Here’s how the TOEFL Independent writing question works:

  • It is the second writing question on the TOEFL Test
  • You will be asked a question about your personal opinion and be given 30 minutes to write about it.
  • Questions can be about any topics, but they are most often about education, work and society in general.
  • There is no minimum or maximum word count, but I think you should write between 380 and 400 words.

Styles of Questions

There are four main styles of TOEFL independent essay questions in 2022.  They look like this:

Agree/Disagree Style (most common)

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Children should be required to follow strict rules set by their parents. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Do not use memorized examples.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Students do not respect their teachers as much as they did in the past. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.  Do not use memorized examples.

Multiple Choice Style (common)

Which of the following values do you think is best to teach to a young child?

  • being honest
  • being helpful
  • being patient

Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Do not use memorized examples.

Preference Style (common)

There are many different styles of classes at schools nowadays. Some students prefer classes where they interact with their teacher and other students. Others prefer classes where they just listen to their teacher speak. Which do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Make sure to use your own words. Do not use memorized examples.

Imaginary Situation (less common)

Imagine a situation where you have a school assignment and are unable to finish it before the deadline given by your teacher.  What do you think is the best thing to do in this case – submit an incomplete assignment, or wait until it is completely finished and submit it after the deadline. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.  Do not use memorized examples.

Note that questions are somewhat longer than in the past.


Coming up with Ideas

I get a lot of questions about how to come up with ideas about what to write.  To deal with this problem, check out my video.


How to Structure the Essay (Template)

To show you how to write the essay, I will use this question:

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Students do not respect their teachers as much as they did in the past. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Writing an Introduction

The first part of your TOEFL independent essay is the introductory paragraph.  You could follow this template:

  • Sentence One: The “Background Information”
    This is an interesting sentence that introduces the general theme or topic of the essay.  I recommend stating something that most people agree we should do:  “Most people agree that everyone in the world should…
  • Sentence Two: The Main Point
    This is your main argument and direct answer to the question. Start with “Personally, I believe that…
  • Sentence Three: The Transition
    Just use: “I feel this way for two reasons, which I will explore in the following essay.”

For the above question, the introduction could look something like this:

Most people in the world agree that everyone should get as much education as possible. Personally, I believe that young people do not have as much respect for their teachers as in the past. I feel this way for two reasons, which I will explore in the following essay.

There are a few things to keep in mind as you write your introduction:

  • Don’t waste time on the opening line.  It isn’t very important.
  • Don’t copy and paste from the prompt.
  • Write about 50 words.

Writing Body Paragraphs

Next you must write two body paragraphs that support your thesis. You could dse this template for your first body paragraph:

  • Sentence One: A Topic Sentence
    This summarizes your first supporting reason. Begin with “To begin with…“.
  • Sentences Two and Three: The Explanation
    Explain what you mean, without talking directly about a personal experience.
  • Sentence Four: The Transition
    Just use: “My personal experience is a compelling illustration of this.
  • Sentence Six to End: The Personal Example
    An example from your life that illustrates this argument. It should make up about 60% of the body paragraph.

This leads to a paragraph like this:

To begin with, there are many more ways for students to learn nowadays, which means they are less reliant on teachers than in the past. A few years ago, children could only acquire new skills by going to school and attending classes, so they respected their teachers a lot. In contrast, now they can easily use technology to learn independently. My personal experience is a compelling illustration of this.  For the past five years, I have studied English almost every single day. Although my native language is Korean, I am able to easily communicate in English without feeling any anxiety.  I expand my vocabulary by using a smartphone application that teaches me new phrases twice per day, and I practice pronunciation by watching videos on the Internet.  Consequently, I feel like old-fashioned classes with a teacher are not as important as they used to be.  If I had tried to become proficient in English twenty years ago, I would have depended on a teacher and respected her a lot.

Use a similar template for your second body paragraph:

  • Sentence One: A Topic Sentence
    This summarizes your second supporting reason. Begin with “Furthermore…“.
  • Sentences Two and Three: The Explanation
    Explain what you mean, without talking directly about personal experience.
  • Sentence Four: The Transition
    Just use: “For instance,
  • Sentences Five to End: The Personal Example
    An example from your life that illustrates this argument. Again, it should be about 60% of the paragraph.

That would result in a paragraph looking something like this:

Furthermore, teachers are no longer strict, which means children don’t fear them at all. If teachers fail to discipline students when they misbehave, they do not feel obligated to respect them. This problem is very common nowadays. For instance, a few months ago my little brother used profanity when addressing his math teacher.  Surprisingly, he wasn’t punished for this terrible behavior. His teacher was afraid of how our parents would react to my brother being punished, so he just ignored it. Since then, my brother hasn’t respected that teacher at all, and is often quite rude. In addition, a lot of his classmates have picked up on the fact that they can get away with impolite behavior and have started acting up as well. Based on this experience, I strongly feel that young people do not respect educators like they did in the past.

There are a few things to keep in mind as you write the body paragraphs:

  • Use a mix of simple, compound and complex sentences.  This is mentioned as “syntactic variety” in the scoring rubric.
  • Emphasize the examples.  They are easy to write, so they should make up about 60% (or more) of each body paragraph.  If you emphasize them, you will make fewer mistakes. 
  • Avoid very short sentences (less than seven words) and very long sentences (more than 60 words).
  • Don’t start sentences with coordinating conjunctions.  The e-rater seems to dislike this.
  • Use a variety of discourse phrases (therefore, moreover, as a result, in addition, etc).
  • Write about 150 words in each body paragraph.

Writing a Conclusion

Conclusions are easy. You just need to repeat your thesis and your two supporting arguments.  Try this short template:

  • Sentence One: Restate the Thesis
    Paraphrase your thesis. Begin with “In conclusion, I strongly feel that…“.
  • Sentence Two: Restate the Two Reasons
    Just use: “This is because ______, and _______.

That will produce something that looks like this:

In conclusion, I strongly feel that children do not respect their teachers as much as they used to. This is because teachers are not as essential as they were a few decades ago, and they are too nervous to enforce rules.

Here’s what you should keep in mind:

  • Paraphrase yourself. Don’t copy and paste from either the thesis or the topic sentences when you write the conclusion.
  • Don’t introduce new arguments in the conclusion
  • Write about 40 words in the conclusion

Final Thoughts

That’s how you write a strong TOEFL independent essay.  There are a final few points that are worth mentioning here, of course:

  • There is no word limit.  You can write as much as you want.
  • In multiple choice questions you can totally ignore the choices you don’t pick.
  • The template works for all of the styles
  • Practice does not make perfect.  Proper practice makes perfect.  For help, sign up for my evaluation program.
  • You will not get punished for using a simple template.

Further Reading

We maintain a large collection of  complete sample essays, written using the above techniques.

You may wish to continue by reading our guide to the integrated essay.

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