托福写作|托福独立写作主体段的论证与展开（上）

就托福考试的写作部分来说，主体段的论证与展开既是考官评分中的一项重要依据（ETS特别强调分论点需要 fully/well-developed），也是很多考生在准备考试时所面对的一大难点与挑战。究其原因，中国大陆大多数的考生在托福 / 雅思考试之前，所接触的几乎所有英语水平考试（高考英语、四六级英语、考研英语…）其实都没有对分论点的展开这一项要求。

举例来说：在 2016 年 12 月的大学四级英语水平测试写作部分的考题为：

Suppose you have two options upon graduation: one is to take a job in a company

and the other to go to a graduate school. You are to make a choice between the two. Write an essay to explain the reasons for your choice. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

以下是范文的主体段部分：

From a personal perspective, further education can equip me with more solid and profound knowledge for my future job, so the education in a graduate school can actually serve as a stepping stone in my future job hunting. On a community level, the experience of internship during school can also well develop my social skills of communicating and cooperating with my workmates. In a larger sense, the increasingly competitive job market is gradually raising its standards for the job hunters. Taking all these into account, the advantages seem to lie with the candidates with higher degrees.

这道四级考题与托福就题目本身而言，其实并无太大区别，然而写作方法却是天差地别，简单来说： 四级范文所给出的主体段，其实仅仅相当于托福写作中未经论证展开的三个分论点。

 “读研可以帮助我们获得更多知识；竞争日益激烈的求职市场对应届毕业生的要求更高，所以读研可以获得竞争力；以及读研期间我们依然可以通过兼职增加社交技能”，四级写作将这样的三句话拼在一起，就变成了有且仅有的一个主体段；但是在托福中，这样的三句话其实只是中间三个主体段的句话（分论点），要想完成一个段落，还有很多细节 / 例子需要补充，即题目中所要求的 Use specific details and examples to support your idea。所以，大多数中国考生在这样长期的熏陶和教育下，对于分论点的论证与展开首先就缺乏基本概念：展开什么？为什么需要展开？难道我分论点说的还不够清楚么？