Writing: Sentences, Edits, and Short Responses
What this section tests
TOEFL Essentials Writing combines discrete tasks - building grammatical sentences and choosing the best edit - with a short informal response to a prompt. Scoring rewards clear, correct, connected writing over length or ambition.
Concepts to master
- Sentence construction: every sentence needs a subject and a finite verb; avoid fragments and run-ons.
- Agreement and tense consistency: subject-verb agreement, and staying in one tense unless time shifts.
- Cohesion: use connectors (however, therefore, for example) to show the relationship between ideas.
- Register: the short response is informal and personal; contractions and first person are fine.
- Task completion: answer the actual question with a reason or example.
Common traps
- Long, tangled sentences - splitting them usually fixes the error.
- A connector that signals the wrong logic (using however where you mean therefore).
- Answering a related but different prompt because you only skimmed it.
- Overcorrecting: changing a sentence that was already grammatical.
Rule of thumb
For edit questions, read the whole sentence before the underlined part, name the error type (agreement, tense, word form, logic), then choose the minimal fix. For the response, use a three-part frame: state your view, give one reason, add one example.
Worked example
Sentence: 'The researchers, despite limited funding, was able to complete the study.' The subject is researchers (plural), and the phrase between commas does not change that, so the fix is were able to complete. Naming the error as agreement prevents you from rewriting the whole sentence.