Giải đề Achieve IELTS – Test 4 – Listening Part 3

You will hear a student, Alex, asking his tutor for advice about essay writing.

Tutor: Hi, Alex, come in. I gather you wanted some help with writing essays.

Alex: Yes. I’m finding this first term difficult and I’m worried about the assignments we have to do for January.

Tutor: Well, let me see if I can help. You shouldn’t panic about it because essay writing is a very straightforward process really. What it involves is organising the information that you want to include. You shouldn’t have more than you can easily manage within the word count. Make sure you haven’t got too much or anything irrelevant. You need to look at that and work out what you need and what you don’t need before you start. And then you just have to think about how you’re going to put forward your argument.

Alex: Oh, that sounds very straightforward when you put it like that. But I’m worried I haven’t got the necessary skills for writing an effective essay because English is my second language.

Tutor: Well, perhaps you misunderstand the skills you need. You need to be able to analyse your data and then I would say the skills of interpretation and expressing yourself are important. Perhaps it’s this last one that bothers you, but the more essays you write, the more you will develop these skills.

Alex: Yes and I don’t quite know how to improve at that — though as you  say, I know practice will help. And I need to make sure I’ve got everything ready before I start.

Tutor: Yes. What is vital to good essay writing is preparation so make sure you build in enough time to do the research you need.

Alex: Are there any other sources I can use to help me with essays?

Tutor: Yes. You should go to the library and look through the reference section because there are books that focus on the style we use in academic writing and those will help you a lot. The other thing that you should think about is, what happens when you’ve actually written your essay. Too many students just complete their work and hand it in, whereas what you should be doing is making sure that you edit it as thoroughly as possible.

Alex: Oh, yes. That’s a good idea. Then I’d pick up any mistakes and also see if it reads logically.

Tutor: Exactly. The other thing is, again, what a lot of students do is get their essays back, look at the marks, then just file it away. They don’t seem to realise that if they checked it through and looked at what the tutor had written, then they can learn from their old essays.

Alex: Yeah, I can see that’s a good idea.

Tutor: So, is that OK? You can always come back to me.

Alex: Actually, there were a couple of other things I wanted to ask you about essay writing. I had had a few thoughts of my own about what I should do such as really taking good notes when I’m reading because that helps, doesn’t it?

Tutor: I think it improves your knowledge rather than your actual writing. But one tip I can give you is to try and not read too much, otherwise you end up including irrelevant material in your essay. Remember to stay on task.

Alex: Yes, sometimes I have problems interpreting the questions correctly, or the whole question seems overwhelming to me. What I try to do is highlight the key parts and divide it into smaller chunks, so I can manage it.

Tutor: Well, you might find it useful to break it down even further by makings sure you understand all the words perfectly before you start. Things like ‘assess’ or ‘comment’ and such like.

Alex: Yes, I see.

Tutor: Sometimes, after an objective analysis, the question actually asks you for a subjective opinion, but you must remember to support your arguments, if that’s the case. One final comment I can make is about using your own words — you must try to do this as far as possible. You’re expected to summarise what you’ve read not just string together a list of quotations. In fact. you shouldn’t have too many — just use them where it’s really important.

Alex: OK, thanks.

Tutor: Do you read other student’s essays when you’ve finished?

Alex: No. Why? Is that a good idea?

Tutor: Well, you can confuse each other so I’d advise against it — but it’s up to you.

Alex: OK. Thanks very much … (fade) …