The Writing section assesses your ability to communicate effectively in written English within an academic environment. In college and university settings, writing is a crucial skill, whether for composing essays, research papers, or responding to exam questions. Strong academic writing requires the ability to clearly present ideas, organize information logically, and integrate content from different sources.

There are two primary types of academic writing assessed in this section:

• Integrated Writing – This involves combining information from reading and listening materials to construct a well-organized written response. You must be able to:
  • Take notes on what you read and hear, then organize those notes before writing.
  • Summarize, paraphrase, and accurately reference key points from the provided materials.
  • Explain how the information from the lecture relates to the reading passage.
• Writing for an Academic Discussion – This requires expressing and supporting your opinions in an academic forum. You will contribute to an online discussion by responding to a professor’s question, engaging with classmates' ideas, and clearly articulating your perspective.

The Writing section takes approximately 29 minutes and consists of two tasks:

1. Integrated Writing Task (Read/Listen/Write)

• • Read a short passage (230–300 words) on an academic topic (reading time: 3 minutes).
  • Take notes as needed. The passage disappears during the lecture but reappears when you begin writing.
  • Listen to a lecture (about 2 minutes, 230–300 words) that presents a different perspective on the same topic.
  • Write a response summarizing key points from the lecture and explaining their relationship to the reading.
  • Recommended response length: 150–225 words (no penalty for writing more as long as it is relevant).

1. Writing for an Academic Discussion Task (State and Support an Opinion)

• • Engage in an online classroom discussion.
  • Read a professor’s post and responses from classmates.
  • Clearly express and support your viewpoint, responding directly to the professor’s prompt or engaging with classmates' ideas.
  • While there is no word limit, a strong response is typically at least 100 words.

Scoring

Your writing responses are evaluated using a combination of AI scoring and multiple trained human raters. Scores are based on a 0 to 5 scale, considering:

• Integrated Writing Task – Organization, grammatical accuracy, vocabulary use, and completeness of content.
• Writing for an Academic Discussion Task – Relevance, clarity, and effectiveness in contributing to the discussion.

Raters understand that your responses are first drafts, so minor errors do not necessarily impact high scores.