TOEFL Email Task — Band 4 Sample Response (Group Project)

Prompt

A new prompt for this sample. The student receives an email from Professor Lin, who is moving the weekly group-project status meeting from Friday afternoon to Monday at 8 a.m. and asking the class to confirm and propose adjustments to the project timeline. Compare this with the prompt used in the band 3 policy-change sample and the band 5 lab-schedule sample.

Subject: Group-project status meeting moved to Monday 8 a.m.

Dear class,

Because of a department review on Friday afternoon, I have to move our weekly group-project status meeting for SOC 230 from Friday at 3 p.m. to Monday at 8 a.m., starting next week. The new slot will run for four weeks until the project is submitted.

Please reply to confirm whether the new time works for your team. If it does not, suggest one specific adjustment to the project timeline (for example, an earlier draft deadline or a shorter check-in) that would let your team stay on schedule.

Best regards,
Professor Lin

Instructions: Write a reply of 100-150 words. Address every point in the email and use a register appropriate for emailing a professor. For format guidance see the 2026 Write an Email template.

Sample response

Dear Professor Lin,

Thank you for letting us know about the schedule change. I have spoken with my team and the new Monday slot at 8 a.m. is workable for three of us, although our fourth member has a commute that makes 8 a.m. tight on Mondays.

Because of this, we would like to suggest small adjustment to the timeline. Could the first draft deadline be moved from week 6 to week 7? This would give us extra weekend to combine our parts after the Monday check-in, and we can still submit the final project on time.

Please let us know if this works for you. Thank you again for your flexibility.

Kind regards,
J. Almeida

Rubric breakdown

Each criterion is scored against the official ETS TOEFL iBT 2026 Writing rubric. For background on what the band numbers mean, see the 1 to 6 Writing scoring system and how band scores map to CEFR levels.

What works in this response

• The first sentence acknowledges the change before raising any concern, which is the polite ordering professors expect.
• The proposed adjustment is concrete (move first draft from week 6 to week 7), not vague. Examiners reward specificity over generic asks like "please give us more time".
• The request is phrased as a question, not a demand. "Could the first draft deadline be moved" is the kind of indirect ask a band 5 response also uses.
• Word count (121) sits comfortably inside the 100 to 150 range, with no padding sentences.

What to fix to push it to band 5

Five concrete revisions move this from band 4 to band 5. Each one is a sentence-level edit, not a structural rewrite.

1. Fix the missing articles.
   Before: "we would like to suggest small adjustment to the timeline".
   After: "we would like to suggest a small adjustment to the timeline".
2. Add a second missing article.
   Before: "This would give us extra weekend to combine our parts".
   After: "This would give us an extra weekend to combine our parts".
3. Make the fourth member's conflict concrete.
   Before: "our fourth member has a commute that makes 8 a.m. tight on Mondays".
   After: "our fourth member commutes from Riverside and her first train arrives on campus at 8:15 a.m. on Mondays".
4. Justify the timeline shift.
   Before: "Could the first draft deadline be moved from week 6 to week 7? This would give us an extra weekend to combine our parts after the Monday check-in".
   After: "Could the first draft deadline be moved from week 6 to week 7? Because the Monday check-in lands the same week the draft is due, we lose a working day, and a one-week shift restores the buffer your original schedule assumed".
5. Replace the awkward word choice.
   Before: "the new Monday slot at 8 a.m. is workable for three of us".
   After: "the new Monday slot at 8 a.m. works for three of us".

How to use this sample in your prep

Read the band 4 response once without looking at the rubric, then write your own reply to the same prompt under timed conditions (10 minutes). Score yourself against the four criteria above before you read the breakdown. Most students writing at B2 leak the same two or three things this sample leaks, missing articles, vague justification, one awkward word choice, so spotting them in your own draft is the fastest route to a band 5. For broader habits that lift Writing scores, see the 2026 TOEFL Writing tips.