The following article has been excerpted from Ace The TOEFL Essay   By: Timothy Avants Writing the Essay Patterns of Development Simply put, a pattern of development is the method you employ to write a paper. These patterns are very simple to learn. Fortunately, they do not take much time, and employing them gives you the advantage needed to earn that outstanding score on the essay section of the TOEFL.

Understand this: every essay question is worded in such a way that it requires a specific manner of response. The TOEFL reviewers do not care about the personal details in your response, but they do look for coherence in your answer. For example, one question from the TOEFL could ask, “Which would you prefer, a traditional home or a modern home?” Believe me, no one cares what your personal preference is, but the scorer cares if you know that this question requires your answer to be in a comparison-contrast pattern of development. There are two different approaches to that pattern.

Now, let’s look at the process of scoring.

Scoring

The essay is graded by two people. Scores range from 0, for not answering the question you are given, to 6, the highest possible, which translates to 800. If there is a great difference between the two scores given, a third grader will be called in. Roughly speaking, if you receive a 4, you are above average.

Length

The length is 300 to 500 words. That translates to two handwritten pages or one typed page. The time limit is thirty minutes. Your time and your length all funnel into a set number of paragraphs for each type of question you could encounter. Therefore, set up the essays exactly as I have presented them, at least regarding the number of paragraphs and the number of sentences in the introduction of each type of essay.

Presentation

The book contains: (1) a general introduction to the types of patterns of development, including outlines for easy reference and fast viewing; (2) a component on punctuation; and (3) real answers to real sample essay questions. In the third section, you will be given the essay question first. Then, I will identify the type of question. Next, the possible patterns of development you may use will be listed in order of importance. For instance, if you see words such as “definition,” or “comparison-contrast,” you should first employ the definition pattern of development. If for some reason you are blank about how to do that, you can use the comparison-contrast pattern of development. In addition, if you get halfway through the essay and go blank, you could rely on your back-up pattern of development, which is comparison-contrast here, for an additional paragraph. The key is to look at the right words in the question itself and proceed from there.

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