TOEFL, iBT, Independent Writing, Paper Books or E-books? -rewrite-

Writing Topic

Consider the following statement. Computers can provide all the information that once could be found only in books, and therefore, it will not be long before electronic technology makes books unnecessary. Do you agree or disagree with this idea? Support your response by including specific reasons and examples.

☆Hints for Points

Agree: information search … more efficient / thousands of books in an electronic reader / many functions that allow quicker and better learning

Disagree: no need for electricity / some information that cannot be digitized (copy right, when the book itself provides information) / more reliable information

☆Paragraph Development

Paragraph development is a key to making your essay convincing. If a paragraph has only one sentence or two, it lacks some essential sentences such as supporting details (background information), or the main idea. Also, as Japanese, whose culture directs them to start with details and make a conclusion in general in the end or often stick to details to the end, we often produce a paragraph as follows:

Paragraph A

By pointing a word you do not know, you can look into the dictionary installed in the electronic reader for the word. You can also refer to the related information of a particular person or event, often accompanied by sound, picture, and video. With the help of these functions, you can learn more quickly, actively and intuitively. E-books will make learning more efficient. It will not be long before school provides students with tablets instead of textbooks.

The paragraph above goes from specific (detail) to general (conclusion). If this paragraph is rewritten to conform to the English essay structure, the western thought process, it may become as follows:

Paragraph B

【Main Idea】 E-books will make learning more efficient.

【Detail / Example】 For example, by pointing a word you do not know, you can look into the dictionary installed in the electronic reader for the word. You can also refer to the related information of a particular person or event, often accompanied by sound, picture, and video. With the help of these functions, you can learn more quickly, actively and intuitively.

【Conclusion】 It will not be long before school provides students with tablets instead of textbooks.

As you can see, the comment after the detail in the former (Paragraph A) is placed on top of the latter (Paragraph B) as the main idea of the paragraph. If you add sentences of transition and follow-up it would be as follows:

【Main Idea】 E-books will make learning more efficient.

【Transition】 Their functions will help faster and more active learning.

【Detail / Example】 For example, by pointing a word you do not know, you can look into the dictionary installed in the electronic reader for the word. You can also refer to the related information of a particular person or event, often accompanied by sound, picture, and video. With the help of these functions, you can learn more quickly, actively and intuitively.

【Follow up】 It is true that to have a deeper understanding of a subject, you might need to read some books, but digitized books help form a general idea of a topic efficiently.

【Conclusion】 It will not be long before school provides students with tablets instead of textbooks.

It might be a good idea for us Japanese to write following our thought process (specific →general) and then rearrange the sentences following the western thought process (general→ specific).

♦Your test paragraph development:

【Main Idea】

【Transition】

【Detail / Example】

【Follow up】

【Conclusion】

☆Essay for Ideas and Expressions

I do not have the impression that books will soon become antiques that you seldom see in your daily lives, at least in lives of people who read.

Technically, computers and electronic readers can replace books in the near future. In terms of information search, it is usually much more efficient to use computers than it is to go to the library or subscribe to a paper newspaper or two; books that purely provide information such as dictionaries and encyclopedias have almost gone extinct. Tablets and electronic readers have displays pretty close to the surface of book pages and allow flipping and underlining. It might not be long before functions for leafing through and writing in are added. Ultimately, the difference will be literally either in ink on paper or electric. Here I think is the answer to this question. Paper books will not become totally unnecessary because they exist in the non-virtual world.

First, libraries will keep paper books even though they have been digitizing as many books as possible over decades. Paper and electric books complement each other in their physical shortcomings. Unlike e-books, paper books are bulky and vulnerable to nature such as fire and fungi, yet they are important resources because of their feature as tangible objects. They are ready to be read any time if you just pick them up and open them. Computers need electricity. For fear of blackouts, cyber-terrorism, or accidents that will disable access to or cause damage on digital archive, hard copies will always be kept in libraries and archives. Paper books are to human knowledge will be what bankbooks are to our accounts. Bankbooks still exist in this era of e-banking.

In private libraries, books might gradually disappear but will never be “unnecessary.” Digital books occupy no space and this is attractive for most of us, who do not live in a mansion. Therefore, natural selection, in fact the owner’s selection, of books in our bookshelves will be accelerated as many more cheaper digitalized versions will be available. But I think some books will remain, those books to which you have some personal attachment. They are in your shelf as proof of your life itself. It is hard to imagine readers throwing away their favorite books and downloading e-books of the same titles. I do not think they will no matter how small apartments they live in, and I think some of their books will establish the same kind of relationship with the next owners after their death, and this will be repeated until they are worn out and naturally perish. It would take long for all paper books to disappear this way, and they will just disappear, treasured by someone till the last moment. Therefore, paper books will never become unnecessary.

The substantial presence of books will be necessary in a digitized society. Paper books will be preserved forever as the originals. Good books will always be loved and needed by their owners until someday they are not available in print, and probably some special books such as the Bible, the Koran, or Bruce Springsteen’s biography, whose existence is indispensable for many people, will always be in demand.