City Life and Entertainment

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in a big city and in a small town/village? Support your opinion with specific examples. 2. Choose any two kinds of public transportation and compare their pros and cons. Which is more expensive, convenient, fast, etc.? Which do you usually use? Which is more popular? city3. One of your friends plans to move to your town/city/village. Tell him/her the positive sides of living in your...

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Writing Topic Type 3: Describe or Explain

In a way, this is the most difficult type of independent essay question because it doesn’t give you an A or B situation. Instead, you have to think of your own subject from a very big pool of possibilities. “What discovery in the last 100 years has been most beneficial for people in your country? Use specific reasons and examples to support your choice.” “The 21st century has begun. What changes do you think this new century will bring? Use...

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Writing Topic Type 2: View Both Sides

This is actually very similar to the “choose a side” type of essay subject, but it’s a little bit more complicated because you have to think from two different standpoints. Thankfully, it’s also not as common. Here are a few examples: “The government has announced that it plans to build a new university. Some people think that your community would be a good place to locate the university. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of establishing...

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TOEFL Writing Topic Type 1: Choose a Side

This is by far the most common type of independent writing question. These TOEFL prompts ask you to choose A or B then explain your decision. There are a couple of different approaches to writing this type of essay, but the simplest form is the “five paragraph essay.” Usually this is actually only four paragraphs, because you don’t have that much time—the test only gives you 30 minutes to complete your independent essay. So if you choose A,...

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TOEFL Writing Topics

While the TOEFL is generally a very different type of test from the GRE, the GMAT, and the SAT, there are a few similarities, and the writing section is one of them. As with most standardized tests, the TOEFL asks you to write an essay. Well, it asks for two essays, actually — one is about a reading and a lecture (which you’ll summarize), and the second is more open-ended. Let’s look at the questions that you might see for that second TOEFL...

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