Six Useful TOEFL Writing Tips

1. Keep a Journal
Undoubtedly, the best way to prepare for TOEFL Writing is to actually write consistently in English. And one easy way to do this is to keep a regular journal.

Write in your journal every day or every other day to ensure you’re always practicing your English composition skills. As you write, try to use an array of vocabulary and grammar, especially any new words or patterns you’ve recently learned.

If you’re not a fan of traditional journaling, consider creating a blog or online journal. Lang-8 is a free website that lets you post diary entries and other forms of writing in your target language. After you post an entry, native English speakers correct your grammar and offer feedback. This is an extremely helpful website and one I personally recommend (I’ve used it for studying Japanese), especially if you want to meet others who are studying English like you.

 
2. Practice Timed Writing
In addition to keeping a journal, practice timed writing exercises using high-quality TOEFL Writing prompts (you can also use our 13 original Writing topics). Doing this will help you get used to writing essays within short time frames.

On task 1, you’ll have just 20 minutes to write a response of 150-225 words. On task 2, you’ll have slightly more time—30 minutes—to write a longer response of at least 300 words. In total, then, you’ll have less than an hour to write two essays!

As you practice, make sure you’re timing yourself appropriately. You should also type your essays on a computer so that you’re giving yourself a more realistic test-taking experience. Once you finish, score your essays using the official TOEFL Writing rubric, or get a native English speaker to score them for you.

3. Look at Sample High-Scoring Responses
Not sure how to grade your own TOEFL Writing practice essays? Then try using sample responses to teach you what a high-scoring essay entails.

ETS has compiled several examples of TOEFL Writing responses in a free PDF. With this resource, you can see what high-scoring, mid-scoring, and low-scoring responses look like for both the Integrated and Independent Writing tasks.

You can also find many unofficial sample TOEFL responses online. Many of these aren’t particularly high quality, though, so use only those that contain realistic TOEFL prompts and essays. One website I highly recommend is TOEFL Resources, which offers dozens of sample high-scoring responses for a variety of official and unofficial Writing prompts.

4. Memorize Common Transitions
Another tip is to memorize transitions. Transitions are words and phrases that connect similar thoughts or indicate changes in thought. On TOEFL Writing, transitions can make your writing sound smoother and help your thoughts flow better.

Below are some examples of these transitions:

First
Second
Next
Also
Additionally
In addition
Furthermore
Moreover
Finally
Lastly
However
Therefore
For example
 

5. Make an Outline
On test day, before you begin writing your essay, it’s important to take time to come up with a brief outline of what you plan to write about.

Using your scratch paper, jot down the three main points you want to discuss as well as any key details or examples you can use to support your points. Your outline doesn’t need to be super detailed, so feel free to just write down a few keywords—don’t bother writing full sentences!

Additionally, don’t write any introductions or conclusions; this information isn’t critical to your essay, and you can come up with ideas for these as you get closer to the end of your writing time. 

6. Use Your Time Wisely
On both Writing tasks, try to spend most of your time actually writing out your essays. For the Integrated task, spend no more than two or three minutes making an outline. And for the Independent task, spend no more than five minutes.

If you didn’t finish reading the passage for the Integrated task, it’s OK to use some of your writing time to finish reading it—just don’t spend too much time doing this. In short, limit any passage reading (or rereading) to one or two minutes at most.