IELTS at IALF Jakarta #3

Writing

I like writing, and I enjoy familiarizing myself with many kinds of texts. Unfortunately, I have to admit that writing Academic text is not my strongest trait in the Writing universe. Therefore, the main reason I took this course was, actually, to learn more about the Writing section. This section was something completely new to me that even the concept of it was scary. English is not my native language, there are more rules in academic texts, and I did not know what would the test be like. Well, Andrew Smith once wrote "People fear what they don't understand", so now I'm here to share what I now know in order to (hopefully) help decrease that fear a bit!

Like other sections, you have one hour to finish it. There are exactly two passages you have to finish: the first one is 150 words long and usually based on a graph/map/process picture, while the second one is 250 words long, answering a question regarding your opinion. Anyway, I will not discuss the passages in this post because you can see the examples of the passages in common IELTS books. Instead, I'd love to share what I believe are important in the Writing section.

The first one, of course, you have to organize your ideas. During the one hour, spare approximately five minutes before starting with each passage. Try to list your main ideas. They do not have to be strictly followed, but it can help you see the key points you want to highlight in your writings. As a result, you can write your paragraphs more easily. The first passage usually consists of more or less three paragraphs whereas I like to make the second passage five paragraphs. For the second passage, you must always write the introduction and conclusion paragraphs (although sometimes, one introduction and one concluding sentences are enough). This does not apply to the first passage, where you can choose whether to write an overview (at the beginning of the passage) or the conclusion (at the end of the passage).

Second, you have to pay attention to your sentences. There are several things which can make your writing better, as told by my teachers and based on my experience. Those things include: (1) writing in both active and passive sentences, since it helps add variety to your passage as well as showcases your English understanding; (2) using which, where, who, whom, and when to help adding complex sentences, which brings up your score if used correctly; (3) making sure your subject-verb agreement is correct, which is a basic requirement even in simple sentences; and (4) making sure the tenses you use are correct, which includes understanding the time frame.

Third, also important is paraphrasing. You see, in the Writing sections, there are instructions/questions which basically give you the theme/topic of your writings. If you are confused about the introduction/overview, you can use those instructions/questions to help you with it. However, do not write it as it is; you have to paraphrase it. Do not copy the instruction/question word-by-word. Instead, change the sentence structure and use synonyms. This is important, not only in the IELTS Test Writing section, but also in any kind of academic texts.

Writing is not like mathematics, as in you do not get the exact correct number if you do the counting a certain way. Writing means formulating your own potion of words; there is a different mix for each one. Therefore, there is no guarantee that what you write in the test will get a perfect score. For instance, I have taken the IELTS test and I believed my Writing section was the best I had done so far (compared to the practices I did in class). I thought I did everything right, but it turned out the score was less than my expectation. I did not know where it went wrong, whether it was too simple, or probably there were some grammar mistakes... but at least I must have paid attention to the things I mentioned above because the result was still enough.

I have a lot to say about the Writing section because I think we, Indonesians, are not so accustomed to writing. As an ex-English teacher, I know that students these days are more fluent in speaking English than writing in English because they are more exposed to English conversation than English texts. This phenomenon does not only occur among teenagers, but also among my peers. Even my lecturer once complained that postgrad students had terrible writing skills. Therefore, I know how hard this section can be for us. Even I wrote this post with the help of Grammarly, which checks my grammar and pronunciation (highly recommended, Readers!).

Anyway, that's all I can say about what I think are important to note. I hope you enjoy reading this, despite the more serious tone compared to the two previous posts about the IELTS Test, as well as it is helpful for you! And, really, don't forget to pratice, practice, and pratice. As they say, practice makes perfect! (Trust me, it worked on my Listening section).

Till next time!

Only As Much

Deliver it by mail

Or deliver it by speech

Or deliver it by codes

Or maybe you'd prefer

To deliver it by look

These words had to be delivered

They had to fall on your lap

Bless you with a slap

That says

Permission is not granted

For you to get away

Like nothing ever happened

And rather than aesthetic

I choose my poison plain

Since I can only say as much

There are days like this...

...when I want to just give up.
On love.
Goals.
Life.

Days like this come right after days that feel right.
Days that feel bright.
Perfect.
Joyful.

They just come and burn
Things that I thought were mine.
That I thought were safe.
Sound.

They leave me with ashes.
They leave me unchecked.
They leave me broken and wounded and everything sad
and that is why.

On days like this
I want to just give up.
On possibilities.

Merindu Buku Tertutup

Hai. Selamat pagi. Kamu terlihat bagus dengan baju itu. Ini sebungkus rokok yang kamu pesan. Tidak, rambutmu terlihat baik-baik saja. Jangan khawatir. Tidak ada yang aneh dengan rambutmu. Tidak, kamu tidak boleh merokok, tapi karena ini mobilmu, jadi semua terserah padamu. Aku cemas perjalanan ini akan banyak diisi dengan diam. Aku benar-benar tidak tahu akan membicarakan apa denganmu.

Ternyata kekhawatiranku tidak beralasan. Aku lupa kamu adalah orang yang punya segudang hal untuk dibicarakan. Kamu, orang yang dilahirkan untuk berada di atas panggung; bahkan jika panggung itu hanya memiliki satu penonton. Aku. Kamu pikir kita cocok menjadi penyiar radio? Kadang aku bertanya-tanya apa kamu menyadari tatapan orang terhadap kita. Apa kamu memikirkan hal yang sama denganku. Apa kamu juga sadar teman-temanku akan diam-diam mensyukuri kita semobil, akan menyadari aku senang berdua denganmu. Apa yang ada dalam pikiranmu?

Kamu lapar? Kita harus mencari tempat sarapan dulu. Silakan saja berhenti di Rest Area itu. Aku tidak lapar, tapi aku haus. Baiklah, aku akan menunggu di toko kelontong. Sudah? Sudah siap mencari makan? Kamu mau roti Starbucks? Tidak? Bagaimana dengan roti di toko kelontong? Kamu tidak mau roti? Mungkin mau beli gorengan? Oh, kamu mau mie ayam. Silakan saja beli. Aku tidak lapar. Minuman ini untukku? Lihat betapa berubahnya kamu sejak empat atau lima tahun lalu kita saling mengenal. Apa kamu sadar betapa manisnya yang kamu lakukan ini?

Mari kita berangkat lagi. Aku tidak tahu kenapa aku membicarakan dia. Tadinya ini pembicaraan yang menyenangkan, tapi kamu membuatnya menjadi seperti sidang bagiku. Kamu benar, aku memang menjadikan dia tolak ukur. Kamu benar, aku merasa rendah diri darinya. Kamu benar, meski berat bagiku untuk mengakui itu. Apalagi terhadapmu. Haruskah kamu mengatakan itu? Haruskah kamu memaparkan aku pada perasaan-perasaan buruk yang ingin aku kubur? Aku tahu ini caramu untuk membangkitkan semangatku. Tapi itu pukulan yang keras bagiku karena kamu tidak tahu bagaimana perasaan itu bermula.

Oh, hai. Halo. Senang rasanya bertemu orang lain, tapi jangan berjalan lebih dulu. Aku ingin tetap bersamamu. Tapi aku juga tidak mau terlihat terlalu lengket denganmu. Kurasa itu sebabnya aku terus mendebatmu.

Aku mau pulang. Sungguh, tidak harus denganmu, tapi barang-barangku ada di mobilmu. Kalau kamu masih mau bersama yang lain, aku sungguh tidak apa-apa. Lihat? Seseorang bahkan menawariku pulang bersamanya. Aku tidak apa-apa. Baiklah, kamu juga mau pulang. Aku perlu pulang sekarang. Aku harus pergi lagi. Kamu kapan mau pulang? Apa lebih baik aku pulang sendiri? Tidak? Baiklah, kalau begitu, ayo pulang sekarang. Aku mendapati debat denganmu ini lucu. Tapi aku sungguh harus pulang. Baik, ayo pulang sekarang. 

Untuk apa, tanyamu? Aku membawa tas besar ini karena kukira tidak mungkin kamu mau langsung pulang. Aku sudah siap pulang naik kereta. Tapi terima kasih sudah mengantarku pulang. Kurasa kamu memang berbeda. Perasaanku terhadapmu memang berbeda daripada yang kurasakan untuk mereka. Tapi... bagaimana? Kamu adalah buku yang sudah kututup bertahun-tahun lalu. Aku rindu. Sangat rindu. Aku merindukan semuanya darimu. Tapi membuka kembali buku yang sudah tertutup mengundang sakit. Apa kamu sepadan dengan sakitnya? 

The Girl's Journey

A girl wandered in a forest when the sun had set. She was lost. She knew she had been with her friends, but they all took their own paths and head to different directions. She did not know how she ended up there. In fact, she did not even remember her name and where she came from. She only remembered a name: Happiness. It belonged to her friend. Thus, the girl set out to find her way back to her friend.

The forest was dark and full of tall trees. They blocked her view and her path. The girl observed the trees and hoped to find a thing or two which she could use as a marker. She could not tell the North from the South or the East from the West. She could not read the stars. She was not supposed to be there. But she was brave, so she still gave it a try although she had nothing to help her survive. She took the first step forward.

Dry leaves carpeted the ground, and the sound she made when stepping on them made her shudder. She kept walking. It was not very long before she encountered someone. She saw him at first, talking to himself. He sounded satisfied. He pointed at the trees circling him. His hands moved in a way that indicated he was measuring something. Then, he nodded several times. She greeted him and introduced herself. He replied and said his name was Acceptance. 

The girl did not remember him, but she suspected he was one of her friends. Otherwise, why would anyone be in a forest alone? She asked him if he knew Happiness. “Sure I do,” he answered boastfully. “I am very close with her.” The girl was glad to hear that. She asked him how to find her. She explained that she was very close with her, too. Upon hearing this, Acceptance gave her an appraising look. “Then you must know that to find her is to be accepted by everyone,” he snorted. She asked him how she would know if she was accepted. “It is easy. When no one can find a thing to criticize from you, you are accepted,” he stated rather brusquely, “and you have to fit in.”

He gestured to the trees. “You see these trees?” The girl nodded. “They are strikingly similar to each other. That is how you know they belong to this forest. Different trees have no place here; which is actually a good thing because if they were here, they would ruin the harmony of this forest.” He took a short pause before appraising her again. “You are not similar to me. If you must find Happiness, go along this way and find someone else. Maybe you will have better luck,” he said dismissively.

The girl continued her journey. As she pondered upon everything Acceptance had said, she noticed that, indeed, the forest looked beautifully lined up with similar trees as far as her eyes could see. She had never really thought about the beauty of fitting in, but now that she did, her heart was expectant to see people with whom she was similar. Therefore, when she bumped into the next person, she felt a bit discouraged.

There was nothing similar between her and the restless man. He moved from one tree to the next in an extraordinary speed and eagerness. She called out to him and introduced herself. He ignored her at first, as he was so absorbed in going back and forth and taking notes, but finally acknowledged the girl’s presence. She apologized and introduced herself before asking if he knew Acceptance and Happiness. “Of course, I am Curiousness. I wanted to know everyone, so now I know everyone,” he answered pompously. She told him what Acceptance had told her, and asked him if he knew anyone similar with her. “That bloke is nonsensical. If you want to find Happiness, you have to indulge yourself in, and devote yourself to, knowledge. You have to have the thirst for it,” he said with the utmost certainty, “and everyone who had found Happiness had it.” She asked him what it meant. 

“Say, when you arrived, did you see what I did with the trees? Of course, you did,” he did not wait for the girl to answer. “I devote myself to the knowledge of the trees. I know what every layer of a tree trunk means, what color is the tree trunk, and what color is the leaves. I know that the trees have roots and branches. And I take notes so I will not forget.” The girl, being so simple-minded, failed to understand, so she asked Curiousness what to do with the knowledge he had gathered. However, Curiousness decided that he was done with her. He waved his hand to a footpath behind the trees. “Pursue Education. She knows what to do with it. You’d better hurry; she left hours ago.”

And so the girl ran down the path. She did not know what Education looked like, but she had to run to catch up. Otherwise, she would fall too far behind. It was in the midst of running that she stumbled across someone who was collecting fruits. The girl asked her if Education had passed this way. “Education?” The fruit-collector was startled. “You will never stop running if you pursue her.” The girl explained what Curiousness had told her. She mentioned Happiness and Acceptance, too. “Well, she passed my route,” the fruit-collector explained, “and she taught me about fruits.” As she said this, she showed the girl some of the deliciously red and round fruits. The girl almost took one of them when they were pulled outside her reach. The fruit-collector snarled, “You have to pay if you want one. Nothing is free. I was the one who collected them, so you have to pay for my efforts.” The girl argued that it meant Education had a right to a part of the payment, too, considering she was the one who taught her about fruits. “Well, Education taught me indeed, but then she left. I was the one who came up with the idea to collect them!” she answered so defensively that the girl did not have the courage to argue further. “She passed my route and paid with knowledge. Besides, what is the use of Education if you get no profit from it?”

The girl, upon seeing that the fruit-collector was most likely not interested in her journey and Happiness, decided to leave. But before she left, she asked for her name. “My name is Stability,” she answered simply, before adding, “remember: what is important is not to pursue Education. It is to get money. Money guarantees your life. People like you if you work because you are not a burden for them. I am not a burden to you, but you could be a burden to me if you take my fruits without paying.”

The girl took off again, this time with knitted eyebrows. She was rather shocked to find the conflicting reasons. Her head started to hurt. If there was a positive upside from her encounter with Stability, it was that she now recognized the red blinking lights behind the thick leaves, mirroring the flickering of the stars. She had not realized there were so many fruits on the trees. Thank goodness; just in time, her stomach began growling with hunger! She could not reach even the lowest fruit hanging from the branch, so she climbed one of the trees. The girl was out of breath by the time she picked a fruit at last and silently understood why Stability had insisted for her to pay.

Long after she had done eating, the girl rested on the wide branch. Her mind drifted away, so it surprised her to hear a song sung so close, so suddenly. She looked down and found a pair of eyes staring directly at her. “Hello, what are you musing about? My name is Love.” The girl introduced herself. She explained her purpose and all the advice given to her. “You silly girl, you take the long way if you listen to them,” Love laughed. She was so carefree and bright that the girl was bedazzled. She wished she could be more like her. “Listen to me,” Love said. “You just need to find love. Love leads to Happiness, directly, via the freeway!” And as she spoke, her hand gestured to a smooth road the girl had yet to see in the midst of the forest. 

That road was starkly different from the closed and tight ones she had taken. This one was not surrounded by tall trees; instead, bushes of flowers stood proudly. There were no dry leaves on the road. The girl could see the stars and the moon very clearly and she felt calmer. The road was so pretty and seemingly harmless that she was certain Love spoke the truth.

She ran and ran and ran and believed she would find Happiness at the end of the road, but when she arrived, she found that it was deserted, except for an uptight looking man. She thought he might know if Happiness was there. She told him what Love had told her, and the man scowled. “Do not trust Love blindly. There is no such thing as a freeway to Happiness,” he said, so she told him about Acceptance, Curiousness, Education, and Stability. He took his time before answering: “I am Security and I am not sure about the correct path to Happiness, but just to be safe... why don’t you just do all that you have been advised to do?” She asked him to elaborate.

“Be a little similar to everyone in order to be accepted. Have a little thirst for knowledge just in case. Pursue Education up to a certain degree, only to satisfy your curiosity. Stop if you want a little stability. Work. Love a little!” he exclaimed. The girl opened her mouth to ask more, but Security cut her off. “Now, off you go. I do not have the time to help others. I have to ensure my own safety and do everything they also tell me to do!”

The girl scuttered away in a rush. If Security did not have the time, what made her think she had? How long had Security been there? How late was she? By the time the deserted road ended, she was so tired and the night was so dark that she was frightened of everything. She arrived in an empty meadow and began to regret having started her journey at all. The advice only made her more and more confused. She doubted her purpose as she felt more and more distant from the memory of Happiness, so she cried.

The girl cried for what seemed like ages, but probably only a few hours, and wailed. She was lonely and exhausted and troubled, and the night was not helping. The moon and the stars were too far away to cheer her up. That was why she was taken aback when, between her tears, she saw someone approaching. She wiped her eyes. Before her stood a woman, older than any of the people she had met although not by far, offering her hand. The girl took it and stood. 

“Why are you crying?” the woman asked. The girl told her everything: Happiness, Acceptance, Curiousness, Education, Stability, Love, Security. And that she was lost. She felt even more lost than before.

“Do not give me advice,” the girl begged, “for it will only leave me perplexed.”

The woman chuckled. “I will not because I cannot.”

“What do you mean?” The girl asked, puzzled.

“The path to Happiness differs for everyone. It is not a simple set of steps,” the woman explained. “Being accepted is what you should seek if you do not like being criticized, or maybe you would prefer to pursue education instead if you devote yourself to knowledge. Working may be great for you if you do not like being short of money and profit, but love is what you should be after if you like the bright presence of a company. Security leads you to a sense of safety, which sometimes comes along with Happiness. However, more often than not, your friend Happiness is far from him.”

“Was he lying, then?” The girl felt like a fool.

“No, of course not. He just could not recognize the face of Happiness because he was no more certain than you were. He kept going even without certainty—and it is not wrong, mind you—but I do not think you are looking for a life like his. Security has nothing to complain, and he is completely satisfied with his choices, but his way of life is not for you.”

“How do you know?” The girl inquired.

“I see it in your eyes... because Happiness has marked you. What you seek is an intense and fierce Happiness. A Happiness found in the essence of being.”

The woman smiled when she saw the girl gave her a blank look.

“Close your eyes, Little Girl, and I will guide you to Happiness.” She held the girl’s hands. When their skin touched, the girl felt waves and waves of emotion surged towards her. Memories flooded her mind; of her first breath, of her first exposure to the air, of her first cry to the world. Of her first walk, of her first word, of her first song. On and on and on it went, before finally the memory of her first introduction to Happiness arrived. Something clicked inside her, and the girl opened her eyes. 

There she was, her friend Happiness... so beautiful and brilliant that it almost blinded her. Morning had come, and the knots in her heart had been untied.

The girl’s eyes met the woman’s and she whispered, “Thank you.”

“Never mind,” the woman answered. “You are bound to meet me, after all.”

“Who are you?” the girl asked.

The woman smiled again. “My name is Wisdom, and you would have never met me had you not gone on the journey you took. Happiness had been inside you all along. You just need to be reminded.”

fin