TOEFL iBT Writing: Build a Sentence and Write an Email

What you'll learn

Describe the Build a Sentence task and the grammar skills it tests
Describe the Write an Email task's purpose, structure, and general timing
Apply appropriate tone and completeness to a short, practical email response

Explanation

TOEFL iBT Writing now totals about 23 minutes and 12 items across three tasks: Build a Sentence, Write an Email, and Write for an Academic Discussion (covered in the next lesson). This replaced the pre-2026 format's two long essays (an integrated reading-listening-writing task and an independent essay) with a set of shorter, more tightly-focused tasks.

Build a Sentence shows you words or phrases in scrambled order and asks you to arrange them into a single, complete, grammatically correct sentence or question. Unlike the other two Writing tasks, this one tests grammar and sentence structure directly rather than broader written composition -- there's no argument to build or opinion to express, just correct sentence construction from the pieces given.

Write an Email gives you an academic or social situation -- making a request, giving information, proposing a solution to a problem -- and asks you to write a real, practical email response. Reporting on the current format commonly describes this task as taking around 7 minutes with an expected length in the neighborhood of 80-120 words, though exact figures can vary by specific prompt. Structure matters here: state your purpose in the first sentence or two rather than working up to it gradually the way an essay might, include every piece of information the situation actually requires, and match your tone to the relationship (a request to a professor differs from a note to a classmate).

For Build a Sentence, a reliable strategy is to identify the sentence's main verb first, then arrange the subject, object, and modifiers around it -- watch for words that only fit one grammatical role (a word that functions only as an adverb, for instance) since these can anchor the rest of the sentence. For Write an Email, state your purpose immediately, and treat any missing required detail (a date, a reason, a specific requested action) as an incomplete response, since leaving out something the situation calls for is a common way otherwise well-written emails fall short.

Practice Write an Email using the Writing self-review tool on this course's exam-practice page.

Common mistakes

Treating Build a Sentence like a puzzle with only one possible word order, when more than one grammatically valid arrangement may exist -- the goal is producing a correct sentence, not guessing a single 'intended' order.
Writing an email that's overly long or essay-like, when the task calls for a short, practical, purpose-driven message.
Forgetting to include a specific piece of information the prompt's situation requires (such as a date, reason, or requested action), leaving the email's purpose unclear or incomplete.

Knowledge check

1. What does the Build a Sentence task ask a test-taker to do?

Write a full paragraph from scratchRearrange scrambled words or phrases into a single grammatically correct sentence or questionCorrect spelling errors in a passageTranslate a sentence into another language

2. What kind of situations does the Write an Email task use as prompts?

Purely fictional creative-writing scenariosAcademic or social situations, such as making a request or proposing a solutionOnly formal business contractsPersonal diary entries

3. Which of these is generally a better strategy for the Write an Email task?

Building up to your purpose gradually across several paragraphsStating your purpose immediately rather than building up to it graduallyOmitting the greeting and closing entirelyWriting as long a response as possible regardless of the prompt's needs

4. What does Build a Sentence primarily measure, compared with Write an Email?

Grammar and sentence structure specifically, rather than broader written communicationCreative storytelling abilityReading comprehension speedSpoken pronunciation

Takeaway

Build a Sentence rewards grammatical accuracy in a single sentence; Write an Email rewards a short, complete, purpose-driven practical message -- don't treat the email like a mini-essay.

Summary

TOEFL iBT Writing now includes Build a Sentence (grammar/structure) and Write an Email (short, practical, purpose-driven communication) among its three tasks, each rewarding a distinct and different writing skill.

References

TOEFL iBT Writing section (ETS)

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