THE WRITING SECTION OF THE TOEFL IBT (1)

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THE TOEFL WRITING SECTION

There are two kinds of writing tasks on the TOEFL IBT:

• The independent writing task

• The integrated writing task

 

DESCRIPTION OF THE INDEPENDENT WRITING TASK

The purpose of the independent writing task is to show your ability to write an essay of at least 300 words. The topic is provided by the exam program during the test and cannot be changed. The time allowed for writing the essay is 30 minutes. This includes planning, writing and reviewing.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INTEGRATED WRITING TASK

The purpose of the integrated writing task is to combine information provided by a reading passage and a listening passage, in order to present a written response to a question. The reading passage will be about 250 – 300 words long and the allotted time for the reading is 3 minutes. The listening passage lasts for about 2 minutes. You will have to take notes of the main ideas of both passages, so as to be able to integrate both of them and provide an answer to the question that the test assigns to you. The written response should be about 150 – 225 words, and the time allowed for planning, writing and reviewing is 20 minutes.

THE THESIS STATEMENT.

Your thesis statement is what you plan to write about. It’s your basic or main idea for the whole writing task that you are answering at that moment. You will need to start with a thesis statement when answering both the independent and the integrated writing tasks. 

In the case of the Essay (Independent Task), you will have to state, explain and support an idea. This idea could be an opinion or a preference. The statement that describes this main idea is your thesis statement.

For the Integrated Task, your thesis statement must refer to the main idea of both the reading passage and the lecture or listening passage. This is why you need to take notes as you read and listen!

SOME CONCLUSIONS.

As we can see from the paragraphs above, the Independent Task and the Integrated Task have some similarities and some differences.

The principal similarities are:

• They both need a thesis statement

• They both include planning, writing and reviewing

• They are both time controlled, 30 minutes for the Independent Task and 20 minutes for the Integrated Task

• They both need an adequate level of knowledge of the English language.

The main differences are:

• The Independent Task is more personal, you write about your own ideas. In the Integrated Task you write about other people’s ideas.

• For the Independent Task, you need to write. For the Integrated Task, you must read, listen and write.

 

Which of the two do you think will be more difficult for you?

FINAL WORDS.

This post was a short introduction to the Writing Section of the TOEFL IBT.

I will be providing more details in future posts, so stay connected!

© 2013  joveron  (Joan Robertson)

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