AWA考試心得

總算考完AWA，負擔減輕一半，為了準備AWA，我又把Writing的書重翻了幾遍，挑些好文章來讀，確實幫助不少。

我抽到的Issue題目是：

(1) The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives.

(2) It is the artist, not the critic, who gives society something of lasting value."

Argument:

The following appeared in a local newspaper. "People should not be misled by the advertising competition between Coldex and Cold-Away, both popular over-the-counter cold medications that anyone can purchase without a doctor's prescription. Each brand is accusing the other of causing some well-known, unwanted side effect: Coldex is known to contribute to existing high blood pressure and Cold-Away is known to cause drowsiness. But the choice should be clear for most health-conscious people: Cold-Away has been on the market for much longer and is used by more hospitals than is Coldex. Clearly, Cold-Away is more effective."

Issue我選擇歷史那一題，因為前一天準備考試剛好蒐集到許多歷史事件的名稱，剛好可以用在這一題上，寫Issue的原則就是：能夠寫出很多examples的題目對作答比較有利。考前一天我準備到的歷史相關題材有：the Holocaust, the Nazis,Thomas Jefferson (美國第三任總統), Madison, Lincoln, Greek politics, Lenin, Gandhi, people from below(歷史研究應以大眾人民為主), the Great French Revolution等，其他則憑國高中學到的歷史盡量作答。作文要有Organization，所以寫作要想辦法把例子用在合適的地方，用以支持論點。

我個人覺得我的論點(thesis, topic sentences)有出來而且寫得不錯，但支持的部分考完之後總覺得可以換種寫法會更有說服力。

這題Argument能發揮的地方好像不多，寫起來總覺得不太踏實，但幸好事前我盡量準備一些可以套用的句型，希望可以靠句型和文章結構多賺一點分數。

事先準備一些漂亮的句型然後用這些句型練造句，對實際考試幫助很大，一來可以節省時間，二來可以寫出漂亮句子，畢竟評分的指標有sentence variety和sophisticated sentence structure，練句型的投資報酬率很高，應為可以是用在每一種題目上，我覺得是個很重要的準備方向。