Level 1 · Writing

This unit is for you if your TOEFL Writing band is below 3.5, or if you have never written a TOEFL email or discussion post under time pressure. At Band 2–3, a reader can usually follow what you mean, but your sentences break down when you write questions, your emails forget one of the three things the task asks for, and your discussion posts give an opinion without a reason or an example. You do not need rare words to move up. You need correct word order in statements and questions, a fixed plan for each task, the right tone for the reader, and control of the small group of errors that Indian candidates make again and again.

Why it matters: many universities in the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia ask for an overall TOEFL band of about 4–4.5, and some set a separate minimum for Writing. Requirements vary by university and by course, so always check the exact score on the official admissions page. Every band in this book is an FLC estimate, not a promise, but the pattern is clear: candidates who master the word-order rules and the two writing plans in this unit rarely stay at Band 3 for long. Level 2 builds directly on what you learn here.

Writing is the third section of the test, after Reading and Listening, and takes about 23 minutes in all. You type on a computer, and there is no spell checker and no grammar checker. The email has its own 7-minute limit and the discussion its own 10-minute limit, so plan each task to fit its own time. Unlike Reading and Listening, the Writing section is not adaptive: everyone who takes the same test form gets the same tasks.

How your writing is scored

Build a Sentence is marked right or wrong. An item counts only if every chunk is in the correct place; there are no part marks for a sentence that is almost right. Write an Email and Write for an Academic Discussion each get a task score from 0 to 5. The descriptions below are FLC’s plain-English summary of what raters look for at each score.

ETS combines your Build a Sentence results and your two task scores into a Writing band from 1 to 6, in half bands. ETS does not publish the exact formula, so no one can tell you precisely which task scores give which band. As a working guide, FLC finds that Level 1 candidates usually score 2 on the two longer tasks and get fewer than half of the Build a Sentence items right; candidates who reach 3 on both writing tasks and get most sentences right are on their way to Band 3.5.

The last two columns below are FLC’s own description of the difference between typical Level 1 scripts and scripts that reach Band 3.5.

Lesson 1 · Build a Sentence: statement word order

Each Build a Sentence item shows one line from a conversation, for example from a classmate or a staff member on campus. Under it is the reply, with blanks, and a set of word chunks. Some chunks are single words; some are phrases such as the library or last semester. A word or two may already be fixed in place, and the end punctuation (full stop or question mark) is given. You drag the chunks into the blanks. Two clues help you before you start:

• The end punctuation. A full stop means a statement (or an indirect question inside a statement, Lesson 3). A question mark means a direct question (Lesson 2).
• The first line. The reply must answer it or respond to it. If Speaker A asks When is the quiz?, the reply is probably a statement about time.

English statements follow a fixed order. Learn it as a chain:

• Place comes before time: in the lab yesterday, not yesterday in the lab at the end of a sentence. (A time phrase may also go at the very start: Yesterday, I left…)
• Short frequency words (always, usually, often, never) go before the main verb but after be: She usually studies late. · The library is always busy.
• Helping verbs stay together with the main verb: has posted, will be, can borrow. Only not or a frequency word may come between them: has not posted, can usually borrow.

Simran, a Level 1 student from Ludhiana, works it out in four quick steps. The full stop tells her it is a statement. I is fixed as the subject, so the verb comes next: will submit. The object is it (the report). Place, then time: in the portal tonight. Answer: Not yet. I will submit it in the portal tonight. She reads the whole sentence once in her head before moving on: it sounds natural and answers the question.

Lesson 2 · Questions and auxiliaries

This is the biggest single source of lost Build a Sentence items at Level 1. In Hindi, Gujarati and Punjabi, a question often keeps the same word order as a statement and changes only the intonation or adds a question word. In English, a direct question needs an auxiliary (helping verb) before the subject.

With a question word, the order is: question word · auxiliary · subject · main verb · rest.

The question mark says direct question. The question word goes first: when. The auxiliary comes next: are (from are going). Then the subject you, then the rest of the verb going, then there. Answer: When are you going there? The most common wrong answer is When you are going there?, which keeps statement order.

Lesson 3 · Indirect questions

Polite questions often begin with a short opening, and the real question goes inside. Inside, the word order goes back to statement order, and do, does, did disappear.

• Question word, then statement order: …where the office is, never …where is the office.
• Yes/no questions use if or whether: Do you know if the café is open?
• The opening decides the punctuation. Could you tell me… / Do you know… are questions, so they end with a question mark. I wonder… / I’m not sure… / I’d like to know… are statements, so they end with a full stop. In Build a Sentence the punctuation is given, which is a useful clue.

Lesson 4 · Write an Email: the task and the reader

The email task gives you a short situation, usually on campus or in daily life, names the person you are writing to, and lists three bullet points that your email must cover. Typical purposes are:

• asking for something: an extension, a meeting, a refund, a reference;
• explaining a problem and suggesting a solution: a broken heater, a mistake on a bill, a timetable clash;
• giving information or a reply: accepting an invitation, describing an event, recommending something.

You have 7 minutes. There is no fixed minimum, but FLC’s target is 90–120 words. Below about 80 words, at least one bullet is almost always too thin; above 130, a Level 1 writer usually runs out of checking time.

Register: who are you writing to?

The second thing raters judge is whether your email sounds right for the reader. This is called register. TOEFL emails go to three kinds of reader:

A third, in-between reader is a staff member you do not know well, such as a club organiser or a teaching assistant: polite and clear, like the formal column, but a short friendly line is fine. When in doubt, choose the more polite form. Being slightly too polite to a friend costs very little; being too casual to a professor costs a lot.

Lesson 5 · The email plan

Use the same five-part plan for every email. It covers all three bullets, gets the register right and leaves time to check.

The secret of each bullet paragraph is fact plus detail. I missed the lab. is a fact. I missed the lab on Tuesday because I had a high fever, and the campus clinic told me to stay in bed. is a fact plus detail. The detail is what turns a score of 2 into a 3 or 4.

Your time plan for 7 minutes: one minute to read and note a few words for each bullet, five minutes to write, one minute to check bullets, greeting, sign-off and spelling.

Harpreet’s one-minute notes:

The same email at four levels

Here is the email written at each of the four FLC levels. The situation and ideas stay the same; what changes is how fully each bullet is covered, how natural the tone is and how well the sentences are controlled. Read them in order, then decide which one is closest to the way you write now.

Lesson 6 · Write for an Academic Discussion

This task looks like a class discussion board. You see:

• The professor’s post: a few sentences introducing a topic from the course, ending with a question. The question usually asks you to choose (Which is better…? Do you agree…? Should…?) and explain why.
• Two student posts: each gives a view, often one on each side, with a short reason.

Your job is to add your own contribution: state your view, support it with a reason and an example, and, if you can, show that you have read the other posts. You have 10 minutes. ETS asks for at least 100 words; FLC’s Level 1 target is 110–140 words. You do not need special knowledge of the subject: the topics are general enough for any student, and raters judge how clearly you explain your idea, not whether the idea is “right”.

The discussion plan

Your time plan for 10 minutes: two minutes to read and choose your side and your reason, seven minutes to write, one minute to check. Do not spend five minutes deciding which side is “correct”. Choose the side for which you can think of an example fastest.

The same response at four levels

Here is a response to Professor Alvarez written at each of the four FLC levels. All four support free buses, with the same main idea (helping students and low-income workers). Read them in order.

Lesson 7 · Correct sentences for both tasks

The email and the discussion post are both judged on how accurately and clearly you write. At Level 1, that starts with joining two ideas with the right connecting word and punctuating the result correctly. Learn these groups and use each word correctly before you try anything more advanced.

Small words, big marks

Lesson 8 · Habits that cost marks, and your Level 1 plan

These habits appear again and again in Writing scripts from Indian candidates. Most come from school letter-writing formats, from Indian English or from typing too fast. None of them is caught by the test software for you.

Timed practice

Do the next three exercises on a computer with a timer and a word counter, with spell check and grammar check switched off. Then use the checklist below and compare with the models in the key.

Before you finish: the Level 1 checklist

• Build a Sentence: end punctuation checked first; auxiliary before the subject in direct questions; statement order after Do you know / Could you tell me / I wonder; every chunk used.
• Email: the reader identified; greeting, purpose line, one paragraph per bullet with a detail, closing, sign-off; 90–120 words.
• Discussion: your view answers the exact question; a link to a classmate that adds something; a reason and a specific example; 110–140 words.
• No fragments, no comma splices, no although… but.
• A / an before singular nouns; no informations or peoples; no text speak; one spelling convention.

Your Level 1 plan

When your emails cover all three bullets in the right tone every time, your discussion posts reach 110 words with a reason and an example, and your question word order is automatic, move on to Level 2 and the Band 3.5–4 target: fuller development, more varied sentences and a stronger response to your classmates’ ideas.