphs, there aren’t any fixed expressions which you must use, as it depends

mostly on what you have to write about However, you should try to make use of connectors

and appropriate punctuation So let’s take a look at common useful connectors and the punctuation we use them with:

…and…: to connect two similar things or ideas.

I love reading and listening to music.

My favourite meal is fish and chips.

…, but…: to connect two contrasting ideas.

I love watching TV, but I don’t have a favourite show.

I am reading a book, but I don’t remember the title.

However,…: to connect contrasting ideas.

Last month, I went to the cinema However, I didn’t enjoy the movie.

I am a very big fan of this author However, I haven’t read his last novel.

Moreover,…: to add more information about something.

… because…: to justify an opinion or idea.

My mum is the perfect cook because she knows a lot of recipes and has plenty of experience Moreover, she experiments with different ingredients all the time.

Because of that,…: to justify an opinion, fact or idea.

My mum likes to cook using new ingredients all the time Because of that, she creates

original dishes every month.

As for…/ Regarding…: to switch to a new topic For instance, you can use this connector

to start the second main paragraph

As for/Regarding why I like this cookery show, I think because it’s a great way to see

new recipes.

Time linkers: then, after that, yesterday, this morning, last summer, etc.

Last night, I watched a very good action film.

With many connectors, we typically use a comma (,) after it when we start a sentence (e.g.:

However, Last night, Moreover, etc.).

4.4 CLOSING PARAGRAPH

As we mentioned earlier, a closing paragraph in this Writing part 3 is used to start sayinggoodbye to the addressee and to ask for a response to your email So we can use the followingexpressions:

Well, it’s time to say goodbye.

Anyway, I have to go now.

Well, it’s time to go.

 Anyway, gotta go.

I really hope to hear from you soon.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

I hope you write back soon.

Make sure you write back soon.

Also, if you still have to write more words, you can add a question for a subsequent email.

This question should be related to the topic of your piece of writing

 All my love,

 Love,

 Lots of love,

 See you soon,

 Regards,

Notice how there is a comma (,) after each of the phrases Also, after writing any of these sentences, make sure you write your name on a different line And write your name without

a full stop!

WRITING PRACTICE

Now that we know what expressions we should be using in our writing, we are going to take a look at another task and then practice your writing:

Read this email from your English-speaking college classmate Alex and the notes you have made Write your email to Alex using all the notes.

Subject: College science presentation

Hi,

It’s great that we are going to work together on the college science presentation Do you think we should choose the rainforest as our topic?

We only have two weeks to prepare, so can we start tomorrow? Where can we go to prepare the presentation? My cousins are staying at my house at the moment, so we can’t work there because it’s too noisy

We can give our presentation to the class either in the morning or the afternoon Which would you prefer?

Let me know

Alex

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No, but…

Suggest… Sorry…

Tell Alex

Sample answer:

Hi, Alex

I’m very glad to work with you I think we shouldn’t choose the rainforest as our topic because I’m not good at this topic I would like to prepare the science presentation about deserts In my opinion, it will be interesting.

Sorry, but my parents have gone to another town and I must look after my little brother so

we can’t start to prepare tomorrow What about starting in 2 days?

We can prepare the presentation in my house because no one will disturb us.

I would prefer to give our presentation to the class in the afternoon as this is the most convenient time.

Best wishes

Grette

TOP 5 TIPS FOR WRITING AN EMAIL

1 Learn and memorize a set of expressions Make sure you already know a set of

expressions to use in your greetings, opening and closing paragraphs, and to say goodbye Thiswill save you a lot of time while doing a task, and you will avoid making silly mistakes as youwill already know the expressions by heart

2 Write a well-structured and visually-appealing email One of the things the examiners

pay attention to is the organization of your piece writing, so make sure not to write a messy

email Also, remember that punctuation matters, so be sure to separate your sentences with

stops and commas and don’t write excessively long sentences

3 Brainstorm, write, read and edit Before starting to write your email, brainstorm a couple

of things and write down some ideas This can include vocabulary related to the topic Forexample, if you have to write about TV shows, you can write down things like “contestants”,

“cookery show”, “prize”, etc Then, write your email After that, read it and look for possiblemistakes or opportunities for improvement (e.g.: adding descriptive adjectives, rephrasingsentences, etc.)

4 Read carefully and identify the task Don’t start writing right away Make sure you read

the task carefully and that you identify exactly what you are being asked Sometimes, we don’tpay attention to the instructions and we end up writing about something different This willmean losing points, in a very silly way

5 Experiment at home, be conservative in the exam Homework is the best chance to be

creative and experiment different ways to express yourself So make sure you try your hardest

to keep improving when you write at home On the other hand, when you’re doing an exam,don’t risk trying out new words or expressions, as you may be making a terrible mistake So besafe in your exam and stick to what you already knows works

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FURTHER PRACTICE

Read this email from your English teacher Miss Jones and the notes you have made Write your email to Miss Jones using all the notes.

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From: Miss Jones To: All students Subject: Visitor to English class Dear students,

I’m planning to invite a well-known person to come into our English class and give a talk

I’d like to invite either a scientist or an actor Which would be better?

I hope that each student will have a question to ask this person – what would you like to ask?

We want our visitor to enjoy the day with us – what do you think we can do to entertain the visitor after the talk?

I’m looking forward to receiving your ideas!

Miss Jones

Read this email from your English-speaking friend Grace and the notes you have made Write your email to Grace using all the notes ………

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From: Grace To: Nick Subject: Family dinner

Hi Nick, We’re having a family dinner for my mum’s birthday next week

My brothers and I are each going to cook a course Do you think I should make the starter, the main course or the dessert?

Where can I find some good recipes?

Have you ever made anything for your family? What did you make?

Was it a success?

Love Grace