TOEFL iBT Integrated Writing Task

Sample Essay
In this set of materials, the reading passage explains the term acronym, and the listening passage describes a kind of ‘false acronym’ called a backronym.

In the reading passage, we are told that an acronym is an expression which is comprised of the first letters or first parts of a group of words.  A typical example of this is the expression NATO. There are however, two schools of thought as to what exactly an acronym is. One view is that any expression using first letters or parts of words is an acronym. This standpoint would regard both NATO and CNN as acronyms. The other position is that only when the acronym can be pronounced as a word is it a true acronym. People who take this view would class NATO as a acronym, but not CNN. They would call CNN an initialism or alphabetism.

The listening passage describes the new word backronym. A backronym is an expression consisting of an ordinary word which has later been turned into an acronym by giving a meaning to each of its letters. These can be either serious or humorous. The distress signal SOS is an example of a backronym. Originally just morse code letters, people later came to say these letters stood for Save Our Souls. The humorous type of acronym can be exemplified by golf, which some jokers decided to say meant ‘Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden.’ (234)

Sample Essay 2
Sample Essay
In this set of materials, the reading passage explains the term acronym, and the listening passage describes a kind of ‘false acronym’ called a backronym.

In the reading passage, we are told that an acronym is an expression which is comprised of the first letters or first parts of a group of words.  A typical example of this is the expression NATO. There are however, two schools of thought as to what exactly an acronym is. One view is that any expression using first letters or parts of words is an acronym. This standpoint would regard both NATO and CNN as acronyms. The other position is that only when the acronym can be pronounced as a word is it a true acronym. People who take this view would class NATO as a acronym, but not CNN. They would call CNN an initialism or alphabetism. A combination of acronym and initialism , such as MS-DOS is called an acronym/intialism hybrid.

The listening passage describes the new word backronym. A backronym is an expression consisting of an ordinary word which has later been turned into an acronym by giving a meaning to each of its letters. These can be either serious or humorous. The distress signal SOS is an example of a backronym. Originally just morse code letters, people later came to say these letters stood for Save Our Souls. The humorous type of acronym can be exemplified by golf, which some jokers decided to say meant ‘Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden.’ A further meaning for backronym is when the words making an acronym change. recently the 'V' of DVD changed from 'Video' to 'Versatile', making it a backronym.(277)

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