TOEFL^® Essentials™ Writing Section

The TOEFL^® Essentials™ Writing section measures your ability to write, review and edit texts in English for different communication purposes, such as emails and online discussions.

There are 14 to 18 Build a Sentence questions and 2 writing tasks. The section takes 24–30 minutes to complete.

Task Types

• Build a Sentence
  View a sentence with words or phrases in the wrong order and move them to form a grammatically correct sentence.
• Write an Email
  Write an email for a specific purpose — for example, making a recommendation, extending an invitation or proposing a solution to a problem.
• Describe a Photo
  Write a social media post about a photo. Describe the photo to your social media friends.
• Write for an Academic Discussion
  State and support an opinion on a given topic in an online class discussion forum.

Your test will include the Describe a Photo task or the Write for an Academic Discussion task, but not both.

A Closer Look