Writing is now two quite different things in one section: ten grammar-focused sentence reconstruction items, and two written responses to situations in academic contexts. The long independent essay of the old TOEFL is gone.
Test Ninjas Research · Updated September 11, 2026
Writing — at a glance
Attribute
Value
Items
12
Raw points
20 of 145 (14%)
Delivery
Linear — same tasks for everyone on a form
Band scale
1.0–6.0 in half-band steps
Weight in overall score
One quarter — all four sections are averaged equally
How the section is built
Composition
Part
Detail
Reconstruct sentences
10 items — grammar-focused, machine scored
Academic written responses
2 items — AI scored
Estimated time
About 23 minutes
Format
Linear — everyone on a given form receives the same tasks
What it asks of you
Reconstructing a sentence with correct grammar
Controlling tense, agreement and word order under time pressure
Writing a response appropriate to an academic situation
Organising a short argument without a five-paragraph template
Allocating about 23 minutes across two very different task types
Writing for automated assessment of coherence and grammar
How to approach it
Ten of the twelve items are grammar
Sentence reconstruction dominates the section by item count and is machine scored against predefined logic. That makes it the most directly improvable part of Writing: it rewards accurate, mechanical control of English structure rather than ideas, and it is practisable in a way essay writing is not.
The two written responses are the AI-scored part
Only two items call for constructed writing, assessed by natural language processing for features including coherence and grammar. They are responses to common situations in academic contexts, not the open-ended opinion essay the old exam used, so essay templates built for that format do not transfer.
Twenty-three minutes goes quickly
With two task types sharing a single clock, the risk is spending so long polishing the written responses that the grammar items get rushed — or the reverse. Decide your split before test day rather than discovering it under pressure.
Writing contributes one quarter of your overall band, the same as every other section. See what a change here does to your overall score with the TOEFL score calculator.
Most also require the GRE, which ETS administers alongside the TOEFL. Our GRE course covers Verbal and Quant in full, with adaptive practice tests and instant scoring.
Not in the old sense. The 2026 Writing section has two written responses to situations in academic contexts, alongside ten sentence reconstruction items. The long independent opinion essay of the pre-2026 exam has been removed, which makes most published TOEFL essay advice obsolete.
About 23 minutes for all 12 items — the ten sentence reconstruction items and the two written responses share that single clock.
A machine-scored task type asking you to reconstruct sentences with appropriate grammar. There are ten of them, making it the most common single task type in the Writing section, and it is scored against predefined logic rather than by AI.
No. Writing and Speaking are linear: everyone taking a given form receives the same tasks. Only Reading and Listening route test takers to different difficulty modules.