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How international students should tackle the AWA and the E-rater.
The conventions
for the AWA can be summarized in a single statement: written English
requires that each paragraph be developed directly away from a topic
(or thesis) sentence or directly towards a topic (or thesis) sentence.
The former is known as deductive development; the latter is known
as inductive development. Since this is the case for all English written
prose it should be obvious that writers in English have less freedom
to wander from the main point of their discourse than writers in other
languages. English expository prose style must be direct and to
the point even though it is necessary to support each main idea
with examples, explanations, and illustrations. The thesis (or topic
sentence) must contain the germ of the idea that permeates the entire
paragraph. Each example or illustration must be connected to that
idea with transitional markers such as for example, thus,
or moreover.
The E-rater speaks "American."
Your essays
should be written in "American", not "English".
Phrases that are more commonly spoken in English (indeed, hence, etc..)
are less common in an American writing style. Phrases that are commonly
spoken in English are unlikely to be picked up by the E-rater, which
picks up phrases used among high scorers (who are overwhelmingly American).
Students from
the U.K., Hong Kong, India and other Commonwealth nations should adjust
their syntax, style and language to better suit the flavor of English
used in America. That is the language of the E-rater. Avoid any local
jargon or particularly any unusual transitional phrases (e.g. "heretofore").
Got that mate? In addition, the human graders are overwhelmingly American
and will have an easier time with arguments written in American.
Beware of words that have a non-American spelling:
"evidense" = evidence
"organisation"= organization
The best solution
to writing in the appropriate style is to read all
of our sample essays. You should also familiarize yourself with
American scholarly journals to see how American writers structure
arguments.
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