Writing Topic:
Many different jobs are important to society for different reasons.
Select one of these jobs and explain why you think that job is helpful to your
society: 1) actor, 2) lawyer, 3) tour guide. Support your essay with specific
reasons and examples.
☆Let’s Think
1.
Here are some of the TOEFL iBT
Independent Writing topics disclosed by ETS that sound similar to this writing
topic. Do you notice any differences in the ways the questions are asked?
(1) Choose one of the following transportation vehicles and explain why
you think it has changed people’s lives.
• automobiles • bicycles • airplanes
(2) Many parts of the world are losing important natural resources, such
as forests, animals, or clean water. Choose one resource that is disappearing
and explain why it needs to be saved.
Similar but different types of questions are as follows:
(3) A friend of yours has received some money and plans to use all of it
either
• to go on vacation
• to buy a car
Your friend has asked you for advice. Compare your
friend’s two choices and explain which one you think your friend should choose.
(4) You have enough money to purchase either a house or a business.
Which would you choose to buy?
(5) What do you want most in a friend — someone who is intelligent, or
someone who has a sense of humor, or someone who is reliable? Which one of
these characteristics is most important to you?
Notes
◍Questions (3), (4), and (5) ask you the better or the best choice while
Questions (1) and (2) do not. Like Question (1) and (2), the writing topic of this lessen does not
require comparison. Neither does it require you to choose the most important. The
first sentence of this topic, “Many different jobs are important to society for
different reasons”, meaning each job has its own significance, works as the condition
where comparison of the given three jobs is not required.
◍Question (3) requires you to compare the
choices while Questions (4) and (5) do not. However, in answering Question (4)
and (5), even though there is no direction, you also need to compare the
choices because you cannot convince the reader which is better or the best
without mentioning both or all choices.
2.
Which of the following two
sentences is more appropriate as the thesis of an essay for the writing topic
of this lesson?
a.
The job of the actor is the
most helpful to my society.
b.
The job of the actor is helpful
to my society in many ways.
3.
Discuss how the actor, the lawyer, and the tour guide contribute to
society.
☆Hints for Points
The actor
1. helps you learn about people, life, and the world by acting in a
movie or a play.
e.g. historical
period drama, biographical film etc.
2. helps develop your imagination and creativity by helping you
experience a life which is totally different from yours or a fictional life
that is often more real than a real life. The experience gives you visions
about the past, present, and future and deep insight about people, society, and
nature that make you a creative person like an artist, scientist, or
entrepreneur. e.g. science fiction
movie, animated film (anime), etc.
3. helps you release stress by playing the role of an incredible
character.
e.g. action,
superhero movie, comedy, etc.
The lawyer
1. protects people’s rights by giving advice on what claim they can
make and representing them in the law suits
e.g. improper
dismissal, unfair trial, copy rights, violation of privacy, minority crime
cases, etc.
2. can shed light on important issues in society and help make a
difference by taking up a case related to these issues. e.g. constitution, human rights, neglect of
the government, death penalty, corporate crime, etc.
The tour guide
1. assist tourists make the most of their tour by helping them
experience unfamiliar places and cultures safely and easily.
e.g. giving information
and advice, translating languages, making arrangements for the tourists, etc.
2. plays a role of a citizen diplomat by assisting mutual
understanding of different peoples. e.g.
helping tourists and the local people communicate with each other and leaving
good impression of the people and the country in tourists’ minds and vice versa,
etc.
☆Your Sample
Essay Structure
【Introduction】
【Point 1】
【Point 2】
【Point 3】
【Conclusion】
☆Sample Paragraph Development
【Main Idea】Lawyers help us protect our rights.
【Supporting Details】They are specialists of laws and fight in
court for their clients. For example, a lawyer can give advice on what claim
can be made and will fight in the law suit for you. If there is an employee
whose employment contract was terminated for no proper reason, his or her lawyer
will find the evidence of the wrongdoing of his client’s former employer and
helps him or her get his job back or get compensated for the damage caused by
the dismissal.
【Conclusion】In this way, the lawyer helps protect fundamental human rights,
right to pursue happiness in this case.
Your Sample Paragraph Development
【Main Idea】
【Supporting Details】
【Conclusion】
Note: If you find it difficult to start
with the topic sentence, it might be a good idea to follow your thought process
while conforming to the English essay writing format. You could leave the first
part of the paragraph blank and start with specific details and then put
generalized ideas of the details above them. Also, you could make the
conclusion of the paragraph first, and go back to the top of the paragraph,
capping it with the main idea.
