GRE作文6分教学博客

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报名报名，时间紧迫。3.15的GRE一战!

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DINGDINGDINGDING!!!

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2月12考的，作文4分。这个文档包括我自己写的一些练习作文，和其他地方搜集来的范文（主要是寄托王老师），希望对大家有点帮助。

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2月12号北美考的GRE，写作成绩刚刚出来，4分。不算什么高分，但是按王老师的要求，还是想分享下经验，希望能对正在备考的也许和我当时一样绝望的同学们有点帮助。
关于issue：
我最怕的就是issue，因为没话可说。尤其碰到了GRE issue那些关于政府，心理，社会，艺术之类虚无缥缈的题目，更是除了我同意，或者我不同意就憋不出什么理由了。越是怕作文越是不想准备，一直拖到最后一个月左右才不得不动手。这时备考时间已经比较紧迫，加上自己惰性强，没有办法也没有动力按那些备考建议说的每篇作文都列自己的提纲，写50篇左右全文，再计时什么的。由于我想申请的学校对作文的要求是3.5，所以我的策略就是argument争取4到5，issue只要2到3就满足了。考前一周仔细拜读了一下OG上的范文，研究了评分标准之后，自我安慰说issue只要不跑题，有一定字数就有2分了，剩下的借鉴一下北美范文和寄托上王老师和同学们的范文思路差不多就有3分了。我做的就是按照王老师的分类做了一个excel表格，每个类别占一页，然后把每类里的题目都列出来，旁边一栏写上自己的观点和论点，再一栏贴上别人的范文。自己没有观点的从别人的范文里借鉴观点。有的时候受范文启发可以自己想出些类似的例子，比如关于政府是否应该重点资助大城市，王老师的范文中用了纽约的自由女神做例子。我就把这个替换成巴黎的埃弗尔铁塔，这样也勉强过关。当初设想的理想状态是每个题目列个提纲，每大类里写个2，3篇全文，可惜没有实现。

关于argument：
我认为argument的问题不是很大，因为毕竟有话可说，题目又不出题库，就像看故事找茬一样还挺有意思的。我先自己找逻辑错误，列出很多条，但是后来看了王老师的范文后，觉得我自己写的那种形式太散，不够整合。后期又按照王老师的1+3模式把大部分题目的逻辑错误按错误的方面重新整合了一下。比如22题，这个题可说的点比较多，我刚开始的做法是一点一段，结构很松散，后来研究王老师的范文觉得那些点可以归纳成几个大方面，结构就清晰了。整合之后的思路就变成了这样：
分析过程：题目问需要提什么问题来决定推论和建议是有道理的，这些问题如何帮助评价建议。应该提的问题应该围绕三个方面：

1.作弊现象到底有没有减少？

1.1 作弊的比例是提高了还是降低了？需要学生数量

1.2 学生能否遵守承诺不作弊

1.3 学生能否有效地检测到作弊现象

2.为什么报告的作弊案例少了？

2.1 可能学生迫于peer pressure，不上告

2.2 可能入学学生少了

2.3 可能学校同时采取了其他措施比如监控器，加重惩罚等

3.这种做法能否推广到其他学校？

3.1 也许G校学生没有很大的好成绩的压力或者对考试准备比较充分，其他学校不然

3.2 也许G校学生老师认同这个honor code，其他不然
临近考试又练习了一些开头和结尾，总结了一些可以用到自己作文里的句子，就没有时间了，只好自我安慰题型都是差不多的。我的准备工作同样是做了一个excel表格，每个题目旁边写自己的提纲，再旁边贴上别人光辉的范文。我看其他同学写提纲都喜欢变换句式，这样是很好，但是应试也可以有应试的诀窍。在考试时考官只看到你的一篇文章，练习太多的模版容易到考场上太激动不知道该用哪套了，反而浪费时间。我练习的时候就一直在用一种模式。开头就是一成不变的the author argues…, 每段开头都是一样的to begin with, in addition, finally,结尾就是in conclusion.王老师的1+3模式很好用，尤其是开头简直完美地符合了OG6分的标准，统领全文的样板。不过我一般写的时候都是边想边写，没有像很多其他人那样先列好提纲，想好了才动笔。所以我的开头先写一个一般通用的，然后写完中间部分了再回过头来把那几点填到开头里。比如第5题，我开头会写成“The author of the letter suggests that Balmer Island should restrict number of rental mopeds during summer and predicts that such action can reduce 50% accidents citing a similar case on Seaville Island. However, a number of questions have to be answered in order to better evaluate the recommendation.“ 然后写完中间部分再把那几点填回来，变成 “The author of the letter suggests that Balmer Island should restrict number of rental mopeds during summer and predicts that such action can reduce 50% accidents citing a similar case on Seaville Island. However, a number of questions have to be answered about cause of accidents, soundness of the recommendation, consequences of such restriction on Seaville Island and comparability between two islands
in order to better evaluate the recommendation.“

关于备考材料：
1.新GRE作文5.5
准备作文初期看很多人谈论一本书叫做新GRE作文5.5.我把issue的部分都看了一遍，觉得有点太空泛了。它建议就是所有的题目都要正反两面论证，这样的好处就是避免了无话可说，还能增加论点的复杂性。但是把握不好的话有可能会给人造成观点不鲜明的感觉。我花了很多时间在这本书上，但是看过之后脑子里没什么印象，再次看到题目还是一片空白。
2.北美范文
这个是针对老GRE的，也有很多和新GRE的重复。我把一样的范文找出来贴在我的excel表里，瞻仰一下人家流畅的文笔，摘录一下观点。
3.拯救我的GRE issue
看了整本5.5之后还是无话可说的我已经到了绝望的地步，于是再次上网搜材料，找到了这本。我从历史那篇细细地拜读，读了一段时间觉得没什么启发，但由于很多人推崇，也不敢轻易跳过一份可能有用的材料，于是考前2天又迅速地过了一下其他的素材，就是只看汉语的小标题，看到可能自己能用得上的部分浏览一下具体内容。看完的感觉就是像在读一本定义，完全没有可以用到自己文章里的东西。也有可能是我刷的太快，精华的部分跳过去了。有时间的同学可以看一下。
4.王老师的范文和寄托论坛上同学们的提纲
离考试很近的时候才发现这个论坛。当看到论坛上王老师贴的整篇范文的时候我几乎泪流满面啊。我虔诚地把所有的范文都贴到我的excel里，提炼观点，模仿写作套路。看王老师和同学们的讨论很有启发，有几个关键词被不断提到，就是分类讨论，细化问题，思想实验。于是到了没话可说的时候我就试着分类，比如教育方面分成小学初中大学类简直对任何题目都适用。我尝试着写了几篇教育方面的，后来由于懒和没时间，就主要观摩了。如果能像有些同学那样自己认真写提纲，和王老师讨论的话效果肯定会更好，惭愧。
OG和PPII范文
官方的文章，当然要仔细拜读。OG上的5分6分文章都很好，可是PPII的范文我真没觉得好到哪里去。尤其有一篇说要培养年轻人的合作能力还是竞争力的6分范文让我很不理解，一看开头我以为他写跑题了呢，说什么历史的意义，太能扯了，我等凡人是绝对不敢扯这么远的。

暂时能想到的就这么多，感谢有耐心看完的同学们。祝愿考GRE的同学们都取得好成绩，申请到理想的学校。

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issue部分的excel在此。抱歉这里面没有太多原创内容，我犹豫了一阵子到底要不要上传，怕玷污了大家的眼。思来想去还是传上来吧，起码能起到一个归纳总结的作用。这里面总结了北美范文，寄托上王老师和一些同学的范文和提纲，新GRE5.5上的一些思路还有忘记了从哪个论坛上找到的一个同学的思路。希望对同学们有一点点帮助。

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https://bbs.gter.net/thread-1796462-1-1.html  

考试时间：11.1
AW分数：4.0
考试题目：
Issue：19. Governments should focus on solving the immediate problems of today rather than on trying to solve the anticipated problems of the future
考场上大概是这样写的：大多数情况下应该着眼于未来的问题，只关注紧急的问题可能导致将来更多问题的出现，例如只注重眼前的经济发展，忽视了未来的环境问题与社会问题（各一段）；但在特殊情况下应全力解决紧急的问题，如战争时保护人民安全是最重要的，特殊手段带来的问题可以暂不考虑。
Argument：83
大概考之前三周的时候参加了王老师的作文小组，但最后一周因为发现V实在太差了又跑回去花很多精力准备verbal了，所以真正专心准备作文的时间大概是两周。但是通过王老师的批改和意见，还是有很多收获，包括发现了自己之前思路上的盲点。如果有更多时间的话，相信会有更好的成绩。GRE写作其实是一个特别好的锻炼思维的过程，不仅是考试，对以后写论文也很有帮助。从长远来看，可以说花多少时间在这上面都不为过。不过我个人的经历是“突击”型的，以下的反思和感想也许对备考时间紧张的同学会有帮助，如果时间充裕，还是扎扎实实打好基础的好~
我认为issue的写作大概可以分成三步，按照王老师“1+3”的方法，第一步是写总起句。这一步其实很难的，但也有一些固定的思维套路可循。第二步是论证，也就是通常的举例子。第三步是用英文表达出来。
关于第一步，“分类讨论”是一个特别有用的方法。譬如像issue19，我之前的思路大概是关注当下有什么好处（或坏处），关注长远有什么好处（或坏处），所以要两者兼顾。但其实这样并没有回答题目的问题。稍微转换一下角度，就可以写成分类讨论的形式，即什么时候应该关注当下，什么时候应该考虑长远。分类讨论的思路尤其适用于没话说的时候，把一个问题分解成几个方面讲，能说的自然就多了。比较典型的是写教育类的话题，很多都可以分成自然科学、社会科学、人文学科来讨论。总起句是值得反复打磨的，基本上总起句写完了，一篇文章的结构也就确定了。王老师推荐1+3用英文写，我觉得时间紧或者基础不是很好的话，一开始1+3都用中文也可以，思路和表达其实是可以并行训练的，读得多了写得多了自然表达就提高了，刚开始可以不用在表达上花太多时间。（更重要的是，经常费了很大力气写了个自以为漂亮的总起句，但发到版上后发现思路有问题，漂亮的句子也白写了>_<）
关于第二步，之前比较习惯的举例方法就是名人事迹，但论证其实不限于举例，甚至举例也不仅限于名人事迹，这大概是我之前思维的一个盲点吧。例如教育类的话题，完全可以举身边同学的例子，只要合情合理就可以；甚至不举例子，给出理由证明分论点即可。另外有一些比较有意思的新闻也可以做例子，一是新鲜有意思，二是表达也可以借鉴原文的表达方式。例如我考试之前看到一则新闻说有人研制出了一种“营养液”，可以代替吃饭，但时间长了可能会导致牙齿的退化。就可以作为科技类的例子，对于很多有关科技发达、生活节奏快等的题目都可以用。
关于第三步，虽然很靠积累，但也有一些途径可以“迅速积累”。我之前考的雅思，比较推荐慎小嶷的《十天突破雅思写作》，里面有各个主题常用的表述可以参考，还有常用的同义词替换、高分词汇等，都是见过但自己写总是想不起来的，每种背几个，瞬间觉得写的句子也高大上了些。雅思写作也是突击准备了不到一周，后来拿到7，这本书帮助很大。另外就是在阅读时积累好的表达，推荐economist和aldaily网站上的，个人觉得aldaily比economist“好词好句”更多些。
另外推荐我用到的一些辅助工具：
1. 一个倒计时的小工具，其他帖子也提到过，王老师好像也推荐过。比较好的地方是把相似的题目做了分类，方便准备。 新G-AW倒计时练习.rar (38.88 KB, 下载次数: 0)
2. 王老师推荐过的一个语料库 需要注册，但是是免费的。好处是对于拿不准的表述可以看看有没有人用过。另外可以用来搜索动词、介词搭配，经常各种介词不知道该用哪个，参考一下搜索到的例句就比较有数了。而且结果分为学术、口语、杂志等等几类，如果发现某种表述大多出现在口语中，学术很少见，那么最好也就不要在GRE写作里使用了。
3. 大多数人大概用的是韦氏字典吧，我个人比较喜欢lingoes+牛津高阶词典，界面比韦氏更清楚，而且提供了很多固定搭配，对于特别常见的错误以及易混词还有提醒，这一点很有用~
最后非常感谢王老师组织这个小组，从中受益很多，也很期待王老师的研究结果，相信会很有现实意义。祝准备GRE的同学都能收获好的成绩~

tesolchinaUID??2191404

https://bbs.gter.net/thread-1763886-1-1.html
虽然分数一般，但还是给大家参考一下。
从寄托获得很多，十分感谢各位版主和同学。

一、背景

五年前英语六级560 三年前托福104

二、时间及分配

2014年2月-8月，在职
背单词+填空（2个月） 阅读（2个月）作文、数学、模考（2个月）

三、完成工作

单词：3000（每天）+红宝（后期弃）+magoosh 1000+Manhattan 1000（10遍）+verbal advantage（看一遍听三遍）
填空：magoosh（两遍）
阅读：吴中东（两遍+层次分析）+36套（一遍）+economics 400字文章（约200篇，阅读+回忆）+LSAT prep test 40篇
逻辑：逻辑10套
数学：OG，猴哥难题, magoosh math
模考：Manhattan 6套（V160-164,Q160-166)，PPII 2套 (V164, Q166; V157, Q169)
作文：issue 85个topic中，60个英文提纲，30篇全文练习；argument 题目过两遍，85个中文简要提纲，25个高频全文练习。


四、感想

1. 在职

在职意味着要放弃很多，包括应酬、娱乐等。
管理好时间：我的学习时间是下班后6：30-2：30。
分享一个在职备考的励志贴：https://bbs.gter.net/thread-1604684-1-1.html

2. 他人经验

向最优秀的人学习，但一般自己最多只能做到50%，那也足够。
有困难时，再看看别人的失败经验。
每个人不同，别人一个月可以，不代表你也可以，给自己充足的时间和详细的计划吧。

3. 一些谬误的纠正


1) V上160不难，随便准备一下就行。

如果你一直都是大量英文阅读，裸考都行。如果不是，就请好好准备。

2) V上160很难，有些人就是考不到。

任何人只要努力都可以的，相信自己。

为什么有人无法考到160？

时间安排不足：总是想找捷径，想快速突破。
阅读工作量不足：很多人只做36套是不行的，吴中东和economics是必须的。
自制力、注意力有待提升。

3) 阅读只需要做题就可以。

如果可以，那是因为这个人阅读量已经足够。
初期和中期做题可以提升分数，但到了V160就会发现，限制自己无法达到165的不是做题技巧，而是阅读实力。
只有大量阅读英文原文才能提升英文实力，这是我没有做到的地方。

4) Q随便准备一下都可以满分。

看看我的Q分数就知道了T_T

5) 作文随便搞搞就行了。

因人而异。
如果你想申请的项目和我一样，写明“GRE AW is very important"，那就需要悲剧得认真准备作文了。

个人认为，GRE最难的就是作文，提升非常困难。
但是，没有认真准备过AW的人，就没有完整地体会到GRE的真谛。如果你认真准备了，你才会懂我的意思。
作文的网络资源质量参差不齐，请大家谨慎对待。

任何事情，不是付出就会有回报。但是没有付出，就一定没有回报。

最后，祝大家都梦想成真。

ee_stoneUID??3573213

tesolchina 发表于 2015-2-23 16:25
https://bbs.gter.net/thread-1763886-1-1.html
虽然分数一般，但还是给大家参考一下。
从寄托获得很多， ...

表示每天搞到2点半做不到啊做不到...

最后一个月争取每天9点到12点吧...

tesolchinaUID??2191404

好久没写了  
从issue 第一道开始

1) As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

There is no doubt that modern people have become increasingly dependent on advanced technologies to solve many problems in different fields. Whether or not our abilities to think independently would deteriorate over time depends on the specific roles we play in the modern society. For people who develop the technologies to solve problems, their abilities to think will be sharpened continuously as they have to refine the technologies to meet new demands of the end users. For people who participate in the policy making regarding the use of technologies, their thinking capabilities will also improve as they are forced to ponder on the fundamental problems related to technology and society. Nevertheless, the statement may hold true for those people who do not actively seek opportunities for critical and creative thinking in this technology-driven society.  

Consider the scientists and engineers who are responsible for developing the theoretical and practical aspects of the new technologies. It is true that they also rely on technologies to solve their problems in research and product developments. But they also rely on their own thinking abilities to solve problems in their works.  For example, software engineers of mobile apps rely on the mobile programming platforms to develop the apps as the platform can help the engineers to visualize the user interface of the apps.  The computers they use can also collect and analyze the user data for the software engineers to better understand how the users behave in response to different app design decisions. But ultimately, no computer softwares can replace the engineers in solving the key problems such as how to attract more users and how to improve the quality of user experiences. If the engineers are to improve the mobile apps, they still have to think by themselves to decide how to improve the design by taking into account the data provided by different tools. Likewise, the computer scientists are challenged to optimize the algorithms used in different programs to reduce the time required to run the programs. Sophisticated computer programs such as Matlab can help the scientists to simulate different algorithms and get data on their computational performance. But the computer scientists have to think by themselves to tweet the mathematical models and develop more efficient algorithms.  

The development of new technologies also challenge those people responsible for formulating policies and rules regulating the use of technologies. The popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter presents a wide variety of social problems such as cyberbullying, hacking and privacy violation that call for the introduction of new rules and policies.  Government officials, legislators and experts in relevant fields have to work together to address these issues through developing more sophisticated policies and laws. For example, Facebook has now gathered a staggeringly large amount of data about its users in digital forms and used the data to to make profits in many different ways. To address issues like these, the policy makers will of course rely on the state-of-the-art technologies for communications such as email, video conferencing and even Facebook to collect feedback from the users and data from different sources. They may also rely on statistical software packages such as SPSS to analyze the data.  But the technologies can never make the decisions for them. They still have to think about these issues from different perspectives and come up with their own decisions. As a result, for these policy makers, this statement does not hold true, either.

The concern that reliance on technology to solving problems may lead to the deterioration of thinking abilities is more valid for the people who do not have the opportunities to think creatively and critically as a result of technological development. For example, as TVs become prevalent, people rely on this technologies for news, entertainment or even baby-sitting. As TV offers a multimedia stream of news, there is no need to read newspaper critically and make one’s own decisions. As TV episodes brings people amusement 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, people do not have to think about what to do to live a meaningful and fulfilling life.  As TV can keep the children busy and occupied for hours, parents do not need to think about how to develop interesting and creative activities for their children.  For the people who rely on TV or similar technologies to solve the problems in their daily life, they may gradually lose the abilities to develop more creative solutions through their own thinking.

Computer scientists and programmers like to say, “There are two kinds of people: those who know binary numbers and those who don’t.” Likewise, in the age of technology, there are also two kinds of people: those who think about issues related to technologies and those who let technologies to think for them. For the former, the development of technologies will stimulate them to think more and their abilities to think will grow over time. As for the latter group, their abilities to think for themselves are likely to decline as the technologies have deprived them of the opportunities to think.  

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4) Scandals are useful because they focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.  


这道题实在不好写，勉强写了一篇，感觉还行。

With the development of modern mass media, scandals are almost ubiquitous.  Hardly can a day go by without some news reporting scandals involving high-profiles politicians, athletes or movie stars.  While it is true that scandals often attract public attention and may expose certain problems, I do not believe that they are useful in solving social problems as they often focus public attention on the wrong issues and can hardly maintain public attention for a sufficiently long time. After elaborating these two points, I will also address the argument that scandals can usefully create pressure for the government to introduce reforms.  

To begin with, the attention from the public after a scandal does not necessarily focus on the right issue. Take the Clinton scandal and impeachment for example.  With the release of Starr report, the Clinton scandal has attracted the national and even international media attention. But the majority of American people seem to find it more interesting to talk about whether or not President Clinton had sex with Monica Lewinsky. They would even get into the debate over whether oral sex would count as sex. But the real issue that should capture public attention is whether or not the President had lied and still deserved the trust of American people. With the media always interested in reporting sensational news, the Clinton scandal failed to focus public attention on the right issue and therefore was not very useful for the development of American politics.

In addition, when a scandal is involved in powerful corporation, a professional public relations team will very quickly take actions to address the crisis and divert the public attention from the right issues. The oil giant BP, for example, was responsible for the oil rig explosion in 2013 and subsequent oil spill in the gulf of Mexico. During the scandal of this ecological disaster, BP hired a sophisticated PR team to launch a massive campaign to paint themselves as victims of tort law suits and shift media attention from the aftermath of the oil spill.  The large corporations like BP has the large amount of financial resources at their disposal to manipulate the media and the public opinions when necessary. As the public is often forgetful while overwhelmed by the news and scandals, it is fairly easy for them to get away from such scandals.  In other words, one cannot really rely on scandals to solve problems involving big corporations.

Some people may argue that scandals are still useful in creating pressure to push the government to reform. For example, after the scandal of Sun Zhigang, a Chinese university graduate who was tortured and killed in Guangzhou Center for the Homeless, Chinese government has abolished the institution of arresting the homeless in the large cities.  While this case leads to some desirable outcome, it is doubtful that we should count on scandals like this to reform a nation’s legal and social infrastructure. To fix the numerous problems in a modern society, the best solution is to educate the people about their rights so people can speak up against injustice when their rights are violated. We cannot just overlook the injustice in our daily life and wait for scandals to fix the problems in our society.  

In conclusion, while I acknowledge that certain scandals may eventually lead to some progress in our society, most scandals are not very useful in reforming the society as the public often focus their attention on the wrong issues and the powerful corporations can easily divert public attention through their public relations campaigns.  To achieve real progress in social development, we need better education to increase people’s awareness of their rights and their sense of justice.

妄誩UID??3566367

感谢老师的点评，根据老师点评修改的Issue 86
https://bbs.gter.net/forum.php?mo ... amp;fromuid=3566367

烦请方便时看下，再谢~

tesolchinaUID??2191404

3月的辅导纪录
原则上 我批改一篇就会要求原作者去改一篇指定同学的全文或提纲
https://www.evernote.com/l/AJCocETE4ARK3az6l-OPHs8g9giSy-FLlaE
这个纪录参加互改的同学可以看看

tesolchinaUID??2191404

field notes March 3rd 2015
I am now working with about 8 students who will take GRE writing tests in late March. I have used a spreadsheet to keep track of their writing practices, some of which are outlines and others are full practice essays. I would give feedback to some of their essays and outlines and ask them to review some other practices. This way I can do both peer review and teacher review.  I also create a wechat group for these students so we could talk to one another online. To ensure the quality of teaching, I will not take in new students into the group even though I would love to help as many students as possible. I guess the whole point of doing research is that we might generate some theoretical insights about second language writing that can be inform the practice of teaching and many more students can benefit from it. As a result, it is necessary to limit the number of students being helped each time.  

I've reviewed one argument 20 thoroughly and found that it is very important for the students to be very clear about which part of the argument they are dealing with in each middle paragraph. This seems to be a really important technique that all students should learn before they practice their arguments.  I hope more students can look at the argument 20 by 殇沫 that I reviewed via this link here: https://www.evernote.com/l/AJCocETE4ARK3az6l-OPHs8g9giSy-FLlaE

Another important point I learned today is that students need to have some good reasons in response to the issue in order to build a robust argument. 莲心~ seems to have trouble coming up with reasonable points to address the issue. It may relate to a general lack of understanding of the issue or insufficient attention paid to some key concepts in the issue. And this is a problem that has no immediate solution. Of course, I can tell the students what points they can make and even provide an example or two. But we all know the difference between giving fish and teaching how to fish. Ultimately students have to learn to come up with their own opinions that are reasonable and relatively easy to defend.  

I've been struggling over how to develop my PhD thesis. I find it intrinsically valuable to work with these students and help them become better writers and more critical thinkers. But to generate research insights from these activities and publish the work remains a challenging task. I guess I'm going to enjoy doing what I am doing here with the hope that things will come together for my PhD research.  With the firm belief that TESOL research should address practical concerns such as helping Chinese students struggling over GRE writing, I will remain optimistic that my work will lead to something valuable both practically and theoretically.

earthmmUID??3548282

tesolchina 发表于 2015-3-4 00:13
field notes March 3rd 2015
I am now working with about 8 students who will take GRE writing tests  ...

I know publishing a high impact SCI paper is important for your graduate studies and career development. However your tutoring weights far more than that because it can make changes to a person's life!  Thumb up for you!

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5) The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Balmer Island Gazette.
On Balmer Island, where mopeds serve as a popular form of transportation, the population increases to 100,000 during the summer months. To reduce the number of accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians, the town council of Balmer Island should limit the number of mopeds rented by the island's moped rental companies from 50 per day to 25 per day during the summer season. By limiting the number of rentals, the town council will attain the 50 percent annual reduction in moped accidents that was achieved last year on the neighboring island of Seaville, when Seaville's town council enforced similar limits on moped rentals.


Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

In the letter to the editor, the author argues that, in order to reduce the number of accidents involving mopeds during the summer season, the moped rental companies should be restricted to rent only 25 mopeds per day. The author refers to the success in reducing accidents in Seaville where a similar policy was adopted as the evidence to support his recommendation.  We need to answer questions about the sources of mopeds in Balmer, the causes of the accidents and the difference between Balmer and Seaville to evaluate the argument.  

To begin with, we need to know where the people get mopeds from during the summer in Balmer. The rental companies may not be the only sources of mopeds. Maybe the local residents own mopeds privately and this policy will not reduce the number of such mopeds. Perhaps some tourists will bring their own mopeds along and the policy could not prevent them from doing so. In addition, if mopeds are really fun to ride, maybe people who could not rent the mopeds will buy one, a scenario the policy could not prevent, either. We need to ask whether the majority of mopeds in Balmer are from the rental company to decide if the policy will make any difference.  

Another important question we need to ask is about the nature and the causes of the accidents. If the accidents were mainly due to the increasing number of mopeds on the street, the proposed policy for reducing the number of mopeds might be helpful. But what if the accidents were mainly due to the recklessness of a small number of mopeds riders. It makes no sense to restrict the supply for rentals when a small number of young people who rided the moped in an irresponsible way were the main causes of the accidents.  Or perhaps, certain areas in Balmer were just too crowded to ride mopeds safely and banning mopeds in such area would be a much better solution than restricting the rentals.  

It is understandable that the author would like Balmer to learn from the successful case of Seaville. But we need to answer a number of questions over how comparable Balmer and Seaville were and whether the restriction was the main cause of accident reduction. Since Balmer and Seavile are two different places with different local residents and different tourists, it is difficult to assume the policy used in Seavile will succeed in Balmer. Going back to the issue of the sources of mopeds, perhaps in Seaville most mopeds were provided by the rental companies and, as a result, the restriction on rentals was helpful. But this may not be the case for Balmer. Another possibility was that Seavile town council had launched a rigorous moped safety education campaign that was the real cause of accident reduction. Or maybe the accidents involving mopeds were reduced because fewer tourists visited Seaville last year.  After all we did not have any information about the population in Seaville.  

In general, in order to decide if the recommendation will help reduce the number of accidents, we need to collect more information to answer the questions raised above.