Im ultra picky sometimes, so sorry if I make too many changes and you get frustrated ;; Also, if I add a blue asterisk (*) that means the sentence sounds wrong and I can't find a way to fix it without changing it a lot, so I'll give suggestions at the bottom.

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TOEFL writing practice 3 (if anyone can check the grammar, I will be really appreciative:))

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
When teachers assign projects on which students must work together, the students learn much more effectively than when they are asked to work alone on projects.
Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.



Just as books nourish our mind, so do group members enlighten us. *Human beings is are a kind of group living species. We cannot live with ourselves alone. When we live together, we can feel warmth, care for each other and grow up together. There are some main reasons that I support for the statement that the students learn much more effectively with others than when they are asked to work alone on projects.

The first reason for my stance is that students working together have more power. There is a Chinese idiom, "Three common people success a genius". It is means that people working together would have more power and would be more successful than a genius person. For example, in a running competition, that three people sharing the running distance is easier than only one person running. Groups working together has more power and they can share the loading of the task.

The second reason that can be perceived by every individual is that a person working alone usually makes his thinks in a small box. Group working would create more ideas. We sometimes called it bran storming. For example, there is a company which who wants to choose their marketing strategy. If there are ten people and each person provides a strategy, there would be ten strategies. The company could choose the best idea and revise it from other ideas.

Last but not the least, group support can let people have more strength to complete a task when they have problems. People working together can share their feelings and support each other. For example, in my English study group, we usually share the knowledge which that we learned. In addition, the most important part, we would share our feelings and encourage each other. We would not feel lonely in the road of learning English. If I didn't have these friends studying English together with me, I probably couldn't learn English as well. *Thus, I know it is excellent in group studying.

As we all know, there are two sides to every story. Therefore, undeniably, there are some merits in working alone, such as that you can schedule your time more flexibly. You would not have any arguments from others and so on. Nevertheless, from the points that I mentioned above, I still believe that group working is better. *Human is group creature, after all.

Human beings is are a kind of group living species. 

    A better sentence would be "Human beings are a social species." I've heard that sentence being used, but I've never heard anyone say group living. Social generally means human interaction, talking, etc. Being a social person means you like to be near people and talk to people a lot.

Thus, I know it is excellent in group studying.

    This is also an odd one. I never hear people say group working, group work, group studying, etc. Usually its said "Working as a group" and "Studying as a group". It sounds the most natural if you use those two because it feels weird if you use something like "group working". I might change this to "Thus, I know it is excellent to study in a group."

Human is group creature, after all.

    Same as the first blue point, I'd change it to "Human beings are a social species, after all." It sounds cool if you say it in the first paragraph and then as your closing statement. In college if you write a thesis (it's basically a paper format, like an essay almost.) they have you write paragraphs and in the first paragraph you must state your thesis, what you hope to accomplish or the main point of the paper, and then you must close with it on the last paragraph you write. It sounds very professional is what I'm saying, I guess c:

I like your paper! I thought it was really nice and it made me look at things in your perspective. I like the Chinese idiom you used, too! I think you're right and that working as a group should be utilized more. In school settings it's not used as much unless it's a large project because usually one person will do all the work and the rest won't, which is sad that they don't use the priviledge like you explain in your paper.