TOEFL 2026 Writing: half the marks are sentences you assemble, not write
The 2026 Writing section keeps one task from the old test, drops the integrated essay, and adds two things the TOEFL never had: an email with a checklist, and ten sentences you build by dragging words into gaps. ETS's own points table makes the ten worth exactly as much as the two written responses put together. This guide covers each task as ETS defines it, how the editor and the drag-and-drop behave, and how the marking is done.
The three tasks
Counts, points and CEFR ranges are ETS's. The section is not adaptive: everyone on a form gets the same twelve items in the same order.
| Task | Items | Points | CEFR | Clock | What you see |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Build a Sentence | 10 | 1 each · machine-scored | A1–C2 | About 6 minutes for the ten | A two-person exchange. The reply is a sentence with its first and last words fixed and the middle empty; below it, a bank of words. You drag words into the slots. In the official practice test the bank held one word more than there were slots. |
| Write an Email | 1 | 5 · AI-scored | B1–C2 | 7 minutes | A scenario, an instruction and a bulleted list of what the email must do. You write into an editor with the To and Subject lines already set. |
| Write for an Academic Discussion | 1 | 5 · AI-scored | B1–C2 | 10 minutes | A professor's post poses a question; two students have replied; you add your own contribution of at least 100 words. |
| Section | 12 | 20 raw | 23 min | Linear; 10 machine-scored items, 2 AI-scored responses |
The section time is ETS's. The per-task clocks are those of the official practice interface; the Build a Sentence figure is what remains of the section when the two are subtracted.
The arithmetic that changes how you prepare
ETS scores each Build a Sentence item at one point and each written response at five. Ten items and two responses: ten points and ten points. Half of the Writing section's raw score is earned in about six minutes, by grammar you can produce under a clock — the right form, the right order, the right agreement — and nothing you would recognise as writing. Candidates who have prepared by practising essays arrive expecting the essay to be the section. It is half of it.
The other half is two short responses that are read by a machine for whether they do the task. The email's bullets are the task. The discussion post's question is the task. Length, elegance and vocabulary count only in so far as they serve those.
Each task, and where it goes wrong
Build a Sentence — 10 items, A1 to C2
Two people, shown as small photographs. The first asks something; the second's reply is printed as a template with its first word and last word fixed and a row of empty slots between. Beneath it sits a single row of words. You drag a word into a slot; a word you have used stays in the bank but greys out; drag it out of the slot to give it back. In the official practice test there was one more word than there were slots. Clicking a word does nothing — dragging is the only interaction, and on a laptop trackpad it is worth having practised.
The task, in ETS's terms, is to reconstruct a range of sentence structures — word order, agreement, tense, the position of adverbs and objects — in a sentence that answers the question put. The extra word is the test within the test: the distractor is typically a plausible form that the grammar of the fixed words rules out.
Where it goes wrong:starting from the bank instead of from the question. The reply must answer what was asked, and the fixed first and last words fix the sentence's frame. Read the question, read the frame, decide the verb, and only then look at the bank. When two words compete for a slot, the one the fixed words agree with is the one to keep; the other is the distractor.
Write an Email — 1 item, B1 to C2, 7 minutes
On the left, a bordered panel: the situation, an instruction in bold, and a bulleted list of the things the email has to do — ask, explain, propose, thank, confirm. On the right, the editor: To and Subject already filled, a toolbar with cut, paste, undo and redo, a live word count you can hide, and the clock in hours, minutes and seconds. The instruction is to write as much as you can, in complete sentences.
ETS ranges the task B1 to C2 and classes its context as academic-navigational: emails to an office, a tutor, an accommodation service, a club. The register follows the scenario — a request to a registrar is not written like a note to a flatmate — and the marking reads for it.
Where it goes wrong: writing a good email that skips a bullet. The bullets are the marking scheme in plain sight. Number them in your head, give each its own sentence or two, and let the word count follow. Seven minutes is one to read the panel, five to write, one to read back — the undo button matters more than any other control.
Write for an Academic Discussion — 1 item, B1 to C2, 10 minutes
The task that survived from the previous test. A professor's post, with a photograph, sets a question for a class discussion on the left; two students' replies, each with a position, sit on the right above the same editor. Your contribution has to be at least 100 words and, in ETS's description, a clear, well-supported argument in an academic paragraph using varied grammar and vocabulary.
Where it goes wrong:agreeing with one student and repeating them. A contribution to a discussion adds something: a reason neither student gave, an example, a qualification. State a position in the first sentence, give it one developed reason and one concrete example, and refer to a student's point only to build on it or push against it. A hundred words is a floor, not a target; a hundred and fifty organised words is the shape the descriptors reward.
What the screen does
- The counter restarts per task type. The ten Build a Sentence items are numbered 1 to 10; the two written responses are numbered 1 and 2. You are not on question 11 of 12 when the email opens.
- Each task has its own clock, shown to the second, with a control to hide it. Time is not shared across tasks.
- Leaving early is final. Pressing Next with time remaining brings up a confirmation, because you will not be able to return. There is no reason to accept it: an early finish on the email is reading time on the email.
- The editor is plain. Cut, paste, undo, redo, word count. No formatting, no checker.
- Drag, do not click. Build a Sentence responds to dragging only.
What the CEFR ranges mean in this section
ETS's descriptors and evidence statements for Writing, condensed:
A1–A2
Write simple, isolated phrases and basic sentences; produce short expressions for immediate needs; write short notes, messages and personal letters expressing basic sentiments such as thanks or apologies; convey straightforward information in familiar contexts in simple language. In ETS's evidence statements, this is the level at which a candidate can reconstruct a range of sentence structures.
B1–B2
Write connected text on familiar topics; describe experiences and give basic explanations or opinions; produce short essays or reports; write clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects; express feelings and the significance of events in correspondence; present arguments and support a point of view. ETS's evidence statements: reasonably clear, organised multi-sentence text, and mostly relevant paragraph-length text appropriate to an academic context.
C1–C2
Produce well-structured, coherent text expressing a viewpoint at length; convey complex information and nuanced attitudes in formal and informal writing; write expositions on complex subjects with the key issues emphasised; write clear, smoothly flowing text in an appropriate style across genres; develop complex ideas logically and persuasively; write with high grammatical accuracy and stylistic control.
Two things follow. Build a Sentence spans the whole scale, A1 to C2, so the ten items are not all easy: the later ones assemble clauses, not phrases. And both written tasks start at B1 — a candidate below that level is not expected to score on them, and should spend the preparation on the sentences.
Preparing for the section as it is
- Drill sentence assembly against a clock. Thirty-five seconds a sentence. The skill is recognising the frame — subject, auxiliary, verb, object, adverbial — fast enough to place five or six words without deliberating over each.
- Learn to read a distractor. Usually a wrong form of a right word: a plural where the verb is singular, a base form where the auxiliary needs a participle, a duplicate function word. Grammar names it.
- Write emails to bullets, in seven minutes, often. Give yourself a scenario with three required moves and a register. The habit to build is covering every bullet in complete sentences with a minute to spare.
- Practise the discussion post as a reply, not an essay. Position first, one reason developed, one example, a nod to a student's point. Ten minutes, over a hundred words, every time.
- Retire the old material. The integrated task — read a passage, hear a lecture, summarise — is gone. Time spent on it is time spent on a task you will not sit.
How the Writing practice here works
Ten Build a Sentence items with the exchange, the fixed frame, the one-row bank and the distractor, worked by dragging; an email with its scenario panel, its bullets and the same editor — To and Subject set, cut, paste, undo, redo and a live word count — on a seven-minute clock; a discussion post with the professor's question and two students' replies on a ten-minute clock; the per-task counters and the confirmation on an early Next. The two written responses are marked out of five on task fulfilment, development, range of language and accuracy — our reading of ETS's descriptors, since ETS publishes no rubric — with the sentences behind each mark quoted back to you.
Questions about Writing
How long is the Writing section?
ETS times it at 23 minutes for 12 items. The practice interface gives the email 7 minutes and the academic discussion 10, which leaves about six minutes for the ten Build a Sentence items — roughly 35 seconds each. Each task runs on its own clock; time saved on one does not carry to the next.
Is there a minimum length?
The academic-discussion task states at least 100 words. The email states no number; the instruction is to write as much as you can, in complete sentences, and the editor shows a live word count. There is no word count on Build a Sentence — every slot has to be filled, and the sentence has to be right.
Can I go back to a task?
No. Each task is timed on its own, and if you press Next with time still on the clock the software asks you to confirm, because once you leave a task you cannot return to it. Use the whole clock; there is nothing to save it for.
Is there a spell-checker?
No, and ETS's test-content page states that writing-assistance software is not permitted during the test. The editor offers cut, paste, undo and redo and a word count you can hide, and nothing else. Write as if no tool will catch a slip, because none will.
How are the two written responses marked?
By ETS's automated scoring, out of five each. The blueprint describes AI scoring as evaluating constructed responses with natural-language processing and machine learning on features such as fluency, coherence and grammar, against the task. The email is judged as an email — does it do the things the bullets asked, in a register that fits the scenario — and the discussion post as a contribution: a position, support for it, and language that is accurate and varied. Both are single scores; ETS does not publish a criterion-by-criterion rubric for them.
Which task matters most?
By raw points, Build a Sentence and the two written tasks are equal: ten one-point items against two five-point responses, ten and ten. So half of a candidate's Writing raw score is earned by assembling sentences correctly in about half a minute each, and a candidate who treats those ten as a warm-up gives away half the section.
Sources: ETS, TOEFL iBT Test: 2026 Update — Test Blueprint and Specifications (task types, item counts, points, CEFR targets and the section time), with the CEFR descriptors and evidence statements condensed from that document; per-task clocks, editor controls and drag-and-drop behaviour from the official TOEFL iBT practice interface as observed. Checked 6 September 2026. ExamStep is an independent practice resource and is not affiliated with ETS. TOEFL® and TOEFL iBT® are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service.
In this series: the whole 2026 format · what changed · Reading · Listening · Speaking · The 1–6 score scale · registration, fees and dates.