Two Tips for TOEFL Writing

Follow these two tips for TOEFL writing so that you can score higher.

Two TOEFL writing tips

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOEFL Writing Tip 1: Increase your sentence length

Generally, in academic writing, you should use sentences longer than 20 words. A good sentence length is around 25 words. Every now and then, you can use shorter sentences to draw readers’ attention to an important part of your essay. In addition, remember that ETS uses ERater, their artificial intelligence scoring engine. ERater will grade you based on your sentence length and vocabulary level.

TOEFL Writing Tip 2: Use longer college-level words in your essay

Aim at having an average word length of about five characters in the practice tests that you are writing.  Using longer college-level words will imply to ETS’s ERater that you have a high vocabulary level.

Example Introduction with shorter sentences and basic vocabulary

The below paragraph has an average sentence length of 10.6 words. In addition, the vocabulary is basic. Finally, the writer has some problems with sentence structure and ends the paragraph with a fragment: “Because of the following reasons.” Therefore, this paragraph receives a low Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level of 7.0.

Humans beings are very unique in different aspects. People’s success in life is based on their personalities. Those who have great qualities have high chances in life compared to those who have poor qualities. Personally speaking, I firmly believe that kindness is the best quality one can have. Because of the following reasons.

Edited Introduction with longer sentences and advanced vocabulary

On the other hand, the next paragraph is edited to reflect an average sentence length of 27 words. Moreover, the vocabulary used averages 5.4 characters. Because of these sentence length and vocabulary changes, this essay has a Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level of 16.  In addition, I added some general information about the topic and recast the thesis. Now the essay is more clearly framed. These sentence length, vocabulary, developmental, and organizational changes guarantee that this paragraph and its accompanying body paragraphs score 30/30 pts.

In this world live approximately 8.5 billion people, all of whom have unique personalities and whose success in life depends on certain attributes to help them get along with others. Some people exhibit honesty, some display incredible hard work ethics, and others display a sense of humor that eases stressful situations. Indeed, those who display these enduring qualities dramatically increase their chances of success compared to those who lack these important characteristics. Out of all the important characteristics that define one’s success, I firmly believe that kindness is most important, for this attribute simplifies the complexities of our lives, and it is an infectious behavior that others can follow.

Now you know two TOEFL writing tips to help you score higher on the TOEFL writing section.

Resources to help you improve your sentence style

The following lessons will help you to improve your sentence style and length:

Vocabulary resources for your improvement

In addition, included below are vocabulary lessons to help you:

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