Letha, who joined an Online course called “The 7-Step System to Pass the TOEFL iBT,” got her required mark of 26/30 on the speaking section of the exam but only received 21/30 on the writing section, 3 points shy of her requirement. So, she is hell-bent on figuring out how to organize the integrated writing task. Enough is enough! Letha has many more important things in her life to accomplish like starting her pharmacy job in the United States, so she will conquer the TOEFL iBT if it is the last thing she does in her life while she is alive. Here is a question that she asked her TOEFL writing mentor this week:
I have a doubt about an integrated writing task question.
In the reading passage it states about the three reasons for the Rome ‘s growth ( Army, Emperors and Tax) and the lecture starts with in similar way these 3 same factors lead to Rome’s fall
The lecture explains how these factors lead to down fall in a different way.
As an example the in reading it said the army was small in Rome and they made it big by taking some soldiers from the enemy so since the army was big it helped for it’s growth and the lecture states these Army lead to down fall since the soldiers were from enemy they were not loyal. Similar way other 2 more fators. So my question is here I should write as a contrast or similar. I got confused with the first wording in the lecture as “similarly these 3 same fators lead to Rome’s Fall”.So I wrote as similarly as the transition word in three paragraph, but later I felt in the opposite way. This is my experience on the 8th June ToeflExam. So write away before the result I started preparing for the next test.
And here is the response her TOEFL writing mentor gave her:
Based on your question, I would organize the writing in the following way.
The reading passages explains three critical factors leading to Rome’s Growth, whereas the listening passage shows how these factors unfortunately led to Rome’s decline.
According to the reading passage three important factors caused Rome to prosper: factor A, B, and C. Factor A caused Rome to flourish……In addition to factor A, factor B was also important in helping Rome because….Finally, factor C was also critical to Rome’s growth in that….
On the other hand, the listening passage illustrates how these three factors were equally important to Rome’s downfall. Even though factor A was important…., it also caused Rome to fall because….. Like factor A, factor B negatively affected Rome in the sense that…Lastly, factor C, like factor A and B, also had negative consequences to the Roman empire since….
In conclusion, as it evident in the reading passage and the lecture, factor A, B, and C were important both in positively and negatively impacting one of strongest empires ever known to mankind.