作文技巧：引言与结尾，前呼后应
引言是中体的缩影。结尾是引言的倒影。引言的话题范围由大而小;结尾的话题范围由小而大。起承转合，起中有合，合中有起。ielts360toefl@163.com
Introduction --Say what you are going to say.
Conclusion --Say what you have already said.
作文题目：雅思/托福 类似
举例：男女合校造成的麻烦
雅思 IELTS Topic>What are the pros and cons of co-educational schooling? Discuss both views and give your own opinion. Provide reasons and examples from your knowledge and experience.
托福 TOEFL Topic>Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Boys and girls should attend separate schools. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
引言：话题从宽大到缩小
Introduction: from general to specific
I. Stating your thesis 申论主题
The effort to introduce female students into male secondary schools, or vice versa, must be regarded as undesirable because the practice has not been working well.
II. Narrowing your thesis into your focus 集中焦点
Beyond the religious and cultural grounds, there are other issues about co-education that need to be analyzed.
III. Organizing your focus into 2 points of conflict 话分两头
Of all the obvious drawbacks about mixed-sex educational system, the decline of moral principles and the fall of academic performance have raised particular concern.
结尾：由小而大，是引言的倒影
Conclusion: from specific to general
I. Summarizing points of view into your focus 二合wei
Not surprisingly, from the moral or academic point of view, voices are increasingly being heard to escalate support for single-sex schooling.
II. Widening your focus to the scope of your thesis
It has been more evident that to sacrifice physical and mental differences for artificial gender equality is probably not the right policy to run teenage education in general.
III. Restating your thesis
As can be imagined, sending immature boys and girls to attend the co-ed schools is likely to cause hidden costs to society.
雅思 IELTS--5 Writing Topics
Example A>Today food travels thousands of miles from farms to consumers. Why is this? Is it a positive or negative trend?
Introduction: from general to specific
The food travel debate is inevitably intertwined between economic interests and environmental concerns. While food is traveling because transport has become so cheap in a world of globalization, the manner by which food is being carried is not doing the natural environment any favors. The question is whether to meet human food demand or to reduce pollution?
Conclusion: from specific to general
In view of both the positive side and negative side about long-distance food transportation, there seems no easy answer to the question. Nevertheless, it is up to consumers to make choices, knowing where food comes from. Buying local produce not only supports local farmers but also provides dinner tables with the freshest and most nutrient-packed options.
Example B>Some people argue that job satisfaction is more important than job security. Discuss both views and give your own opinion. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge and experience.
Introduction: from general to specific
No employee could possibly feel happy about a small chance of losing the current job anytime soon. Next only to pay, job security is certainly the No. 1 factor leading to job satisfaction in the modern workplace. In view of increasing unemployment rates these days, not being able to keep a job may mean the absence of he monthly income on which much of job satisfaction depends.
Conclusion: from specific to general
For workers in general to feel happy and secure, it is important to maintain a sense of job security and job satisfaction. Since money is by far the most important factor that people work, job security is what matters to most workers. Nevertheless, those who can take job security for granted may begin planning how to pass their happy years after retirement.
Example C>People in developing countries are happier than before while people in developed countries are no happier than they used to be. Why? What lesson can you learn from it?
Introduction: from general to specific
Financially speaking, people are supposed to be happier when their incomes exceed expenses, but the reverse is happening to many people in some developed countries. In comparison, people in some developing countries with a much lower measure of per capita income appear to be happier in what they actually are able to buy within their earnings. The lesson seems clear enough: higher living standards do not necessarily add to happiness but excessive spending can certainly undermine it.
Conclusion: from specific to general
To sum up, the only way to avoid being unhappy in life, whether referring to a developed country or a developing country, is to have happy thoughts about living within their means and having something to hope for. Per capita income can no longer be the only measure for economic happiness, judging from the fact that people in developed countries are not as happy as they used to be. Without any doubt, the lesson about being happy is for an individual as well as for a country to perform a balancing act between incomes and expenses.
Example D>Some people think that men and women have different qualities. Therefore, some certain jobs are suitable for men and some jobs are suitable for women. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Introduction: from general to specific
It is generally agreed that men and women are created equal but they have different missions in life due mainly to different biological inclinations. This leads one to believe that some specific jobs better fit either males or females only, with people of both sexes doing what they do best. Although the gender issue in terms of work opportunities and income disparities still exists today, no one should ever imagine changing the charm that belongs to women and the strength to men.
Conclusion: from specific to general
Other things being equal, the paradox seems to be that just as charm can be women's strength, men's charm can be strength. Besides, one should accept the fact that the quality of employment depends as much on biological differences as on qualification similarities. In real life, neither gender is the weak sex.
Example E>Films and computer games with violence are very popular in the world. Some people believe that these have negative effects on society. Other people say these are just harmless relaxations. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
Introduction: from general to specific
Violent films and computer games should be put out of business, if possible at all, because they can emotionally affect viewers, particularly children. It can be seen that violence remains one of the most problematic areas for censorship in many countries, especially when it is in conjunction with sex and drugs. So, the question is not why but how?
Conclusion: from specific to general
In conclusion, given that violent films and computer games can have adverse influence on society, it is probably not the right thing to outlaw such products completely. It is appropriate that public censorship should be effectively applied, where necessary, so as to prevent young criminal minds. Consequently, the only solution left for now seems to be a rating system that draws a line for R18: restricted for age 18 and over.
托福 TOEFL--5 Writing Topics
Example 1>Is it important to be able to work with a group of people on a team or to work independently? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.
Introduction: from general to specific
A job worth doing is usually worth doing together. Although some people do succeed in life, working independently, more indications tend to show that teamwork makes people achieve more. In modern time, working is more similar to playing games like football in that wearing the same shirts does not make players a team but the ability to work together toward a common goal can make a difference.
Conclusion: from specific to general
Again, the meaning of teamwork is like a football club because it is one thing getting good players, but it is quite another getting them together with a common vision. The logic is that none of them is better than all of them, as if everyone is needed but no one is indispensable. Doing a job together may as well be like an orchestra since no one can whistle a symphony and it takes a whole team to play it.
Example 2>Do you agree or disagree with he following statement? People are never satisfied with what they have. They always want something more or something different. Use specific reasons to support your answer.
Introduction: from general to specific
If you think that people can be satisfied with what they have, think again. It is universally acknowledged that what mainly moves human activities are need and pride. However, in the pursuit of something more or something different there are dangers of such need becoming greed and pride becoming vanity.
Conclusion: from specific to general
In many cases, the words pride or vanity, and need or greed, are used synonymously to an extent that there are risks about defining the word satisfaction. Although it is good to believe that pride and need are behind human motivations to make success happen, there are chances that vanity and greed under disguise can backfire at he end of the day. Therefore, no one has to doubt that people always want something more or something different because they are never satisfied with what they have.
Example 3>People work because they need money to live. In your opinion, what are other reasons that people work?
Introduction: from general to specific
Working people are supposed to be largely happy because having a job means more than being able to just make ends meet. Money is by far the most important motivational factor that people work, but being engaged in a career clearly has two other advantages. Apart from the fear of poverty, people work in order to get rid of boredom and vice at the same time.
Conclusion: from specific to general
Boredom and vice along with poverty are the three evils that may be spared by having a job worth doing in life. For that matter, the benefits of being busy with a job should not be limited to only economic gains. After all, what a better reason for people to work than simply the pursuit of happiness?
Example 4>Neighbors are the people who live near us. In your opinion, what are he qualities of a good neighbor? Use specific details and examples in your answer.
Introduction: from general to specific
It is lucky to have a good neighbor as much as unfortunate to have a bad one. We are blessed by having righteous neighbors who do not act like strangers or become enemies. It may be said that a righteous neighbor is usually associated with such virtues as tolerance and respect, and help and love.
Conclusion: from specific to general
Righteousness is the sum of what a good neighbor is made of. The mutual feeling toward tolerance and respect, and help and love may contribute to a more enjoyable life in the neighborhood without running the risk of inevitably facing strangers or enemies. Righteously, people should be concerned about their next-door neighbors, but the irony is: do they know their next-door neighbors?
Example 5>People recognize a difference between children and adults. What events--experiences and ceremonies--make a child an adult? Use specific reasons and examples to explain your answer.
Introduction: from general to specific
It is more than meets the eye to immediately tell a mature mind from a relatively immature mind because age is a period of time as well as a state of mind. While there are events and ceremonies that mark ages from stage to stage such as birthdays and baptism, it takes only experience in experiments characterized by confusion in no-longer childhood and not-yet adulthood. This puzzling period of prolonged adolescence often witness a child becoming a man or a woman.
Conclusion: from specific to general
Regardless of becoming a man or a woman, part of childhood never really dies in adulthood as years go by. There is a period of time of the transitional sage of adolescence, now crying like kids, now dreaming to conquer the complexity of life like grown-ups. When a child is becoming an adult, it is that kind of maturity which reveals the difference during the dramatic stage of transition.
