谢振礼
TOEFL Topic
Test of Written English
Is it more 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.
【托福写作原创范文】
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. The achievements of a football team are the results of the combined effort of each individual. Wearing the same shirts doesn't make players a team, but the ability to work together toward a common goal can make a difference.
To be able to work with a group of people is essential. It's the ability to direct individual accomplishment toward team objectives. Team means together everyone achieves more. Needless to say that individuality counts, but working together works wonders. Teamwork provides the feeling of coming together, sharing together, working together and succeeding together. That feeling also suggests believing in each other and always having others on the same side and having none to blame. It's so different from working as an individual, however capable a person might be.
In real life, the power of teamwork is to join individual commitments to a group effort--that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, and a civilization work. As a general result, teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success. Without teamwork, it's virtually impossible for people to reach the heights of their capabilities or make the money that they want to make unless they know how to work together like an orchestra. All organization success stories are teamwork stories.
There is another meaning behind teamwork. A team member must accept less individuality without thinking about who gets the credit. Again, it's like a football club. It's one thing getting good players, but it's quite another thing getting them to play together with a common vision. None of the players is better than all of them. It's less "me" but more "we," as if everyone is needed but no one is necessary. The logic is that none of us is better than all of us. Or, teamwork may be also like an orchestra. No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.
