TOEFL Write an Email

What the task is

You are given a short campus-life scenario and asked to write an email for a stated purpose: recommending something, inviting someone, giving advice, or proposing a solution to a problem. The situations are practical university life rather than academic content.

The prompt lists what your email has to do, normally as two or three specific points. That list is not a suggestion about structure; it is the task itself, and it is what the response is measured against.

You are also told to write in complete sentences and as much as you can. There is no word count to hit.

Coverage is the thing most responses lose marks on

The most common failure on this task is not weak English. It is a well-written email that addresses two of the three required points.

This happens for an understandable reason: the first point is usually the most interesting one, and writing about it well consumes the time and attention that the third point needed. Under a clock, a good paragraph feels like progress in a way that a checklist does not.

The remedy is mechanical. Before writing, note the required points somewhere. Before submitting, check each one has actually been addressed rather than gestured at. Thirty seconds spent this way is worth more than any amount of sentence polishing.

A worked example

A prompt in the task's style, written for this guide.

«Your department has announced that the study space in the library basement will close for refurbishment next term. Your classmate Dani relies on it for group work. Write an email to Dani. In your email: explain what is happening and when; suggest an alternative space they could use; and offer to help them arrange it.»

Three required points, so three things the email must contain. Here is a response written for this guide, followed by why it works.

«Hi Dani,

Quick heads-up: the basement study space is closing for refurbishment from the start of next term, so it won't be available for our usual sessions.

I think the best alternative is the group rooms on the second floor of the science library. They're bookable up to a week ahead and they take six people, which is more than we've ever needed. The only catch is that they go quickly on weekday afternoons.

If it would help, I'm happy to book a regular slot for us at the start of term so we've got something fixed. Just tell me which afternoon suits you and I'll sort it out.

See you Thursday, Sam»

How to spend the time

Spend the first moments identifying the reader and the required points. Both decide things you cannot easily change later: the reader sets the register for every sentence, and the points set the structure.

Then write straight through, giving each required point its own space. Resist the urge to perfect the opening, because under a clock that is where perfectionism does the most damage.

Leave a short window at the end for two checks only: are all the points there, and is there anything a reader would stumble over? Both are worth more than hunting for minor errors, which the first-draft standard already tolerates.

• Identify the reader, because that sets the register.
• Note the required points before writing.
• One point per paragraph, so coverage is visible.
• Be specific; concrete detail is what makes a suggestion useful.
• Check coverage at the end, not spelling.

Common mistakes

• Missing a required point while writing beautifully about another.
• Getting the register wrong for the reader.
• Opening with a memorised formula, since prepared language is scored down.
• Being vague where the task wanted a specific recommendation.
• Spending the final minute on spelling instead of on coverage.

How to build the skill

Read real English emails and notice how they are built: how they open, how directly they get to the point, how they close. Institutional and workplace correspondence is the right register range, and it varies more than most learners expect.

For practice, write the same email twice to different readers: once to a friend, once to an administrator. Nothing teaches register faster than producing both versions of the same content.

Always check coverage before you look at anything else. If the habit is built in practice it will hold under exam conditions, which is exactly when it matters.