13559 Honest
TOEFL Essay Topic
Being Honest with Your Friends
Example Writing by Jeenn Lee Hsieh
ielts360toefl@hotmail.com 谢振礼
TOEFL Independent Writing Topic:
>Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? "It is impossible to be completely honest with your friends all the time."
Use specific examples and examples or details (based on your knowledge or experience) to support your answer.
>"Should friends be honest with each other, even if a truthful comment could be hurtful?" Use specific reasons and examples or details (based on your knowledge or experience) to support your answer.
Sample Essay by Jeenn Lee Hsieh:
Sometimes the necessity of white lies may just underline the impossibility of being 100 percent honest with all the friends all the time. As a general rule, you would think that it is the best policy to tell nothing more and nothing less than the truth, but there might be exceptions to that rule. Under certain circumstances, therefore, it can be argued that the issue is not only a matter of policy but also a matter of right or wrong.
On the one hand, the importance of always being completely honest with your friends cannot be over-emphasized as real friendship is built on mutual trust, almost blindly. It is because honesty between friends is what is going to maintain relationships. Often friends need each other for a piece of a good advice or an intelligent opinion, so naturally they ought to tell each other only the truth and nothing but the truth. To illustrate, a trust-worthy friend is supposed to be someone who tells the truth even when you do not want to hear it, and who does not lie even even when a truthful comment could be hurtful. This kind of friends tell the truth to your face, and not behind your back. From this viewpoint, it is advisable to tell the absolute truth, not because being honest can get you a lot of friends, but because it gets you the best ones.
On the other hand, being completely honest with all the friends all the time is easier said than done. Although it is a fine thing to be absolutely honest with your friends, it is also important to make sure whether you are doing the right thing (or the wrong thing). For example, the best friends care for each other so much that they might rightfully choose to hide the truth or part of it at some critical point if they think that the consequence might be too painful to be humanly bearable. Probably for love's sake, this situation is somewhat paradoxical: while it is mostly right to be entirely honest, it is not wrong sometimes to turn to telling a white lie. In this case, worthy of noting is that those who think that it is permissible to keep telling white lies frequently to their friends soon become 'color-blind'. After all, white lies do happen in the adult society; and, to quote Socrates,"a completely honest person is always a small child".
To conclude, being honest with friends should be the rule whereas, as long as the situation can be justified, 'white lies' out of love at heart could be considered as exceptions. Strictly speaking, telling a white lie is a means to avoid being extremely brutal, so it is impossible to be always completely honest with friends. Perhaps between friends some truth is not meant to be told face-to-face, here and now, which leaves only two ways of telling the complete truth: anonymously and posthumously. (Essay created by Jeenn Lee Hsieh, 谢振礼 ielts360toefl@hotmail.com pigai zuowen)
Writing Step-by-step: Multi-paragraph Practice@Jeenn Lee Hsieh
This is a study program, designed by Jeenn Lee Hsieh, to respond to essay questions and writing prompts on standardized tests such as IELTS or TOEFL. Many students become anxious when faced with a multi-paragraph writing task because they have difficulty deciding what to write in the Introduction, Body Paragraphs, and Conclusion.
Jeenn Lee Hsieh will address the independent writing task by dividing the components of an essay into smaller, more manageable parts--step by step.
Be methodical and logical: the three main parts of a four-paragraph (opinion) essay are Conclusion, Body (Paragraphs A and B), Conclusion.
1>Introduction: Say what you are going to say to answer the essay question.
Thesis
Focus
Signposts A and B
2>Body Paragraph A: Say (your Opinion) A with evidence.
Topic Sentence (Signpost A)
Supporting Sentences (Examples and Details or explanations)
3>Body Paragraph B: Say (your Opinion) B with evidence.
Topic Sentence (Signpost B)
Supporting Sentences (Examples and Details or explanations)
4>Conclusion: Say what you have said.
Signposts A and B
Focus
Thesis
>Please take a moment to answer all of the questions below, if you want to receive @ writing preparation materials from Jeenn Lee Hsieh:
When is your next IELTS or TOEFL exam?
What are your goal scores? (reading/listening/speaking/writing)
What is your name?
Where are you from?
If you have taken the IELTS or TOEFL before, please indicate when your last test was and what your scores in each section were.
Do you have someone check your writing carefully with feedback?
@Notes for Chinese-speaking students:
》论说文的三件事：【立场】=Position, 【支持】=Support, 【抽象】=Abstract Ideas
立场 产生主题 (主题Thesis--焦点Focus--指标Signposts)
支持 支持主题(理由Reasons--例子Examples--细节Details)
抽象 属于意见(不是事实。既然是意见，则需要论证)Opinions, Not Facts
》论说文的三部分：【引言】=起。【主体】=承+转。【结论】=合。
引言Introduction 申论主题 集中焦点 话分两头 (Say what you are going to say.)
主体Body A and B 两段对应 分头论证 支持主题 (Say it, with evidence.)
结论Conclusion 二合为一 还原焦点 重申主题 (Say what you have said.)
》前呼后应：【引言】前呼 【结论】后应; Introduction and Conclusion--each has the other in mind.
起=引言 话题范围 由宽而细 (起中有合--主题Thesis 焦点Focus 指标SignpostsA+B)
合=结论 话题范围 由细而宽 (合中有起--指标Signposts A+B 焦点Focus 主题Thesis)
》话分两头：分头论证 (中体承段A 中体转段B)
承段指标=Topic Sentence 意见Opinion指标Signpost A(+举例说明Examples+细节补充Details)
转段指标=Topic Sentence 意见Opinion指标Signpost B(+举例说明Examples+细节补充Details)
