My first essay

[Jackofknives]

Dear all,

With my very first post, I'd like to briefly introduce myself. I'm a college student planning to sit for the TOEFL in about 3 weeks from now. I still don't know much about how the whole thing works but I'm trying my best.

I'm not a big talker and not at all opinionated and find it difficult sometimes to construct an essay in a subject that I know little about since I'm quit a nerd. (for example, I can talk for hours about medicine but speechless for anything else) So bare with me here and hopefully I get better at this.

I spent 45 min on the following essay, which is 15 min overdue and that plain sucks. It is however my very first TOEFL essay so please rate it.

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Q: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
Always telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship.
Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

The foundation of every relationship, whether it is marriage, friendship or work relations, is based upon mutual trust and respect. Does telling a lie violates such trust and is telling the truth always the right approach to every situation?

When I was young, my mother told me to never lie. I never appreciated the wisdom behind this preaching since lying has almost always got me out of trouble. That is until I got into high school. As a student who did not apply himself, I preferred to work as little as possible and chose to hand in a coursework that I found on the Internet. I have thus committed the most serious crime in academia – lying. Surely, my teacher has availed my felony and this has led to the ultimate punishment, distrust. If I could not be trusted now, how can I be trusted in the future, and how can you be certain that my previous work was honest? I had to work infinitely harder to regain this trust, and from then on I learned that lying does not pay off.

The same principle applies in marriage and friendship. As human beings, we tend to seek the easy way out and lying is exactly that. Whether it is fuelled by pretentiousness, pride, embarrassment or any sort of gain, lying seems like the shortcut for avoiding any problem, internally and externally. However, as one lie leads another, this fragile construct of card tower eventually crushes down and you end up in a worse situation. One the other hand, telling the truth, painful as it sometimes may be, displays a sense of honesty, and provides the chance of forgiveness in the worst situations. If the marriage or friendship cannot sustain the truth, then maybe this union is not worth maintaining.

Is telling the truth always the right thing to do and can a white lie sometimes do more good than harm? A white lie would be a lie that causes relatively little discord if it were uncovered. For example, telling your wife that she does not look fat in those jeans even if she did is probably a wise choice that will save you from a never-ending conflict and a sleepless night on the couch. On the other hand, if the lie was uncovered, you end up in the same situation as you would otherwise if you were to tell the truth. Thus it is a win-win situation. I therefore fully endorse the act of telling white lies.

In conclusion, we should have more confidence on each other that we can handle the truth because it is the very construct of any relationship as it shows a sense of trust and respect. This is especially true in difficult situations, when the chips are down and the going gets tough, telling the truth is almost always the right thing to do. However, telling a white lie now and then is harmless.

TOEFL listening lectures: A university science lecture on Island Biogeography

[Kitosdad]

Dear all,

With my very first post, I'd like to briefly introduce myself. I'm a college student planning to sit for the TOEFL in about 3 weeks from now. I still don't know much about how the whole thing works but I'm trying my best.

I'm not a big talker and not at all opinionated and find it difficult sometimes to construct an essay in a subject that I know little about since I'm quit a nerd. (for example, I can talk for hours about medicine but speechless for anything else) So bare with me here and hopefully I get better at this.

I spent 45 min on the following essay, which is 15 min overdue and that plain sucks. It is however my very first TOEFL essay so please rate it.

------

Q: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
Always telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship.
Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

The foundation of every relationship, whether it is marriage, friendship or work relations, is based upon mutual trust and respect. Does telling a lie VIOLATE such trust(,) and is telling the truth always the right approach to every situation?

When I was young, my mother told me to never lie. I never appreciated the wisdom behind this preaching since lying has almost always got me out of trouble. That is until I got into high school. As a student who did not apply himself, I preferred to work as little as possible and chose to hand in a coursework that I found on the Internet. I have thus committed the most serious crime in academia – lying. Surely, my teacher has availed my felony and this has led to the ultimate punishment, distrust. If I could not be trusted now, how can I be trusted in the future, and how can you be certain that my previous work was honest? I had to work infinitely harder to regain this trust, and from then on I learned that lying does not pay off.

The same principle applies in marriage and friendship. As human beings, we tend to seek the easy way out and lying is exactly that. Whether it is fuelled by pretentiousness, pride, embarrassment or any sort of gain, lying seems like the shortcut for avoiding any problem, internally and externally. However, as one lie leads another, this fragile constructION of A card tower eventually crushes down and you end up in a worse situation. One the other hand, telling the truth, painful as it sometimes may be, displays a sense of honesty, and provides the chance FOR forgiveness in the worst situations. If the marriage or friendship cannot sustain the truth, then maybe this union is not worth maintaining.

Is telling the truth always the right thing to do and can a white lie sometimes do more good than harm? A white lie would be a lie that causes relatively little discord if it were uncovered. For example, telling your wife that she does not look fat in those jeans even if she dOES(,) is probably a wise choice that will save you from a never-ending conflict and a sleepless night on the couch. On the other hand, if the lie was uncovered, you end up in the same situation as you would if you were to HAVE TOLD the truth. Thus it is a win-win situation. I therefore fully endorse the act of telling white lies.

In conclusion, we should have more confidence IN each other IN that we can handle the truth(,) because it is the very construct of any relationship(,) as it shows a sense of trust and respect. This is especially true in difficult situations, when the chips are down and the going gets tough, telling the truth is almost always the right thing to do. However, telling a white lie now and then is harmless.
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Good morning Jack, and WELCOME to our Forum. This was an excellent and amusing essay.

Kitos. 9/10
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.