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TOEFL Writing Practice: Improve Your Writing Skills with Free TOEFL Writing Sample Essays & Lessons

In this guide you can start a free TOEFL writing practice test with sample essays and learn some basic and advanced independent & integrated writing lessons to help improve your writing skills and successfully prepare you for your TOEFL writing test. This page contains everything you need to know and the essential skills for a high writing score.

First off, if you're looking to take a free TOEFL writing practice test or are just curious what taking an official TOEFL writing test is like, then click the START TOEFL writing SAMPLE TEST button below.

Next up is a list of all our TOEFL writing questions where you can study each question at your own pace. To start a free TOEFL writing test question, click the Mock Test 1 link.

TOEFL writing practice questions - integrated writing Task

TOEFL writing practice questions - academic discussion Task

Table Of Contents

Toefl writing introduction, toefl integrated writing task, toefl academic discussion writing task.

• How the TOEFL Writing Section is Scored
• TOEFL Writing Preparation

The writing section is the fourth section of the TOEFL iBT test and takes about 50 minutes to complete. It consists of two separate tasks: an Integrated Writing task and an Academic Discussion Writing task . The Independent task requires you to write an opinionated essay based on your own knowledge and experience, whereas the Integrated task requires you to write a response synthesizing a lecture and a reading passage. Below, we examine the two TOEFL Writing tasks in detail.

When you start the TOEFL Integrated writing task, you will be given 3 minutes to read an academic passage. After reading the passage, you will then listen to a lecture on the same topic. You’ll have a total of 20 minutes to write your response. Your response should be around 150-225 words . During this time, you may reread the passage; however, you may not listen to the lecture again.

The reading passage may or may not have a different point of view from the lecture. There are a total of two different scenarios that you can encounter.

• Contradiction: The lecture contradicts or casts doubt on the key points in the reading passage.
• Supporting with Examples: The lecture supports the key points in the reading passage.

It doesn’t matter which scenario you encounter. Your response must summarize the key points discussed in the lecture and explain how these points relate to the reading.

In this task, taking good notes is critical.

When taking notes for the reading passage, make sure to write down the position or opinion of the author and the main supporting reasons for that position or opinion. In most cases, there will be three main supporting ideas. Note that the reading passage are always presented in a point-by-point fashion. That is, the article begins with a main statement, followed by three paragraphs, each of which gives a main point supporting the main statement.

For the lecture, it’s the same basic idea as the reading passage. The lecture follows the same pattern, with the main points matching up with the main points in the reading passage. In other words, the main points directly support or refute the points made in the article, usually in the same order. You must be aware of this in order to take appropriate notes. One more thing! The lecture might include information that is not related to the reading. Remember this! You don’t need to write irrelevant information down in your notes!

In addition to taking good notes, you’ll need to write at least 5 paragraphs that synthesize the main points of the reading passage and lecture . You should also paraphrase when you write your response. DO NOT copy the exact words from the reading passage or lecture. Your score will suffer, if you do.

Here is the breakdown of your essay structure:

• Introduction

The introductory paragraph should contain the following:

• The main topic of both the reading passage and the lecture
• A paraphrase of the question describing the number of points made that were used to cast doubt on the reading passage.

Each body paragraph should cover one main point from the listening and explain in detail how it relates to the main points in the reading passage.

Finally, the conclusion paragraph should summarize the introductory paragraph ...and yes...you guessed it...you should paraphrase . Do not use the same wording you used in the introduction paragraph.

Now, let’s examine the two scenarios ("Contradiction" and "Supporting with Examples") in more detail. In the following section, we will provide you with TOEFL writing sample questions, sample writing responses, and useful writing templates for each of them.

TOEFL Integrated Writing Task: Scenario 1 - Contradiction

This scenario is the most common scenario. In this scenario, the lecture will contradict or cast doubt on the key points in the reading passage. Here is a TOEFL Integrated Writing Task sample question:

Question: Summarize the points made in the lecture and explain how the speaker casts doubt on specific points made in the reading passage.

As you can see, the main points of the lecture contradict the main points in the reading passage. The passage states that pollution was the cause of the declining population of sea otters, while the lecture states that the predation is the most likely cause of the decrease in sea otter populations. Here is the sample essay:

TOEFL Integrated Writing Template: Scenario 1 - Contradiction

Now, let's look at the writing template for scenario 1 - Contradiction.

TOEFL Integrated Writing Task: Scenario 2 - Supporting with Examples

In this scenario, the main points of the lecture are examples that support the key points in the reading passage. Here is a TOEFL Integrated Writing Task sample question:

Question: Summarize the points in the lecture, being sure to explain how they address the specific concerns for social media described in the reading passage.

To learn how to tackle this scenario, sign up for a 7 day free trial.

When you start the TOEFL academic discussion writing task, you will be asked a question. Your job is to plan and write an essay in response to this question. It’ll help if you understand the different types of writing questions you may encounter. Let’s take a look at them now.

TOEFL Academic Discussion Writing Task Type: Agree or Disagree

The first independent question type on our list is “Agree or Disagree“ . An "Agree or Disagree" question will give you a statement of opinion and ask you whether you agree or disagree with the statement. You will also have to provide specific reasons and examples to support your position. Here are examples:

• Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? All students should be required to study art and music in secondary school. Use specific reasons to support your answer.
• Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? High schools should allow students to study the courses that students want to study. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
• When people succeed, it is because of hard work. Luck has nothing to do with success.” Do you agree or disagree with the quotation above? Use specific reasons and examples to explain your position.

TOEFL Academic Discussion Writing Task Type: Support or Oppose

This type of question is very similar to the Agree or Disagree question. However, Instead of asking you to agree or disagree with the statement, the “Support or Oppose” question will ask you to support or oppose a situation. Here is an example:

• It has recently been announced that a new restaurant may be built in your neighborhood. Do you support or oppose this plan?

TOEFL Academic Discussion Writing Task Type: Preference

"Preference" questions give you a choice between two options and ask which option you prefer. You must provide specific reasons and examples to explain why you prefer the option you choose. Here are two examples:

• Some people prefer to live in a small town. Others prefer to live in a big city. Which place would you prefer to live in? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.
• Some people spend their entire lives in one place. Others move a number of times throughout their lives, looking for a better job, house, community, or even climate. Which do you prefer: staying in one place or moving in search of another place? Use reasons and specific examples to support your opinion.

TOEFL Academic Discussion Writing Task Type: If / Imaginary

"If / Imaginary" questions give you a hypothetical – or imagined – situation and ask what you would do or what you would choose. Rather than choosing between two things or two opinions, you are typically not limited in your choice. That is, you can choose anything that fits the situation. Here are three examples:

• Imagine that you are preparing for a trip. You plan to be away from your home for a year. In addition to clothing and personal care items, you can take one additional thing. What would you take and why? Use specific reasons and details to support your choice.
• If you were asked to send one thing representing your country to an international exhibition, what would you choose? Why? Use specific reasons and details to explain your choice.
• If you could invent something new, what product would you develop? Use specific details to explain why this invention is needed.

TOEFL Academic Discussion Writing Task Type: Description or Explanation

A "Description or Explanation" question will ask you to describe a certain type of person – especially the good qualities of a person – or explain something in the world. You might have to choose something to explain, or you might be given something specific to explain. You might have to explain why something is beneficial, important, or significant, or you might have to explain the reasons for or effects of something. Here are three examples:

• How do movies and television influence people's behavior.? Give reasons and examples to support your answer.
• Some people say that computers have made life easier and more convenient. Other people say that computers have made life more complex and stressful. What is your opinion? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
• Neighbors are the people who live near us. In your opinion, what are the qualities of a good neighbor? Use specific details and examples in your answer.

TOEFL Academic Discussion Writing Task Type: Compare and Contrast

This is our last question type on our list and is a little tricky. The “Compare and Contrast" Question can be fool you, so you need to pay attention to what it’s really asking. Generally speaking, you will see 2 variations of this type of question.

First, the question might give you two subjects and could ask you to compare and contrast them. That is, to show the similarities and differences between them. However, the question might ask you to compare the advantages and disadvantages of only one subject, so read the question carefully.

Both variations could also ask you to state your personal opinion or your personal preference.

Here are examples of the first variation:

• It has been said, “Not everything that is learned is contained in books.” Compare and contrast knowledge gained from experience with knowledge gained from books. In your opinion, which source is more important? Why?
• Some people trust their first impressions about a person’s character because they believe these judgments are generally correct. Other people do not judge a person’s character quickly because they believe first impressions are often wrong. Compare these two attitudes. Which attitude do you agree with? Support your choice with specific examples.
• Some people believe that the best way of learning about life is by listening to the advice of family and friends. Other people believe that the best way of learning about life is through personal experience. Compare the advantages of these two different ways of learning about life. Which do you think is preferable? Use specific examples to support your preference.

Here are examples of the second variation:

• Some young children spend a great amount of their time practicing sports. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
• A company has announced that it wishes to build a large factory near your community. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this new influence on your community. Do you support or oppose the factory? Explain your position.

So! Can you see the difference between them? When you write a comparison and contrast essay, you need to be aware of what the question is asking. Is it asking for the comparison of two different things or is it asking you to describe advantage and disadvantage of one thing? Okay! Let’s look at the essay structure of both variations.

As you can see, the major difference is how you write your two body paragraphs.

When the question is asking you to compare aspects of two subjects, each body paragraph compares and contrasts two subjects in one aspect.

When the question is asking you to compare pros and cons of one subject, your first body paragraph discusses the advantage and your second body paragraph discusses the disadvantages.

TOEFL Academic Discussion Essay Structure

This 5 paragraph structure approach can be used for 5 out of the 6 essay question types. The “Compare and Contrast” question type is the only essay question that will require a different structure.

How to Write a High-scoring TOEFL Academic Discussion Writing Essay

Now, let's learn how to write a good introductory, body, and conclusion paragraph for the TOEFL Academic Discussion Writing Task.

How to write a high-scoring introductory paragraph - Part 1

How to write a high-scoring introductory paragraph - part 2, how to write a high-scoring body paragraph, how to write a high-scoring conclusion paragraph.

Sign up for a 7 day free trial to access this lesson.

How is the TOEFL Writing Section Scored?

When you complete your TOEFL test, your writing must be evaluated. This is done by a combination of human readers and a computer program called e-rater®. Each of your essays is given a score from 0 to 5. Your combined essay scores are converted to a section score of 0 to 30.

There are four basic criteria on which your essay is evaluated. These four criteria are:

• How well you address the topic .
• How well you develop and support your ideas.
• How well you organize the essay and connect your ideas.
• How well you use the English language , including grammar, vocabulary, and writing conventions.

"Writing conventions" are the special rules of writing in English, including spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.

As for the TOEFL Integrated Writing Task, here are four basic criteria on which your essay is evaluated. These four criteria are:

• How well you select important information from the lecture.
• How well you relate the lecture points to the reading points.
• How well you organize the essay and provide details

How to Prepare for the TOEFL Writing Test

It takes time to develop good writing skills. Chances are a good English writer already has years of experience writing English and using English in their daily life. If you are not a good English writer, do not get frustrated.

The good news is that you only need to be able to write well on TOEFL independent and integrated tasks. Here are a few things we suggest you do in order to complete the TOEFL Writing section in the most effective manner.

• To write well, first you need to read good essays so your brain has a database of good English structures and vocabulary you can use when writing. That being said, we recommend that you read and learn from our sample essays as much as possible. When learning these sample essays, do not just memorize them, but study how a paragraph is formed with different sentence structures, what words are used, and what main ideas are included. Ask yourself “Can I write similar sentence structures?” and “Can I form a sentence with these vocabulary words?”. The more you study, the more your writing skills will improve. The next time you write about a similar topic, you will be able to utilize them in your writing and add your own ideas.
• If you are not a good writer, spend at least an hour a day practicing academic discussion writing and integrated writing tasks.
• Spend some time brainstorming ideas for all academic discussion writing essays.
• Complete our writing lessons to ensure you know what characteristics a high-scoring TOEFL essay should have. In short, the following are key factors in scoring well on the TOEFL Writing section
• Understand the different types of prompts that appear in the academic discussion writing section.
• Write a clear opinion or position on an issue.
• Write a good introduction and a good conclusion paragraph.
• Write 3 main body paragraphs. Each body paragraph should consist of a main idea and specific examples with details that support the main idea.
• Make good use of transition words to connect your ideas.
• Use a variety of words, both common and academic, correctly and appropriately.
• Use a variety of sentence structures correctly and appropriately.
• Master paraphrasing, synthesising, citing, and note-taking skills.
• Utilize all of our writing lessons

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TOEFL Prep Online Guides and Tips

The best toefl writing practice: 300+ topics to study with.

Writing is the last section you’ll complete on the TOEFL. You’re so close to finishing, yet you still have two essays to write before you can celebrate completing the exam. In order to finish the test on a high note, you’ll need to be prepared for this section.

In this guide, we explain the ins and outs of the Writing section and the materials you need to do well. We then go over all the best TOEFL Writing practice resources available , including free and official practice Writing topics. We’ll end with final tips to keep in mind in order to ace the TOEFL Writing section.

Overview of TOEFL Writing

The TOEFL Writing section is 50 minutes long (broken into two parts) and contains two tasks: Integrated Writing and Independent Writing. You’ll type both essays on the computer.

The Integrated Writing task requires you to use listening, reading, and writing skills. For this task, you will have three minutes to read a short passage, then you will listen to a short (approximately two-minute long) audio clip of a speaker discussing the same topic the written passage covers. You will have 20 minutes to plan and write a response that references both of these sources. You won’t discuss your own opinion.

For the Independent Writing task, you’ll receive a question on a particular topic or issue. You’ll have 30 minutes to plan and write a response to that topic that explains your opinion on it. You’ll need to give reasons that support your decision.

Each essay will receive a score from 0-5. The sum will then be scaled to a score from 0-30, which is your official Writing score. The Writing section makes up 25% of your total TOEFL score (from 0-120).

By the way: we have built the world's best online TOEFL course . Get online practice (TPO-sytle!) and individual grading and feedback on Speaking and Writing.

Learn how you can improve your TOEFL score by 15 points today .

What You’ll Need to Be Prepared for the TOEFL Writing Section

As you likely expect, you’ll spend most of your time on the TOEFL Writing section, well, writing. However, you’ll also need to have solid reading and listening skills for the Integrated task. Since the Writing section requires multiple skills, you’ll need multiple study tools in order to be completely prepared. Some of the most important things you’ll need to prepare for TOEFL Writing include:

• Complete practice Writing sections
• Individual practice questions or TOEFL Writing topics
• Opportunities to practice your writing skills
• Opportunities to practice your listening skills

In the next section, we’ll go over the best TOEFL Writing practice tests and questions.

The Best TOEFL Writing Practice Materials

This section contains links to the top practice materials to use while preparing for TOEFL Writing. What makes a practice material the best?

• First, the practice questions must be similar in content and format to the real TOEFL Writing section to give you the best preparation for the real exam.
• Second, it’s a major plus if the practice questions come with answer explanations that help you understand how to answer an essay prompt well.
• Finally, prep materials that include useful tips and strategies for answering Writing questions are useful because they give you advice on how to raise your score on this section.

Official Prep Materials

Official resources are the best to use since you can be confident they’ll be very similar to the real TOEFL Writing section. The topics will be much more realistic in format and content.

Below are all the official TOEFL Writing practice materials available, both free and paid resources. ETS doesn’t provide just Writing questions, so each of these resources also have practice resources for the other sections of the TOEFL. Be sure to include at least some of these materials in your studying. The next section has more tips on how to make the most of official practice resources.

TOEFL iBT Sampler

The TOEFL iBT Sampler is a program you can download with official practice questions, and it’s a great free and official resource to use. In addition to other TOEFL sections, it includes a complete TOEFL iBT Writing practice section (two tasks). Sample answers for both tasks are included so you can get an idea of what a good essay looks like. Unfortunately, the Sampler only works with Windows; you can’t download it with a Mac.

TOEFL iBT Sample Questions

This PDF is another free and official resource. In addition to other question types, it includes two Writing tasks: one TOEFL Integrated Writing practice question and one Independent Writing practice question. Each sample TOEFL Writing topic is followed by a sample essay as well as an in-depth score explanation, which is a great tool for studiers.

TOEFL iBT Quick Prep

The Quick Prep contains four different volumes, each of which contains one or two Writing prompts. The first volume is the best for TOEFL iBT Writing practice, since it contains two tasks (the others each only contain one) and also has an in-depth explanation of what your essays should include. The other three volumes only contain the essay rubrics without any advice on how to answer the specific essay prompt given.

TOEFL Practice Online (TPO) Tests

TPO tests are retired TOEFL exams now offered for test prep. They give the closest experience to the real TOEFL, and, because of that, they aren’t cheap. You’ll have to pay $45 for each complete TOEFL you buy (you can’t just buy individual TOEFL iBT Writing practice sections).

Your exam will be automatically graded after you finish it, although I was not particularly impressed with how the Writing section was graded when I took it. For the actual TOEFL, two human graders and a computer program review your essays and assign grades to each one. For this exam, a computer grades your Writing section within less than a minute of you completing the exam, and there is no explanation of how that grade was determined.

This is a useful resource, but if you don’t want to spend that much money on a practice test, it’s completely possible to do well just using the above practice resources.

Official TOEFL Prep Books

There are several official TOEFL prep books for sale by ETS. The Official Guide to the TOEFL Test , in addition to explaining the types of questions on the test, contains numerous practice questions and three full-length exams.  This is also the only official prep book that includes sample essays of varying scores along with scoring explanations, which can be a big help if you’re trying to guess what score your essays would get.

There’s also the Official TOEFL iBT Tests Volumes 1 and 2. Each of these books contains five unique practice tests, available on paper and the computer. However, no sample responses are given for Writing questions, which make them a less useful resource compared to The Official Guide to the TOEFL Test.

Unofficial Prep Materials

You have to be more careful when using unofficial prep resources since not all of them are reliable. Some are high-quality and very similar to the TOEFL, others are not. For the Writing section in particular, because it’s so easy to make up essay prompts, there are many sites that claim to offer TOEFL Writing practice when their practice questions are actually low-quality. Below are some of the top unofficial prep resources out there. All of them (except the prep books, if you buy them) are free.

English Club

This site contains one TOEFL Integrated Writing practice task and five Independent Writing practice tasks. All six TOEFL Writing topics are similar to the real test, and the Integrated task as well as one of the Independent tasks have sample responses you can compare your answers to. At the bottom of the web page is a checklist of things your essays should include to help give you a guideline of what you should be aiming for when you write.

Magoosh offers one TOEFL Integrated Writing practice task. That’s not a lot of practice, but it is a high-quality question that includes a sample response. Magoosh also offers three complete TOEFLs, so you can use those Writing questions as well.

Good Luck TOEFL

This site has a huge number (several hundred) of Independent Writing tasks, separated into five different categories depending on question type. Some of the questions are more simplistic than you’ll see on the real TOEFL , and there’s no scoring information or sample responses, but there are a good source if you need more TOEFL Writing topics to write about.

Beat the Test

This site contains 155 Independent Writing tasks. Like Good Luck TOEFL, some of these TOEFL Writing topics are easier than you’ll find on the TOEFL, and there are no sample responses included, but they do give you the opportunity to practice writing.

Unofficial Prep Books

Prep books, even unofficial ones, often are a great resource for practice questions. Most books include sample Writing questions, along with scoring explanations , and then contain one or more complete practice TOEFLs at the end of the book. You can learn all about the best TOEFL prep books by reading our guide.

Other TOEFL Writing Practice Materials

There are other ways to practice besides just answering sample Writing questions. TOEFL Writing is designed to measure how strong your English writing skills are, so, any practice you get writing English will help you with this section, even if you’re not directly answering practice exam questions. There are many ways to get writing practice; several of them are described below.

Duolingo is a popular free language-learning site. Users answer different types of questions, including writing questions. You can’t choose to only answer writing questions, so this isn’t the best resource for targeted writing practice, bu t it’s a good way to strengthen your overall English skills.

For advanced English learners, many of Duolingo’s beginning problem sets will likely be too easy, but you can take a quiz to figure out where in the program you should start.

Free Writing

Finally, you can also practice writing about topics that have nothing to do with the TOEFL. As long as you’re writing in English, you’re getting good practice. Writing about something that interests you can also encourage you to write more. Some ideas for free writing include:

• Keeping a journal
• Getting an English-speaking pen pal
• Starting a blog about a topic that interests you

How to Get the Most Out of Your TOEFL Writing Practice

Now that you’re an expert on the best practice resources for TOEFL Writing, the next step is to put those materials to use in the most effective way in order to see results on test day. Follow these four tips in order to get the most out of your practice.

Practice Writing in English Regularly

The most important thing you can do to practice for the Writing section of the TOEFL is to practice writing English regularly. If you can practice every day, that would be ideal, but at the very least you should aim to practice writing 1,000 words in English a week.

Remember, this writing practice doesn’t only have to consist of answering TOEFL Speaking questions; any free writing, even just jotting down what you did that day in your diary, counts as writing practice.

Make Use of Official Materials

As mentioned above, official TOEFL resources have the best practice questions out there, so you want to make the most of them.  Spread these questions throughout your TOEFL studying; don’t use them all up at the beginning or save them all for the end. You want to be regularly seeing these questions as you prepare.

Also, when you answer official practice questions, make sure you set enough time aside to devote your full attention to them. Practice them in a quiet room with no distractions, and carefully compare your responses to the sample responses. These aren’t the questions to practice when you have a few minutes to spare and need some quick practice while scrolling through your phone.

Time Yourself When Writing Practice Essays

When you are writing practice essays, you should also time yourself. Give yourself 20 minutes to plan and write each Integrated Writing task and 30 minutes for each Independent Writing task.

Timing yourself when you write will help you be better prepared for test day because you’ll have practice planning and writing essays within a limited time frame. When you first begin writing practice essays, it can be easy to spend too much time preparing and run out of time before you finish writing. Taking timed practice essays will help you avoid this. You should also count how many words each of your essays contain after you’ve finished writing them. Integrated tasks should be 150-225 words and Independent tasks should be at least 300 words.

Review Your Practice Essays

After you write each TOEFL practice essay, you should also review it and think about how well it answered the question. This is easier to do if the practice question comes with sample answers that you can compare your answer to, but you should do this step for all practice essays you write, even if they don’t come with any answer explanation.  You can also assign your essays a score or have a tutor or friend who’s also studying for the TOEFL score your essay.

It’s tempting to take a break from TOEFL studying as soon as you’ve finished your essays, but it’s important to do this step because it will get you thinking about what great essays look like and how yours can be improved. The ETS provides the rubric it uses to grade TOEFL writing tasks which you can use to evaluate your essays.

Conclusion: Getting the Most Out of Your TOEFL Writing Practice

In order to write two awesome essays for the TOEFL Writing section, you’ll likely have to put in some practice. Once you know what to expect from this section and how you’ll be graded, use a variety of official and unofficial practice resources during your studying.

As you’re preparing for the Writing section, you should also practice writing in English regularly, use official resources wisely, time yourself when writing practice essays, and review your essays after you write them.

What’s Next?

Looking for more information on the TOEFL Writing section? Learn all the tips you need to know in order to ace TOEFL Writing!

What score should you be aiming to get on the TOEFL? Learn what a good TOEFL score is based on the schools you’re interested in attending.

Looking for a great TOEFL prep book?  A good prep book can be the most important study tool you use, and we have information on all the best TOEFL prep books you should consider.

Ready to improve your TOEFL score by 15 points?

Author: Christine Sarikas

Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries. View all posts by Christine Sarikas

• Free Sample TOEFL Essays

Learning to write well is a skill, like any other. This skill is important not only on your TOEFL exam, but also in your academic and professional career. The TOEFL Writing section consists of two parts:

• Integrated Writing , which includes reading, listening and then writing a summary/ comparison piece of 250 word in 20 minutes
• Independent Writing , which involves writing a four to five-paragraph essay of 300-350 words in 30 minutes

The following free sample TOEFL essays illustrate how to get a high score on the independent writing section of the iBT. By reading through the essays, you can learn how to:

• develop any topic into a well-organized, logical answer
• use synonyms to paraphrase the question
• use a variety of sentence structures & grammatical forms
• begin with a simple, strong introduction
• create body paragraphs that flow logically
• develop unity by linking the body paragraphs
• end with a memorable conclusion

Try to write an essay each day. The added practice will enable you to complete a strong essay, with ease, confidence, and speed, on the day of your TOEFL exam and throughout your life.

• Free Sample TOEFL Essay #1 "Doing Unenjoyable Things"
• Free Sample TOEFL Essay #2 "Money & Success"
• Free Sample TOEFL Essay #3 "Studying Abroad"
• Free Sample TOEFL Essay #4 "Family or Friends More Important?"
• Free Sample TOEFL Essay #5 "Virtual or Real University"
• Free Sample TOEFL Essay #6 "Children & Formal Education"
• Free Sample TOEFL Essay #7 "Household Tasks for Children"

1. TOEFL BASICS

Toefl overview.

• TOEFL Exam Details
• Registration
• Administration

TOEFL iBT Format

2. toefl skills, primary skills.

• Reading Skills
• Listening Skills
• Speaking Skills
• Speaking Tips
• Free TOEFL Speaking Samples
• Writing Skills
• TOEFL Writing Topics

Secondary Skills

• Pronunciation

Support Skills

• Summarizing
• Paraphrasing
• Mind Mapping
• Synthesizing

3. TOEFL RESOURCES

Toefl books, in-class training.

• TOEFL Prep Centres
• ESL Schools

Online Training

Studying toefl abroad, 4. attitude, test anxiety.

• Types of Anxiety
• Causes of Anxiety
• Symptoms of Anxiety
• Reducing Anxiety

5. TOEFL Videos

6. toefl blog.

9 Engaging TOEFL Writing Samples to Hone Your Skills

Struggling to weave words that score high on the TOEFL writing section? You’re not alone.

This concise guide laces your preparation with TOEFL writing samples —your key to unlocking eloquence and precision in your test responses.

Excel in crafting essays that resonate with evaluators, using these exemplary models.

1. Capturing the TOEFL Integrated Writing Essence

2. excelling at independent toefl essay writing, 3. where to uncover more toefl writing examples, 4. analyzing toefl writing samples: a review strategy, 5. templates: simplifying the toefl writing process, 6. tips and tricks from toefl writing veterans, 7. mastering toefl integrated writing topics, 8. tackling the toefl independent writing challenges, 9. practicing your writing skills with sample prompts, toefl writing guidelines and evaluation criteria, leveraging writing samples beyond the toefl, conclusion: fine-tuning your toefl writing mastery.

When approaching the intriguing challenge of the TOEFL Integrated Writing task, the essence lies in harmonizing diverse sources of information into one cogent piece. Here’s a closer look at a top-scoring TOEFL writing sample:

• Synchronization of Ideas: The sample excels at integrating concepts from the reading and listening passages. It doesn’t just summarize the points but rather compares, contrasts, and connects them thoughtfully.
• Language Precision: Linguistic accuracy is pivotal. Notice how the writing uses complex sentence structures without compromising clarity.
• Cohesion and Coherence: Seamless transitions maintain the argument’s flow. The use of conjunctions and transitional phrases like “ however ” is artful, ensuring that each paragraph smoothly leads to the next.

By examining this top-scoring example , you can better understand how to create a composite narrative that stands up to stringent assessment.

Shifting gears to the Independent Writing task, this is your chance to shine – your argument, your structure, your voice. A high-scoring independent writing sample charts a path for success:

• Strong Introduction: It opens with a clear thesis statement that sets a compelling direction.
• Logical Development: Each paragraph presents a distinct but connected idea, reinforcing the central argument.
• Rich Examples: Concrete examples ensure your arguments resound with credibility and weight.
• Stylistic Fluency: The sample radiates linguistic finesse, sporting a range of vocabulary without appearing forced.

An effective strategy is to dissect writing samples that have aced the test. Analyze their structure and the techniques they employ in articulating persuasively held viewpoints.

Variety is the spice of language learning, and you’ll find a plethora of TOEFL writing samples online. Sources that could enrich your preparation include:

• Official Test Prep: A treasure trove of authentic material can be found on official TOEFL prep sites, ensuring you’re practicing with examples that accurately reflect the exam standards.
• Educational Platforms: Websites specializing in standardized test preparation often publish high-quality, evaluated samples accompanied by insightful analysis.

Embark on a quest to uncover more writing examples to help you master the art of writing essays that resonate with the TOEFL’s evaluation criteria.

Harness the power of reflection to elevate your writing. As you review TOEFL writing samples, employ strategies that seasoned language educators recommend:

• Organization Scrutiny: Examine how sample essays are structured, and identify the scaffolding of strong introductions, supporting paragraphs, and conclusive endings.
• Contrast and Compare: Zero in on the usage of contrast words, like “ however ,” which signify the writer’s ability to weave nuanced discussions.
• Grammar and Syntax: Pay particular attention to grammatical precision. Sample essays often illustrate complex entities like compound sentences that lead to higher language proficiency without sacrificing accuracy.

Delving into the intricacies of samples will arm you with the know-how to replicate success elements in your own writing endeavors.

Templates: they’re like blueprints for your TOEFL essays, providing a clear outline to follow for both integrated and independent tasks. Consider utilizing templates to:

• Structure your response: Following a template ensures all necessary components are present, making your essay complete and coherent.
• Streamline your writing: With a blueprint at hand, your focus can remain on expressing your ideas rather than worrying about the essay’s format.
• Gain confidence: Having a go-to structure can bolster your writing confidence, knowing you have a tried-and-tested formula backing you up.

For practical templates that can simplify your writing process, you may find the suggestions on TOEFL Resources particularly helpful.

Every athlete has a coach, and every successful TOEFL candidate has a slew of tactics up their sleeve. Here are some insider tips:

• Effective Note-Taking: Learning the art of jotting down quick, useful notes from passages can be a game-changer for your integrated writing task.
• Transitional Phrasings: Using phrases that bridge thoughts and ideas gives your essay a polished, expert feel, much like threading beads on a string.
• Mindful Time Management: Watching the clock is essential. Allocate your writing and review time efficiently to ensure a finished, well-polished submission.

Gleaning advice from those who’ve achieved high scores will provide a wealth of actionable writing tips and strategies to enhance your own performance.

Crafting a stellar response for the TOEFL Integrated Writing task first begins with a keen understanding of the topics you may encounter. While the topics are wide-ranging and sourced from various academic subjects, the primary goal stays constant: to sieve through the given resources and create a unified, coherent critique.

Typical themes could range from business dynamics to environmental policies, all the way to nuances in artistic movements. Here’s how you can prepare for any curveball:

• Stay Informed: Regularly read up on general knowledge subjects. The more informed you are, the more angles you’ll find to approach the integrated writing task.
• Practice Synthesis: Learn to quickly identify key points from reading and listening sources and integrate them using comparative language.
• Develop Critical Thinking: Go beyond surface-level comprehension. Assess the reading and listening material critically to make compelling arguments.

Understand that TOEFL writing samples serve as archetypes—steep yourself in their strategies, yet always be prepared to apply your own intellect to unique topics.

Indeed, TOEFL Independent Writing offers its unique set of challenges. Your opinion is the helmsman, steering the essay’s direction amidst the turbulent tides of ideas and elaboration. What common pitfalls might you face, and how can you triumphantly bypass them? Consider the following:

• Overly Complex Language: Clarity trumps complexity. It’s tempting to use sophisticated language, but if it muddles the clarity of your argument, it’s counterproductive.
• Insufficient Support: An opinion isn’t enough; your statements must be substantiated with relevant examples and explanations.
• Wavering Off-Topic: Remain vigilant in ensuring your essay stays tightly aligned with the assigned topic, resisting the drift into irrelevant tangents.

Nurturing the knack to sidestep these pitfalls comes from immersing yourself in exemplary TOEFL writing that exemplify the balance between complexity and clarity, while anchoring firmly to the topic.

To hone your skills effectively, what could be better than diving headfirst into practice? Find solace in the plethora of TOEFL writing samples and prompts available:

• Brainstorm and Outline: Before free-writing, take a moment to brainstorm and create a structured outline for each prompt.
• Timed Writing Sessions: Simulate test conditions by timing yourself, which will also aid in managing exam anxiety.
• Peer Review: Swap essays with fellow TOEFL hopefuls or use online forums. Fresh eyes on your work can provide valuable feedback.

Equip yourself with a plethora of TOEFL Independent Writing topics to kickstart your focused writing practice sessions.

Grasping the TOEFL writing samples is one part of the journey—understanding how they are evaluated is another mile to tread. What exactly are evaluators looking for in your essay to deem it as high-scoring?

• Focused and Coherent Responses: Your writing should signify clear, purposeful leadership toward a central idea.
• Language Usage : Mastery of English language conventions is vital—the more control you have over your linguistic tools, the finer the craftsmanship of your essay.
• Development and Support : Adequate examples and clear reasoning solidify your arguments, indicating depth in your understanding and expression.

Plunge deeper into the specifics of what makes a TOEFL essay transcend average quality; study the official scoring rubrics thoroughly to see through the lens of an evaluator.

The mastery achieved through dissecting TOEFL writing samples can transcend test day; you’re essentially honing a lifelong skill set. The clarity, coherence, and persuasiveness you labor over for your TOEFL essay are not merely for exam halls:

• Academic Endeavors: Essays, research papers, and dissertations will demand the same structured thought and command over language.
• Professional Aspirations: In the workplace, you’ll find that the ability to clearly articulate information is invaluable, from emails to reports to presentations.

Embrace the practice with TOEFL writing samples as a foundational exercise that fortifies your general English writing proficiency , carving a path of eloquence in both academic and professional landscapes.

Refining your TOEFL writing skills is an ongoing process—a harmonious blend of studying exemplary TOEFL writing samples and diligently practicing what you acquire from each analysis. Imprint upon your mind the ethos that each writing task is not only a testament to your English language abilities but also a stepping stone to greater academic and professional writing prowess.

Revisit the templates, prod the prompts, scrutinize the samples and, most importantly, acquaint yourself with the intricate tapestry of evaluation criteria. With each paragraph you compose, remember that you are knitting together strands of skills that will extend far beyond the TOEFL exam.

Finesse in TOEFL writing is a quiet herald of victories to come, both on your score reports and in the many chapters of your educational and career ambitions that lie ahead.

Toefl writing samples explored: Enhance your test preparation with our collection of model essays and effective writing strategies.

TOEFL Writing Task 1: The TOEFL Integrated Writing Practice Task

The TOEFL Integrated Writing Task requires you to read a passage that is about 250-300 words long. You then must listen to a lecture that is 2 to 2.5 minutes long. The lecture will challenge or disagree with the ideas in the reading passage for TOEFL Writing Task 1.

Because this task is so test-specific, it’s difficult to find authentic practice with TOEFL Integrated Writing topics, outside of official TOEFL prep materials that take questions from the real test. But you can find reading passages and audio for TOEFL Integrated Writing in the official TOEFL Writing practice sets . Additional free prep for this task can be found in TOEFL Quick Prep (the tasks all come with reading passages, but some of them have transcripts rather than audio).

You can also find practice for this TOEFL Writing task in the official TOEFL books from ETS . Last but not least, you can sharpen your TOEFL Writing skills by practicing a TOEFL Integrated Writing task from Magoosh, free of charge, right here in this post! Near the bottom of this page there is a TOEFL Writing Task 1 practice exercise with a sample answer.

Before we get to that mock test, though, let’s talk about a few basics of TOEFL Integrated Writing. Click the table of contents below to navigate these basics, and hop down to the practice exercise.

Table of Contents

• TOEFL Integrated Writing Topics: What to Expect
• Structuring Your TOEFL Integrated Writing Task
• Difficult Integrated Writing Tasks: What to Do
• Free TOEFL Integrated Writing Practice Task
• Model Answer for the Free TOEFL Integrated Writing Practice Task
• Additional Practice and Resources for TOEFL Writing Task 1

What should you expect from TOEFL Integrated Writing topics?

Since you’ll still be wearing headphones after the Speaking section, the Writing section begins with the integrated task, for which you’ll need to keep your headphones on.

So what do TOEFL Integrated Writing topics look like? Well, the materials you’ll be using to answer the question are a reading passage and a lecture excerpt. Both of these will be longer than the ones you encountered in the Integrated Speaking questions—the reading passage will give you three minutes to read, and it will go into more detail than the one in the Speaking section did.

Whereas other integrated reading samples have served mainly to define a key concept, the one in the Writing section will describe a process or defend a position. The lecture (actually, it will be a short part of a lecture) will then expand on this information by offering examples, explaining in greater detail, or, most likely, describing conflicting viewpoints on the topic introduced in the reading passage. The author will use reasons that respond directly to the ideas in the reading passage.

The question will follow one of several formulas. The question you answer will probably be almost identical to one of these:

• Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt on specific points made in the reading passage.
• Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenge specific claims/arguments made in the reading passage.
• Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to specifically explain how they answer the problems raised in the reading passage.
• Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to specifically explain how they support the explanations in the reading passage.
• Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to specifically explain how they strengthen points made in the reading passage.
• Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to include specific reasons that they strengthen points made in the reading passage.

The first two are by far the most common; usually, you will hear a lecture that contrasts with the reading.

Altogether you will have 20 minutes to plan and write your TOEFL Integrated Writing essay. The essay will not be long—most responses are between 150 and 225 words—but there’s still no time to waste, and you’ll want to keep your writing skills sharp. Remember that your organization and content are just as important as your language use. Your essay needs to have a clear structure with separate points and specific examples that transition smoothly. Most of all, it’s very important to draw from both the reading passage and the listening passage. If you only reference the written passage, the very best score your essay can get is a 1. In many ways, the integrated essay is a summary of the lecture that you heard, but be sure to mention both sources.

You can take notes as you read and listen. With enough practice you will be able to identify the important points in the reading passage that will most likely be discussed in the lecture, and your notes should reflect that. Then, when you listen, it will be easy to take notes that relate to the ones that are already on your paper. Make as many connections between the two as possible while listening. If you have trouble with this, it’s okay—you can take a minute to connect information before you start writing, after the lecture is finished.

Typical TOEFL Writing Task 1 topics will be scholarly, the kinds of things that you’d read about or hear lectures about in an academic setting. Typical topics include things such as the spending habits of American consumers, lectures on history or classic literature, scientific debates, and so on. Topics will seldom be contemporary. For example, you are unlikely to see TOEFL Integrated Writing topics that focus on social media, cell phone use, contemporary popular culture, etc. These more modern topics are far more common in the TOEFL Independent Writing task that follows this one.

As you can see, success in TOEFL Integrated Writing is not just a matter of writing, but also comes down to reading and listening. For additional tips on these two skills in TOEFL Writing Task 1, read the following blog posts:

• Good Reading Practice for TOEFL Integrated Writing
• Listening Practice for TOEFL Writing Task 1

How should you structure your TOEFL Integrated Writing task?

Even though the 20 minutes you have to write the integrated essay will fly by, it’s still worth taking a minute or two to write an outline of your own prior to beginning your response (the test proctor will provide as much scratch paper as you need). Even jotting just a few lines that connect parts of your notes and circling the main examples you want to cover will give you the guidance you need to stay on task when writing your response.

Below I’ve written an outline that demonstrates an effective structure to use on the exam when responding to TOEFL Integrated Writing topics. I highly recommend that you practice writing with this outline as your guide, at least at first. Once you’ve gotten some feedback and have some good practice under your belt, you can deviate from it. At first, though, it’s good to know the rules before you break them, and to have a structure you can rely on when test day comes.

Note that this outline template involves a lot of paraphrasing. Before you get started on making a practice outline of your own, be sure to check out Magoosh’s tutorial on paraphrasing in TOEFL Integrated writing .

A. General statement about the relationship between the resources you heard and read.

B. Short description of the structure of the lecture

A. Paragraph on first point

1. Paraphrase the professor’s point

2. Contrast/compare with the reading

3. Give extra detail and additional specific examples on the professor’s point (optional)

B. Paragraph on second point

C. Paragraph on third point

III. Conclusion

Note that you don’t have a conventional essay structure here. There is no thesis statement, and the difference between a body paragraph and introductory paragraph is less pronounced. When responding to TOEFL Integrated Writing topics, you also don’t have a concluding paragraph per se. If you’re having trouble picturing exactly what this looks like, you can see an example task and model answer at the bottom of this post. You can also see some sample essays for this task in the official TOEFL Writing practice set PDF from ETS . (And this PDF contains TOEFL Writing samples for task 1 as well!)

Above all, remember that the key to a good essay here is simply to take good notes on what you read and hear, and translate those notes into a full essay. For more info on the best ways to do that, see my post on note-taking and organizing your answer in TOEFL Integrated writing . Those tips can help you even when you encounter a particularly challenging Independent Writing task. And for more advice to help you through harder prompts, see the section immediately below.

Dealing with an Extra Hard TOEFL Writing Task

In all of the years that I’ve been tutoring the TOEFL, the part of the test that seems to inspire the most extreme reactions in students is the TOEFL Integrated Writing task. Students either happily breeze right through it or get very stressed out. Why? Because the difficulty levels on this task can vary so much! This, combined with the general complexity of the task, makes TOEFL Integrated Writing challenging for the average TOEFL test taker.

Ultimately, the TOEFL Integrated Writing task may be the hardest part of the TOEFL. This task requires not only keen English language skills, but also good analytical abilities. You need to bring together different, opposing ideas from the lecture and passage. This is a complicated job. And to make things even harder, the task comes almost at the very end of the test, when most test-takers are exhausted.

Some TOEFL Integrated Writing topics are harder than others. And if you get a hard Integrated Writing Task, you could be in danger of “blowing” your whole TOEFL IBT Writing section—doing badly on both tasks! An unusually difficult Integrated Writing task can leave you so tired and frustrated that you aren’t able to focus on the easier second TOEFL Writing Task.

So if you come across a harder-than-usual Integrated Writing Task on test day, make sure you handle it carefully. With the right strategies, a really tough TOEFL Writing Task 1 doesn’t need to hurt your TOEFL score at all.

Early detection of hard TOEFL Integrated Writing Topics

The worst thing you can do is not notice how hard an Integrated Writing Task is. If you mistakenly think an Integrated Writing task is relatively easy, you won’t plan for it correctly.

So try to immediately notice how complicated a task is. You should be able to tell just by looking at the reading passage, since the passage is the basis for the lecture. If the passage seems unusually complex, make note of this and proceed carefully. Don’t miss anything important, and don’t lose track of time. It’s really easy to leave out key facts or run down the clock in TOEFL Integrated Writing.

When you come across a potentially hard Integrated Writing Passage, start trying to mentally paraphrase the passage right away. Figure out whether you are able to paraphrase the passage effectively. Paraphrases should be shorter than their source, and should change the original wording significantly. If you are having a lot of trouble doing this, the passage may be too difficult for you to paraphrase.

Strategies once you’ve found a hard TOEFL Integrated Writing Task

If the ideas in the passage are really hard to paraphrase and shorten, don’t panic. For these more difficult Integrated Writing passages, there’s a simple solution: put less of the passage information into your essay. If necessary, put nothing directly from the passage into your essay.

This advice may sound strange. After all, the official TOEFL Writing Rubrics , which are used for scoring on the real test, say it’s important to include all the big ideas from the passage and the reading. But for a harder Integrated Writing Task, it really does pay to adjust your approach in this way.

Think about it. If the passage is really complex, then the lecture that follows will also be complex. And if the passage and the lecture are both very complicated, it can become almost impossible to correctly summarize them both. You won’t have enough time, and it’ll be too hard to focus on absolutely everything in the prompt. The lecture will need to be the main focus, since the task itself asks you to focus on the way that the lecture challenges the passage.

The lecture will of course contain ideas from the passage, since the lecturer is challenging the key points from the reading. So paying attention to what the lecturer says will allow you to indirectly use parts of the passage. And with this approach, you run less of a risk writing an unfocused or incomplete essay.

How this strategy can affect your score

Also remember how the TOEFL scoring system works . If you get a task that is harder-than-average, the TOEFL will adjust your task score upwards at least a little. Relying only on lecture content might hurt your score a bit. But you have a good chance of recovering those lost points when ETS adjusts your score. On the other hand, if you try to take on all of the complicated content in the task and fail, your score could really suffer, even with ETS’s score adjustments for difficulty. Ultimately, getting a high score on TOEFL Integrated Writing is a matter of balancing your priorities and focus, regardless of the difficulty level of a given individual task.

A Free TOEFL Integrated Writing Practice Task

I have written and recorded a task for you that closely follows the real TOEFL Integrated Writing Task in length, content, and format. Read the passage, listen to my lecture and follow the instructions for an (almost) authentic TOEFL writing practice experience. To prepare, you may want to read some of Magoosh’s advice on this task. The official TOEFL Integrated Writing Rubric (page 2 of the linked document) may also be useful. And at the bottom of this post, you’ll be able to view a sample response to this task.

TOEFL Integrated Writing Task Practice

Directions: Give yourself 3 minutes to read the passage.

The “comics medium” includes newspaper comic strips such as Dennis the Menace and comic books such as Spider-Man. Scholars around the world agree that comics are a uniquely American art form.

The first commercially successful comic strip was Hogan’s Alley , a comic strip from the 1890s. Hogan’s Alley featured the Yellow Kid, the world’s first popular cartoon character. This strip and its character marked the beginning of comics and was American in every respect. Set in a low-income neighborhood in New York City, Hogan’s Alley dealt with the lives of ordinary Americans. It was written and drawn by American cartoonist R.F. Outcault. Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, two famous and influential American publishers, printed the comic strip in their newspapers.

The first popular comic book in the world was also American. Action Comics , a series that is still in print today, was initially released in 1938. It featured Superman, the world’s first superhero. Like Hogan’s Alley , Superman was American-created.

Americans invented comic strips, and Americans have exported their unique art form to the rest of the world. Japanese comics, called manga , were inspired by the comics that Americans brought to Japan after World War II. Popular European comics series such as Smurfs and Asterix are influenced by Disney comic books. Today, American-created Disney comic characters are more popular in Europe than ever.

The comics medium started in America. While it has spread around the world, even comics that aren’t created by Americans have an undeniable American influence. This is why so many art and literature scholars recognize the comic strip as a truly American art form.

Directions: Summarize the main points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenge the specific points made in the reading passage. You have 20 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response will be judged on the basis of the quality of your writing and how well your response presents the points in the lecture and their relationship to the reading passage.

Listen to the lecture here:

  Once you’ve completed the practice task, you can assess the quality of your answer by comparing it to this sample answer . Good luck!

Ready for a Full Writing Test?

If you’re ready to try the independent and integrated tasks together under test-like conditions, check out our full-length video Writing Test!

And if you want more writing practice, download the FREE TOEFL Practice Test PDF .

Plus, Magoosh TOEFL online prep has six practice tests with sample answers, video explanations, strategies and tips for the every TOEFL speaking question!

TOEFL Integrated Writing Task: Model Answer

I have written a level 5 answer, which you can read below. This answer is followed by some commentary on why this response would earn the full five points.

Model level 5 TOEFL Integrated Writing answer

In the passage, the author argues that comics are an art form that is very unique to the United States, but has been borrowed by other countries. The speaker corrects many things the author wrote about comics being an American art form. Although the writing says all scholars agree that comics are uniquely American, the lecturer says that in modern times, very few scholars agree with that.

The speaker then points out that, contrary to the writing, the first popular comic strips were not American. According to the speaker, 100 years before the first American comic strip, there were popular comic strips in Europe. The lecture also states that Hogan’s Alley , the 1890s comic strip described as American in the article, is not completely American because the comic characters were not Americans. Moreover, the publisher and creator of the comic were immigrants from other countries.

Additionally, the speaker disagrees with the article’s claim that American comic book Superman was the first popular comic book. Instead, the lecturer says the Belgian comic book Tintin was popular before Superman. Also, the author points out that Superman’s creator is Canadian, not American as the article says.

Finally, the speaker disagrees that American cartoon art influenced international comics, as claimed in the writing. He says that popular European comics have a uniquely European style. He also argues that Japanese comics are influenced more by traditional Asian art. Finally, the speaker notes that even American Disney comics characters are drawn by European artists.

Per the official TOEFL Integrated Writing rubric , this answer would get a score of 5. It outlines all the main points from the lecture. It explains how each main point contradicts or challenges the main ideas from the reading. It is organized well, with good transition words for each paragraph. It has no major errors, using correct grammar and vocabulary . Look at this model answer and the rubric linked above as you write your own answer to the sample task . If you need some extra help, you can find a writing template for your own response here .

I also have some resources specific to this essay prompt. For a guide on how to paraphrase as you respond to this specific prompt, see my article “ How to Paraphrase in TOEFL Integrated Writing .” And for advice on how to reise your TOEFL writing, using this model Integrated task as a specific example, see “ How to Revise TOEFL Writing .” All of this advice is applicable to other TOEFL Integrated Writing essays as well! (And it can also be applied to Task 2!)

Follow-up TOEFL Integrated Writing Practice

For more TOEFL Integrated Writing tasks from Magoosh, check our the additional free TOEFL Integrated writing practice task found in Magoosh’s complete guide to TOEFL Writing samples . You may also want to consider signing up for Magoosh TOEFL (you can try a free trial of Magoosh TOEFL prep without entering any payment info, and then “go premium” if you like what you see).

You can also go to “the source”—official TOEFL Integrated Writing practice from ETS. This free TOEFL Integrated Writing task , which focuses on the ecological practices of American companies (a typical Integrated Writing topic) is a good place to start if you’re looking for some quick official practice that you don’t have to pay for. Unfortunately, this readily accessible official practice task is flawed: it has a transcript of a lecture, rather than lecture audio. The only free official TOEFL Integrated Writing task with an actual sound clip for the lecture is the one in the official online TOEFL mock test .

David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he’s helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in many scholarly articles , his Master’s Thesis is featured on the Reading with Pictures website, and he’s presented at the WITESOL (link to PDF) and NAFSA conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru. Come join David and the Magoosh team on Youtube , Facebook , and Instagram , or connect with him via LinkedIn !

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45 responses to “TOEFL Writing Task 1: The TOEFL Integrated Writing Practice Task”

u shud have atleast given a sample answer for us to compare our answers to.

Really that you are complaining? This is a great exercises. Just be grateful!

They have given it under the audio. Can’t you see that?

Hello Rabia,

That’s a good point and an excellent request. To meet your request, I’ll write up an example answer ASAP and make a blog post about it. My post will include an explanation of my writing approach, and reference to the TOEFL Integrated writing rubric. As soon as my example is up and posted, I’ll link it to the comments here.

Have a great day, David

Still waiting for the example answer.

You can find the sample answer here: https://magoosh.com/toefl/2015/toefl-integrated-writing-practice-task-model-answer/ 🙂

thanks for share.it helps me.

Thank you so much, I found a PDF file that was so useful.

You’re welcome! 😀

This is a very helpful integrated writing practice, especially with the sample answer. However, I can’t seem to figure out what question the essay should answer. The directions just say to write a response, but they don’t give any direction as to what is expected in this response. Is this typical of TOEFL integrated writing questions?

Hi K.C. The essay question is in this post, but I think I know why you can’t see it— I’ve just realized it’s kind of oddly placed. Or rather, the lecture track is oddly placed in this post. The lecture audio link appears right below the directions and right above the question, so that the question itself is easy to miss. But look carefully below the audio and you’ll see:

“Summarize the main points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenge the specific points made in the reading passage.”

This specific task is typical of the TOEFL, but the confusing screen layout is not. The layout was likely my mistake when I wrote and uploaded this. I’ll check with my editor about fixing that. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

Hmm…And now I do not see an audio link. Thank you for making the task more visible, though.

Hmm, indeed. I seemed to be having some issue with the external link. I just hosted the file locally, and the sound file should be playable now.

hello sir/Mam I have a question regarding the integrated writing task….will the passage reappear even after the listening part?

Yes, the passage reappears on the screen after you listen to the audio track, and the passage remains available the whole time that you write your response.

Hello Can you please introduce a good source for practicing integrated writing task.

Sadly, there aren’t a lot of good materials out there for TOEFL Integrated Writing tasks, compared to Independent Writing. This is because it’s a lot harder to create an Integrated Writing Task— it requires writing a complete passage and recording a lecture. Still, you get one Integrated Writing Practice task in each and every exam in ETS’s official TOEFL books and materials. And Magoosh TOEFL subscribers get access to quite a few of these practice tasks too.

I’m also happy to tell you that I’ll be putting up a few more Integrated Writing Practice tasks in the next few weeks! Watch this space, Mazdak. 🙂

how to download the given audio? I need to download and copy it in the pen drive so as i can practice when internet connection is not available.

There’s a version of this track on Soundcloud that’s available for download. You can find the link to the track here: https://soundcloud.com/david-recine-1/comics . You’ll need to create a SoundCloud account if you don’t already have one. ( Registering for SoundCloud is fast, easy and free.)

i m not good listening practice and also i have problem in matching and choosing the correct point to reading passage how can i improve score

OK, if I understand correctly, you’re having trouble with the questions that come at the very end of a reading passage question set? The text insertion and prose summary ones? I recommend checking out our blog’s tutorials on those two question types. Here is our guide to TOEFL Reading prose summary strategy , and here’s our tutorial on TOEFL Reading text insertion . 🙂

The reading and the lecture are both about comic medium, which includes newspaper comic strips. The author of the reading believes that the comics are of unique American art form and that scholars all over the globe agree on this. The lecturer casts doubts on the claim made in the article. He thinks that when more study was done, scholars realized that the comic mediums were not uniquely American.

First of all, the author of the reading claims Hogan’s Alley to be the first commercially successful comic strip having first popular cartoon character. He believes that Hogan’s alley focused mainly on the lives of ordinary Americans and that the people involved in making it were all Americans. This point is challenged by the lecturer. He says that Hogan’s Alley was not the first successful comic strip with first famous cartoon character. He adds that during 1790’s many popular comic strips and popular comic character were from Europe, especially from Britain and Switzerland. He adds that the characters and publisher were not uniquely American but were immigrants as well. The publisher of Hogan’s Alley, Joseph Pulitzer was himself an immigrant from Hungary.

Secondly, the author states that the first popular action book comic was American which involved Superman – The first Superhero. He argues that the first popular action comic was American. The lecturer rebuts this argument. He suggests that 16 years before action comic was prevalent, Adventure of Tintin comic from Belgium was popular and it predates superman. He elaborates on this by mentioning that the artist of Superman was not from America but from Canada.

Finally, the author mentions that Americans devised and transferred the art form all around the world. He is of the opinion that Japanese comic strips were influenced by comic from America and that Americans created Disney character that was popular in Europe. The lecturer, on the other hand, feels that Japan and Europe were influenced by various other art forms. He says that Japan was highly influenced by the traditional Asian art and that the Disney characters popular in Europe were drawn in European style and art. He puts forth the idea that the comic strip is from all around the world and not only America.

Normally I don’t approve comments like this, since there isn’t time to review every sample essay that students try to post here. However, in this case, I’ve decided to approve this essay and give some feedback. Sanjay, I think this essay of yours can help other students who read the comments, for two reasons: First, it’s fairly well-written overall. Second, the mistakes you make are common ones. So let’s look at your strengths and weaknesses of this essay.

This essay is incredibly well organized! Sanjay, you did a great job of moving through both the lecture and the essay point-by-point. Also, the grammar and spelling is quite good— you do have a few mistakes in these errors, but the mistakes are so minimal, they’d have little or no impact on your TOEFL score.

WEAKNESSES Your biggest weakness is paraphrasing. Sometimes your wording was way too close to the original source material, so much so that your writing might be judged as plagiarism. This is especially noticeable in the second paragraph. (For more info, see my post on avoiding plagiarism on the TOEFL .) At other times, you misinterpreted information from the sources. For example, Superman was not the first successful action comic; “Action Comics” is the name of a publication, not a description of a kind of comic book.

Your transitions are a bit weak as well. Ideally, TOEFL scorers want to see transitions that are more descriptive— not just numerical words like “first” and “second.” For examples of more varied transitions, see the Magoosh TOEFL Writing Templates ebook, and check out Kate’s tutorial on TOEFL Writing transitions , and mine .

All in all, I’d put this essay in the 3.5-4 point range, per the official TOEFL Writing rubrics . Address those weak points, and you could get your score all the way up to a 5.

how many words should this part have?

The TOEFL doesn’t set any strict, official rules for word count in the TOEFL Integrated Writing Essay. However, ETS reports that most top-scoring Integrated Writing responses are between 150 and 225 words long.

Hey there David or Rachel….I don’t know with who am I talking with …:-) 🙂 But I wanted to ask you about the listening and reading sections. Do paragraphs appear while attending the question ?

Yes, you should be able to see the text (or a relevant portion of the text) when answering questions. 🙂

The passage claims the idea that the comic medium is popularly American, However professor refutes each of the claims by saying that comic medium is not popularly American it is influenced by the whole world.

The passage claims that Hogan Alley the most popular comic of 1890’s was the first successful comic and was developed by Americans, However professor refutes this claim by saying that Hogan Alley was not the first successful comic , In 1970 many comic strips were originated in Europe which were popular and successful.

The passage states that Action comic series which introduced superman as a character was the first popular comic series developed by Americans in 1938, However professor refutes the claim by saying that in 1922 Tin-Tin published in Belgium was the most popular comic ever.

The passage posits that The Japanese comics which are popular throughout Europe are influenced by American art and literature, however professor refutes the claim of the passage by stating that Asterics the most popular Japanese comic was influenced by Canada not from US.

Thus the professor refutes the reading by illustrating some facts and states that the Comic medium is influenced by al over the world it is not popularly American.

Can you please rate this answer

Hi Aakash! Unfortunately, at the moment, we don’t offer a TOEFL essay review service. However, to help you evaluate your response, I recommend the following. First, check out David’s sample essay here . You can compare your structure and the points you make with what David wrote in his essay 🙂 Also, I highly recommend that you check out this page , where we provide some guidelines on how to evaluate your own essays. I hope this helps, at least a little!

One question regarding scoring: although the TOEFL OG recommends essays of 150-225 words for the Integrated Essay, do you think that length correlates with score?

My point is all things being equal (coherency, grammar, vocabulary), would a longer essay tend to score higher than an average one?

In other words, do you think it is worth it to push it to the 250+ words in order to try to get a higher score?

Thank you so much!

Hi Sebastian,

Once again, my statements regarding your identical question for the independent essay apply. In addition, on the integrated essay, including too much (say writing 350 words and covering 6 main points) can demonstrate a lack of concision and an inability to distill the most important points from many. As this test is aimed at demonstrating your ability to handle academic-style writing, you want to showcase this in addition to grammar, argumentation and organization.

I hope that helps! 🙂

Great! I will follow your piece of advice! Apologies for repeating the question. I jut thought that since they were two different tasks, they could yield two different tactics and maybe scoring system. I just wanted to post each question in the appropriate post.

Have a great week and thank you as usual!

No worries, Sebastian! I’m sure these comments will be useful for future students 🙂

Best of luck as you continue studying!

Call me petty, but I would just appreciate Americans like you being totally accurate with facts that you feel you can confidently, expertly provide as subject matter for something that should feel as authoritative as a “lecture”. Joe Shuster was Canadian half by birth and grew up in Canada right into his teens. This time also included his first exploits as a writer for a publication. So it would be nice not to see folks like you casually whitewashing Superman as a wholly American creation. If I tried to claim conversely that Superman was actually just a Canadian creation in basically the exact same way, I’m sure there’d be no end to the uproar. We also helped to give the world the phone and basketball, just in case you planned on overAmericanizing those facts in other tasks too…

Jeffrey, I definitely hear you on that, and I tried to touch on that in the lecture. FYI, although I wrote both the passage and the lecture script, the lecture– which refutes the idea that comics are a purely American art form– reflects my own personal opinions a bit more. On an additional personal note, many of my favorite comic books– and many comics I feel have had some of the greatest influence on the medium worldwide– are made by creators from Canada and other places not in the USA. 🙂

This example has made my day, I’ve spent all evening trying to understand the difference between the lecture and the reading and it has made it more clear than all materials i consulted . Thank you so much, Very helpful.

So glad this tutorial and sample lecture helped, Denis. I had fun putting it all together too. 🙂

Thank you so much Mr. Recine! This example was spot-on! 🙂

Thanks for this sample test. Where can i get more task 1 practice test for my students?

TOEFL Writing Task 1 practice can be a little hard to come by, since it takes a lot of time to put together a proper Writing Task 1 (a passage and a recorded audio lecture). For fast, free TOEFL Writing Task 1 prompts, I recommend TOEFL Quick Prep . The first volume of TOEFL Quick Prep has a Writing Task 1s that come with transcript only, and no actual audio. Fortunately, Magoosh has made unofficial audio for all of the transcript-only lectures in both Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Quick Prep. (See our unofficial audio for TOEFL Quick Prep Vol. 1 and TOEFL Quick Prep Vol. 2 .) You can also get access to some additional free Task 1s if you enroll in ETS’s free official online TOEFL course .

Beyond those resources, there are some good paid resources out there, such as ETS’s official TOEFL books: Official TOEFL iBT Tests Vol. 1 , Official TOEFL iBT Tests Vol. 2 , and The Official Guide to the TOEFL . TOEFL Preparation Online (TPO) is another potential source of high quality official ETS Writing Task 1 practice, although it’s a bit expensive.

Last but certainly not least, consider a subscription to Magoosh TOEFL , if you haven’t already. 🙂 We offer six practice TOEFL Writing Task 1s to our Premium students, as well as many other practice questions and video lessons for the test as a whole.

The lecture challenges the points made in reading passage that comics strips and comics books are original art form from America, they started in America and comics created around the world are influenced by American comics.The lecture disputes the following claims made in the passage. First claim made in the passage is that the first famous comics strip was Hogan Alley and was published in 1890, however the lecture claims that it was not the first and further gives example for a comics published in 1790 in Europe. The characters in the Hogan Alley were immigrants and cartoonist RF Outcalt himself was an immigrant which means that the origin of the comics comes from another country. Second claim in the passage is that the first adventure comics published was in 1938 and was about Superman, lecture refutes the argument by giving example of comic book “Adventures of Tin Tin” which as Belgium origin and it predates Superman. Third claim made in the reading passage is that Japanese comics manga was influence by American, but the lecture contradicts it by claiming that it was influenced traditional Asian comics The last claim made in the passage is that European comics is also influenced by American comics, the lecture clarifies that by the example that even though the disney characters are famous in Europe but these characters are written as European disney characters by the Europeans. In conclusion, the lecture says that comics art were not first originated in America but they did exist in the world much before the comics became famous in America and that the comics around the globe is not influenced by American comics.

The passage and the lecture are both about the originality of comics. The author of the text states that all comics have been influenced by early American art forms. The lecturer, however, strongly disagrees with this idea. To begin, the text points out that the Japanese version of comics, called ‘manga’ were derived from the American comics. They had been taken to Japan after World War two. The lecturer contradicts this claim. He says that the manga relates more to Asian arts than American . Secondly, the author details how Disney inspired the many famous European comic series. He gives examples of Smurfs and Asterix, and how they are very popular. To this, the lecturer differs explaining how the writings, like hash-tag are European styled. Finally, detailing the studies made by scholars on America’s role in early comic industry, the author stamps comics as America’s undeniable creations. Despite this, the professor shuts down these data as rubbish. He explores the history of comics, and how there were many European comics before the start of American ones. In addition, he says that many original American comics were created by immigrants.

Both the reading and the lecture discuss the real origin of comic books and their history. The auther of the reading suggests that comics originally are an amercican art. However the proffesor explains that comics medea is an art actually shared by the whole world. First of all, according to the reading hongn’s aley is the fist popular strip figure disigned by an american. But the lecture opposes to this statement and explains that in fact alley was not the firt influencial strip caracter know world wild but actually lots of caracters made by imigrants from switserland had been there befoor him Secondly, the reading states that popular action comics books were invented by americans. Though the lecture points out that exion comics such as tintin, written in 1922 predated befoor the outcomming of for example spiderman. Finally, the author suggests that american comic strips as for example disney inspiered the creation of mangas on the other side of the world. Oposing to this, the speaker explains that disney had american caracters but the comics are actually made by europeens and traditional asian art developd on its own

Hi, would like to have some feedback. Here’s my response: The reading and the lecture are about comics. The reading as well as the lecture have specific mentions and opposing views about the origin and spread in popularity of comics The writer of the passage puts forth the point that comics are a purely American art form. In contrast, the lecture provides proofs against this idea. Firstly, the passage mentions the first commercially successful comic strip Hogan’s Alley. According to the passage, it dealt with ordinary Americans, was set in New York and published by American publishers. However, the lecture mentions that it was not the first commercially popular comic strip and that its publisher was an immigrant from Hungary. Second, the passage refers to “Action comics”, which featured Superman, as the first popular comic book in the world. The lecture refutes this point by saying that “Action comics” was not the first popular comic book. Tintin was published in Belgium 16 years before it and it is still popular. Also, even the artist of Superman was from Canada. Lastly, the passage mentions that comics were invented in America and then exported to the rest of the world. But the lecture opposes this idea by saying that traditional Asian art has more influence on comics than any other art has. Moreover, though the Disney characters were written in America, they were written and drawn by European creators. Thus, they were not truly American. This is how the lecture refutes the key points in the passage.

Hi Rk! Unfortunately, at the moment, we don’t offer a TOEFL essay review service. However, to help you evaluate your response, I recommend the following. First, check out David’s sample essay here . You can compare your structure and the points you make with what David wrote in his essay 🙂 Also, I highly recommend that you check out this page , where we provide some guidelines on how to evaluate your own essays. I hope this helps, at least a little!

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TOEFL Sample Essays: Writing Samples & Topics 2024

• TOEFL eligibility criteria
• TOEFL iBT home edition
• TOEFL reading practice
• TOEFL speaking practice
• TOEFL listening practice
• TOEFL speaking topics
• TOEFL writing topics

TOEFL writing samples

• TOEFL Validity

Table of Contents

Toefl writing section: an overview, toefl writing tasks, toefl writing task 1 - integrated, toefl writing task 2 - independent, toefl writing topics 2024, toefl essay samples for integrated writing, toefl essay samples for independent writing, toefl writing tips and preparation, what is toefl writing, can you get 30 in writing in toefl, is 23 in toefl writing good, is toefl writing on a computer or paper.

TOEFL is a standard assessment conducted by the Educational Testing Services (ETS) to determine the level of English proficiency in international students. The TOEFL exam assesses the candidate’s fluency in the English language through four sections: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Over 11,500 educational institutions in 160 countries accept the TOEFL exam as proof of English proficiency. Here we cover everything you need to learn about the writing section with TOEFL writing samples.

Data updated as of July 2023

TOEFL writing: Key highlights

• The TOEFL writing test evaluates your ability to convey ideas and opinions through writing.
• The TOEFL exam pattern has two writing tasks, and the section lasts 50 minutes. The maximum score you can obtain in the TOEFL writing section is 30.
• This section primarily determines your writing skills, as well as your reading and listening skills.

Also read : 10 tips to help prepare for the TOEFL exam

TOEFL writing pattern and syllabus

• The TOEFL writing section has two types of tasks: Independent and Integrated.
• The writing tasks have a score range of 0 to 5. The marks from two tasks are added and converted out of 30 to obtain your final score.
• The Integrated task includes a passage and an audio lecture on an academic topic. You have three minutes to read the passage and two minutes to listen to the lecture for this TOEFL writing task.
• This task requires you to obtain the key points and write an essay according to the question. The TOEFL essay topics are primarily from subjects including science, social science, and psychology.
• The independent task consists of a question on a personal topic, where you should share your opinion or provide your personal experience on the matter. You must provide valid details and examples to support your answer.
• You can expect questions like agree or disagree, explain both sides and pick from the opinions. The word limit for your answer is a minimum of 300-400 words.
• The TOEFL essay topics for the independent task comprise real-life issues like work-life balance, family, finances, travel, and life decisions.

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Here are some common TOEFL writing topics for integrated and independent tasks.

Also read: TOEFL sample essays: Tips and techniques for a high score

TOEFL essay sample 1 Question: Summarise the main necessity of the Atkins diet and explain how the speaker and the reading passage described their opinion on its benefits and rising popularity. Note: The candidate will have three minutes to read the passage and two minutes to listen to the exam during the exam.

TOEFL essay sample 2 Question: The lecturer and reading material have expressed their opinion about the American Civil War. Explain the thoughts and the reasons they have put forth in the lecture. Note: The candidate will have three minutes to read the passage and two minutes to listen to the exam during the exam.

TOEFL essay sample 3 Question: Summarise the main points of the lecture and reading passage, and explain how the sources justify their idea of humans coexisting with bears. Note: The candidate will have three minutes to read the passage and two minutes to listen to the exam during the exam.

TOEFL essay sample 1 Question: Do you agree or disagree with the below statement? A mother plays a vital role in taking care of the child compared to the father. Use examples to support your opinion.

TOEFL essay sample 2 Question: Some people choose to travel in groups, while others like to explore alone. Which one do you prefer? Use examples to support your choice.

TOEFL essay sample 3 Question: When you face an issue in life, what do you think is the best decision: ask an experienced person for advice, find possible solutions from the internet, or take time to think about the issue?

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• Understand the different question types and formats in the TOEFL writing section. Learn about the structure and other requirements for integrated and independent essays. 
• Review sample questions and get familiar with the question’s specific requirements and structure.
• Set a timer and practice the TOEFL essay topics within the designated time limits. This will help you manage your time effectively.
• Improve your vocabulary and learn to use new words in your writing. This will allow you to express your ideas and opinions more effectively. Review grammar rules and practice applying them when you practice.
• Before you start writing, spend a few minutes organising your ideas. Create an outline that includes the introduction, body paragraphs with supporting details, and conclusion.

Also read: TOEFL vocabulary list: Essential words for success

Frequently asked questions

The TOEFL writing test evaluates the candidate’s ability to express their ideas and opinions through writing. The section has two writing tasks, integrated and independent, lasting 50 minutes. The maximum score for the TOEFL writing section is 30.

You can achieve a perfect score of 30 in the TOEFL writing section. You should practice and improve your writing abilities. This includes writing well-organised essays with clear introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions. You should also be able to express ideas and arguments effectively. Ensure you improve your vocabulary, grammar usage, and sentence structures.

The maximum score a candidate can obtain in the TOEFL writing test is 30. So a score of 23 in the section is considered good by several educational institutions abroad.

The candidates can only attend the TOEFL writing test on a computer. ETS discontinued the TOEFL paper-based test (PBT) in 2021, so you can take the assessment on a computer in the designated test centre or at home.

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Toefl writing task 2 – the essay.

The second question in the TOEFL writing section is an essay. You have 30 minutes to write a persuasive essay with a minimum of 300 words .

You are given a statement and must agree or disagree. Here is an example question:

• “When people succeed, it is because of hard work. Luck has nothing to do with success.” Do you agree or disagree with the quotation above?  Use specific reasons and examples to explain your position.

The essay should have a clear format:

Introduction

• Body Paragraph 1
• Body Paragraph 2
• Body Paragraph 3

The Writing Process

The 3 steps in the writing process are Planning , Writing , and Editing . You need to dedicate time to each. For the TOEFL essay, you have 30 minutes. Break your time down as follows:

Don’t skip any steps because you are worried about the time limit. A good plan makes it easier to write, and good editing makes your essay stronger.

Dedicate time to plan your essay. The process is 3 steps:

First, decide on your opinion about the question. Next, form this opinion into a sentence called the thesis . Do not wait to decide. It should take you less than 20 seconds to choose an opinion. Pick the side you can support most easily. Write this into a thesis statement using words from the question.

Here is an example:

• Question: Should countries provide aid to other nations, or focus only on helping their own people?
• Thesis: Countries should not send aid to foreign countries.

Thesis Strategies

• Make your thesis directly related to the question.

Use the words from the question in your thesis statement. For example:

• Question: Does technology make life easier or more challenging?
• Thesis: Technology makes life easier.
• Make your thesis arguable and specific.

You must be able to argue either side of the thesis statement. People need to be able to agree or disagree with your thesis. The thesis cannot be a fact, quotation, or question.

A good thesis sentence should be specific, not vague or broad. Be careful using vague adjectives like “good”, as in this example:

• Studying in the morning is good.

How is it good? Using vague adjectives leaves you with a weak thesis. A good thesis is specific and direct. For example:

• Studying in the morning is more effective than studying at night.

Next, brainstorm as many possible supporting ideas as possible. The purpose of brainstorming is to think of as many ideas as possible. Don’t worry about if an idea is good or bad. Just right it down. Later, you will decide which ideas are good and which ideas are bad. You should be able to think of 5-10 ideas.

When brainstorming, ask yourself two questions:

• Who is involved?
• What is involved?

After creating a thesis and brainstorming, organize your ideas into 3 main arguments that support your thesis. This is your outline .

When grouping ideas, take your brainstorm and make 3 groups.  These are your 3 body paragraphs. Each paragraph should have 2 points. Here is a chart to help you organize your ideas:

Sample Outline

Here is a sample outline for the previous thesis:

• Students should live in apartments on their own rather than in dormitories.

With this outline, you are ready to write the essay. Next, take your ideas and insert them into the essay format listed in the next section.

Once you are finished your outline, you are ready to create your 5-paragraph essay. The 5 paragraphs are as follows:

The introduction establishes the purpose of the essay. It shows the reader what will follow. Here are the steps of the introductory paragraph:

• Introduce the topic without giving an opinion.

Use the ideas in the question to help you introduce the topic. Do not include your opinion in the first sentence.

• List both sides of the argument.

Restate the two sides of the argument. You can find these in the question.

• Write your thesis with the 3 points.

Use the question to form the thesis.  Include your three points using parallel grammatical structure.

Here is an example of an introduction.

Is it better to learn with a teacher or learn alone?

Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs explain your 3 arguments. In each paragraph you should have two or three main points. Within these points, make sure you use examples to support your arguments. Body paragraphs are structured as follows:

• Topic Sentence
• Supporting Point A
• Supporting Point B
• Concluding Sentence

Topic Sentences

The topic sentence is the first sentence in the paragraph. It shows what the paragraph is about. Your topic sentences should follow these guidelines:

• It must be a complete sentence.
• It is not in the first person (I think, In my opinion, etc.).
• It is an opinion not a fact.
• It is not a question.

For each supporting point , use the following format:

• Introduce the idea.

Use a simple sentence to introduce the main point or idea.

• Rent is cheaper in an apartment than in a dormitory.
• Explain the idea.

Describe how your idea is true.

• Often rent in an apartment is $200 cheaper than in a This is because a dormitory is close to

school, so it costs more.

• Provide an example.

Use an example to illustrate your point and make it more convincing. Use these phrases to introduce examples:

• For example,
• For instance,
• As an example,
• For example, at the University of Toronto, the dormitory rooms costs about $800 per month, which is much more expensive than a room in an apartment.
• Explain the significance.

This is where you show how your point proves your topic sentence and thesis. This step is the most commonly missed step in writing. Don’t forget it!

• The difference in rent prices shows how an apartment is better than a dormitory.
• Use a transitional phrase to move to point B.
• Another reason
• Another benefit
• Another cause

The sample point below is from a paragraph arguing why the Internet is the best invention.

Here is the full outline of a paragraph. On the left, you can see the features of the paragraph. The sample sentences are on the right.  The thesis of this essay is as follows:

• “High school students should have part-time jobs.”

The conclusion summarizes your argument. You should never introduce new ideas in the conclusion. The conclusion format is the reverse of the introduction. Here is the structure:

• Restate the thesis.

Use similar words, but do not make it exactly the same.

• Restate the arguments.

Use one sentence for each body paragraph.

• Conclude the topic by looking to the future.

This is the final sentence. Do not add anything new.

Here is a sample conclusion from the thesis that university students should live in apartments instead of dormitories.

Sample Essay

Cars are now a very popular method of transportation around the world.  They have benefitted society and allowed the world to grow. They have also created pollution and societal problems. Alternative forms of transportation should be developed and laws created to control car use.

Cars should be limited because they are bad for the environment. Cars release carbon dioxide into the air and contribute to global warming and air pollution. For example, large cities like Mexico City or Los Angeles have issues with air quality due to the large volumes of traffic. Another negative impact cars have on the environment is the land used to support the traffic.  Natural or green areas are destroyed to create infrastructure like parking lots and highways. Polluting the air and taking up precious natural areas are environmental reasons why car use should be limited.

Cars should be limited because they are dangerous for individuals and society. First, cars are dangerous for drivers and passengers.  A car accident is much deadlier and more common than a public transportation accident. Another dangerous aspect of cars is the impact on society.  People who do not use cars are also in danger. For example, cars can crash with pedestrians or cyclists. Cars are dangerous for society, so they should be limited.

Cars should be reduced because they negatively impact owners. Cars are expensive. People who own cars need to pay gas, insurance, and maintenance fees. In addition, they pay parking and tolls. This makes cars very expensive for the owners. Moreover, cars contribute to unhealthy lifestyles. People seldom walk when they own a car. These financial and health issues for car owners are good reasons to limit car use.

In conclusion, car use should be limited because of the negative impact on the environment, safety, and the lives of car owners. Hopefully governments around the world will begin to recognize the problems cars create. This would lead to less car use and more public transportation use, in turn creating a better world.

More TOEFL Writing Lessons and Strategies

Are you ready for more tips to help you increase your TOEFL writing score? Try these lessons:

TOEFL Writing Overview

Toefl writing task 1, toefl writing task 2 (the essay), toefl writing strategies.

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TOEFL iBT ®

The premier test of academic English communication

Learn more by selecting any step in your TOEFL iBT ®  journey.

TOEFL iBT Test Writing Section

The TOEFL iBT test Writing section measures your ability to write in English in an academic setting, and to present your ideas in a clear, well-organized way.

There are two writing tasks.

• Integrated writing task (20 minutes) — read a short passage and listen to a short lecture, then write in response to what you read and listened to.
• Writing for an Academic Discussion task (10 minutes) — state and support an opinion in an online classroom discussion.

You'll type your responses on a computer keyboard.

Test time:  It should take about 29 minutes to complete the Writing section.

Scoring: Writing tasks are scored based on the  Writing Scoring Guides (Rubrics) (PDF)  by a combination of AI scoring and certified human raters. Raw scores are converted to a scaled section score of 0–30.

Practice Your Writing Skills

Explore a variety of official prep offerings to practice your English-writing skills with TOEFL ® TestReady ™ . Get insights and feedback on your grammar, usage, mechanics and more.

Writing videos

Watch these videos to learn about the questions in the Writing section, plus helpful tips.

Question 1: Integrated Writing

Read a passage and listen to a lecture. Then write a response comparing them.

View Transcript

Question 2: Writing for an Academic Discussion

Share your opinion in an online discussion with a professor and other students.

Do you need to be an expert on the topics?

The writing tasks measure your English proficiency, so you don't need deep knowledge on a specific topic to get a high score. Score raters recognize that each essay is a first draft, and you can receive a high score with an essay that contains some errors.

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TOEFL IBT > Practice Tests > TOEFL Writing Samples: Practice Essay Topic And Questions

TOEFL Writing Samples: Practice Essay Topic And Questions

Are you looking for an efficient TOEFL test preparation guide ? Then you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we will be addressing the following key points:

• Know what abilities are going to be assessed during the TOEFL Writing test;
• An overview on the topic and texts you can have to work on;
• Discover what GlobalExam has to offer if you want to train to ace your TOEFL test.

Ready to maximize your chances to successfully pass the TOEFL IBT exam ? Then keep reading!

What Are the Assessed Abilities in the TOEFL Writing Section

The writing part of the official TOEFL test will allow you to assess the level of your written English in an academic context as well as your ability to structure writing in a fluid and synthetic way. You will have to answer questions related to essays talking about various topics for the Integrated Writing Question part of the test. The second part of the test, the Independent Writing Questions, will ask you to give your opinion on a particular subject.

We will be addressing the writing section in this article, however if you wish to get access to more resources, be sure to take a look at our article on TOEFL practice tests and questions for all the sections .

TOEFL Writing Samples: Examples of Topics and Texts

We will be going over some exercises for both types of essays for the TOEFL Writing section. If you wish to train for the other sections, please refer to these articles :

• TOEFL Listening practice questions
• TOEFL Speaking practice questions
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TOEFL Essay Sample 1 – Integrated Writing Question

You will find various sample essays for the TOEFL integrated writing task. If you wish to train more in-depth, make sure you take TOEFL mock tests regularly to practice for the exam in real conditions.

Sample Text 1: Stonehenge – Glacial Erratics

Several of the rocks which make up Stonehenge, one of England’s most famous historical sites, have been found to come from a nearby quarry in Salisbury, around 25 miles away from the site. These could have been transported by men using sleds or other rudimentary tools. Others, however, have been traced to another location in Wales, almost 200 miles away.

So, how did those rocks, called bluestones, make the long and arduous journey? It is unlikely that the prevailing theory is true; namely, that these bluestones were transported from one location to the other. The technology of the time would have made this back-breaking work, and it is unlikely that they would have gone to so much trouble, when they could simply have used rocks of a different type found closer to the site.

A new and exciting theory is called glacial erratics. This theory states that the rocks were, in fact, transported to the area far earlier by glacial movements during an icier interval in the Earth’s climate, and not instead by a phantom brigade of men.

Such erratics are widely known; we tend to think of the Earth’s climate as calm and tranquil, but on a historical basis, there have been several hundred thousand years where half of the planet was covered in glaciers. These tend to be slow but violent in nature; calmly and methodically carving their way through rock and earth.

Over many thousand years, it’s entirely possible that these glacial erratics transported the requisite materials to the site, thus solving the conundrum of how they came to be used in a field near Salisbury. It might also explain the unfinished-looking nature of Stonehenge itself; the interior part of it looks as though it’s missing a few pieces. Perhaps there were no more bluestones to use.

Question: Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt on specific points made in the reading passage.

Sample Text 2:

Supply side economics is an economic theory which states that the best way to run an economy is by lowering taxes and cutting regulations, thereby removing barriers to business and stimulating growth by putting more money into the hands of both businesses and consumers.

While the theory has its detractors, they cannot deny the benefits of this approach. During the 1980s, both Great Britain and the United States pursued this approach with great success. The economies of both countries grew exponentially during this period, and unemployment fell to near record levels.

In the United States, taxes were cut from a high of 50% in the early eighties to nearly 30% in the late eighties, something which caused the GDP of the country to shoot up, and also created the conditions for the economic boom in the nineties. In the UK, too, the cut in taxes stimulated the British economy a great deal. Indeed, in the seventies, the British economy was known as the ‘sick man of Europe’, due to anaemic growth rates and high unemployment.

Many at the time theorised that the United Kingdom was in permanent and possibly terminal decline. With the reduction in taxes, the removal of burdensome regulations on businesses and the corresponding growth caused by these actions, it is fair to say that the country recovered its erstwhile reputation as a good place to do business.

Question: Summarise the main points in the lecture. Be sure to talk about how they cast doubt on the points raised in the text.

Sample Text 3:

In response to rising concerns over the global obesity epidemic, an international health body is lobbying for additional taxation on unhealthy food. Under such a policy, the producers of these junk foods, which typically are nutritionally-low with high fat and sugar content, would have to pay extra in order to sell them in supermarkets or serve them in restaurants. However, opponents believe it will not succeed in making the population healthier for a number of reasons.

Firstly, people should be allowed to eat whatever they like without being punished for their decisions. When people choose to eat unhealthy things, they are aware that these foods are unhealthy but feel that the enjoyment they get from eating it outweighs the long-term health costs. Additional taxation would therefore only prevent people from eating what they enjoy.

Secondly, taxation would increase the price of certain types of food, but this increase would not be enough to affect purchasing behaviour. If a meal or an item at the supermarket were only one or two percent higher in price, it would be unlikely that consumers would even notice the tax. Ultimately it would simply mean these consumers would have less disposable income to spend on a more varied diet.

Lastly, it is not entirely evident that taxing junk food would result in people eating more healthy food. In this view, the problem is not the low price of less healthy food but the high price of healthier options. These would remain the same as before and these are what generally prevent consumers from purchasing them regularly. As a result, this policy does nothing to promote healthier food or cultivate more wholesome eating habits among the population.

TOEFL Essay Sample 2 – Independent Writing Question

Here are some more essay sample questions for the second part of the TOEFL iBT test. However, be sure to practice with TOEFL sample tests on top of these examples to be fully prepared for the test day.

Question 1: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? A mother is more essential to a child’s upbringing than a father. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Question 2: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The internet has been a good thing for society. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Question 3: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People who work in public services, such as doctors, nurses and teachers, should earn more money than people who are paid to entertain, like actors and sports stars. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Question 4: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Countries are becoming increasingly similar because people are able to buy the same products anywhere in the world. Use reasons and examples to support your answer. Question 5: Some people prefer going to live music events like festivals to listen to music. Other people prefer to listen to music at home. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your choice. Question 6: Some people prefer to learn a second language using blending learning which combines online lessons with exercises on a digital platform. Do you think this is a good idea? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Question 7: A large advertising company is looking for a new location for one of their billboards. They have identified an ideal position, which is clearly visible from a highly frequented central area of town. It happens to be on the side of one of the city’s high-school buildings. Do you think this is a good idea? Why or why not? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer. Question 8: Some people prefer reading news and magazine content online. Other people prefer to read the news in print. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your choice. Question 9: Some people prefer living in the countryside while others disagree and prefer to live in modern areas of the city. Which option do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Question 10: Some people prefer living in the countryside while others disagree and prefer to live in modern areas of the city. Which option do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

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Test Resources

TOEFL® Resources by Michael Goodine

Sample toefl agree/disagree essay – widespread use of the internet.

The Question

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? “Overall, the widespread use of the internet has a mostly positive effect on life in today’s world.” Use reasons and details to support your opinion.

This essay follows our TOEFL Writing templates for independent essays.  Note that we have many more sample essays  for you to read.

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The Sample Essay

          Most people agree that modern technology affects society in many different ways.  In my opinion, access to the Internet is enormously beneficial to both individuals and communities as a whole.  I feel this way for two reasons, which I will explore in the following essay.

           To begin with, online investigative reporting helps to expose political corruption and keep politicians honest.  In the past, there were only a limited number of news outlets, which often had deep connections to powerful politicians. As a result, they were extremely hesitant to criticize them. These days, however, there are many independent publications on the Internet that are willing to expose political misbehavior.  For example, an online magazine recently published a story revealing that the mayor of my hometown had taken bribes from a property developer. The report was so detailed and well-researched that the mayor had no choice but to resign. Although the evidence was not difficult to locate, only this independent website was willing to write about it.  This example demonstrates how the Internet helps to strengthen democracy in the modern world.

           Secondly, people are more motivated than ever to become politically active because they can freely exchange ideas online.  In countries all over the globe, people use social networking services to share their ideas and opinions. While in the past people might have thought that they were alone in their beliefs, today they realize that others share their ideas. My own experience demonstrates this concept.  When I was a university student, I learned that a municipal park near my apartment was going to be demolished to make room for a massive parking lot. This bothered me a lot because I enjoyed spending my free time in the park. At first I thought that there was nothing that I, as an individual, could do to stop this from happening.  However, I later joined a Facebook group dedicated to opposing the plan. When the members of the group learned how many people in the city loved the park we were happy to get together and enthusiastically protest in front of city hall until our voices were heard. I am convinced that finding each other on that social networking platform gave us the courage to actively protect our park.

           In conclusion, I strongly believe that the Internet has a positive effect on our lives.  This is because online journalism strengthens our democracy, and because social networking sites encourage people to  get involved in local politics. (411 words)

This essay was featured in a video lecture in 2019.

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