The TOEFL iBT® Test: Improving Your Writing Skills

Advice for Writing
Skill: Writing based on Reading and Listening
Performance Level: Limited
Score Range: 1–16

1. Read and listen to academic articles and other material in your own language. Take notes about what you read and hear.
   • Start out taking notes in your own language and then take notes in English.
   • Summarize the points in complete English sentences.
   • Ask your teacher to review your writing and help you correct your errors.
   • Gradually decrease the time it takes you to read the material and write these summaries.
   • Practice typing on a standard English (QWERTY) keyboard.
2. Listen to recorded lectures in English. Practice finding the main points and taking notes.
   • Stop the recording every 20–30 seconds and write down the main points.
   • Replay the recording to check your notes and add information you may have missed.
   • Use your notes to write out these ideas in fuller, more complex English sentences.
3. Learn important phrases that help you figure out what is happening.
   • Determine who the source of the information is.
     • The speaker
     • Someone else the speaker is talking about
   • Find out how certain the information is.
     • Might be versus is
   • Listen for words that indicate the main ideas being discussed.
     • point
     • factor
     • issue
4. Practice writing grammatically correct sentences and use appropriate words to summarize information from text and lecture material.
   • Each week focus on a different aspect of English grammar. Complete grammatical exercises that reinforce this aspect.
   • Record news broadcasts and informational programs in English from the radio or television.
     • Practice listening and writing grammatical sentences about what you hear the newscaster say.
     • Ask your teacher or a friend review your work.
   • Read factual informational articles in English.
     • Underline sentence structures and words you are not familiar with.
     • Ask your teacher or a friend to help you understand what they communicate.
5. Learn to pay attention to differing ideas about a topic, and to find the similarities and differences of opinions.
   • Look at different articles about the same topic (for example, editorials in the newspaper). Make a list of the similarities and differences of opinions about that topic.
   • Take a controversial cultural issue and write about how your culture understands it. Then compare your ideas with someone from another culture.
   • Study expressions that are used to compare and contrast ideas
     • in contrast
     • on the other hand
     • however
     • but
     • although
     • similarly
     • like