Starting January 21, 2026 you will write an email in the TOEFL writing section. You will have seven minutes to read the instructions and write the email.
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You are a student in Professor Kim’s sociology class. Last week, you submitted your midterm essay via the class website. Yesterday, you checked your grade and were surprised to see it was much lower than you expected. When you opened the file that was graded, you realized it was an older draft of your essay, not the final version. You still have the correct final version saved on your computer.
Write an email to Professor Kim. In your email, do the following:
- Clearly explain the problem and how you noticed that the wrong version was graded.
- Ask if you can send the final version and have your grade changed.
- Ask when you can expect a reply.
Sample Answer
Hello Professor Kim,
I’m writing because of a problem I experienced when submitting the midterm essay last week. I was surprised by my low score on the essay, and after I checked your comments I noticed that I accidentally uploaded an old draft and did not submit my final version. Would it be possible for me to send the final version this week and get a new grade for the assignment? I know this is an unusual request, but it is very important that I do well in this class, and a poor score on the midterm essay will have a major impact on my final result. Please let me know when you will let me know if this is acceptable to you.
Thank you very much,
Lisa Paulus
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