2008 English Writing for Postgraduate Entrance Exam: Special Breakthrough

Author: Tian Yuying
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-02-01
Features: How to arrange the use of approximately one year of review and exam time is a common issue that many candidates feel lost in the early stages of review and hope for timely guidance. To better meet the needs of candidates, this book provides a relatively detailed writing review plan in the form of an upper part, a middle part, and a lower part. The upper part is the foundation section, intended for use from March to June, with the purpose of practicing past exam papers to solidify writing fundamentals. Chapter provides candidates with past exam papers from 1997 to 2007. We recommend that candidates, when practicing past papers, follow the time limits: 15 to 20 minutes for the short essay and 30 to 40 minutes for the long essay. For sections without short essays, candidates can independently select alternative short essay topics. Through practicing past papers, candidates can understand and experience the question-setting methods of the exam, identify their own difficulties, and gain insights. To help candidates build a solid foundation, we have provided a wealth of sentence patterns covering various aspects in Chapter 2, and in Chapters 3 and 4, we have offered writing principles and techniques, hoping to be of assistance. Strengthening writing awareness and enhancing (exam-taking skills) are the goals of the middle part. This section aims to reinforce the significance of writing by analyzing the exam syllabus and reading standardized model essays. Chapter provides targeted analysis of the exam syllabus, scoring criteria, and question types. The commentary on model essays in Chapter 2 is designed to allow candidates to carefully examine the word choice, sentence construction, and organizational strategies in the examples. Based on the author's teaching experience, many students possess a decent level of English but lack regular practice, resulting in weak writing awareness and difficulty in expressing ideas when writing. By studying model essays and learning some writing methods and techniques, candidates can certainly improve their writing skills in the short term. Expanding vocabulary and sentence structures, and attempting writing are the focus of Chapter 3. In this chapter, the author hopes candidates can complete the writing process by using the provided common writing vocabulary, topic-related vocabulary, and frequently used sentence patterns. Chapter 4 primarily introduces the writing of various application essays. Chapter 5 provides multiple essay topics and model answers for candidates to practice and reference. The goal of the lower part is to consolidate and improve, intended for use from September to the following January. As the exam approaches, candidates need practical practice at this stage. We believe that a weekly essay workload covering various question types will significantly enhance candidates' writing skills. Additionally, the author suggests that candidates should not scatter their writing randomly on paper or discard it after completion. Instead, they should write their essays in a notebook. The benefits of this approach include better preservation and the ability to review their own writing at any time, identifying areas of improvement and continuously recognizing shortcomings. Furthermore, candidates can review all their past essays during the final review phase, reinforcing knowledge and making the review process more effective.