How to Write TOEFL Essay Supporting Ideas

They are called supporting ideas because they "support" the topic sentence.

Our TOEFL essay's supporting ideas all come after the topic sentences. They support the topic sentence by telling the reader why we believe the the topic sentence is true.

Supporting ideas can be almost anything. The important thing is that they are all related to the topic sentence and that they support the topic sentence in some way. Here are some things we can use for our supporting ideas:

• A personal experience
• Something you've heard or read about
• A logical argument
• Statistical evidence
• Factual information
• Expert opinion

We can use any of these for our supporting ideas. However, most students use a personal experience or something they have read about. This is probably because it is easier to write about these things.

On the next page, we'll return to our topic sentences and try to write a few supporting ideas for them.