Prompt
You receive the following email from your professor.
Subject: Change to grading scheme for ECON 201 Dear class, After discussion with the teaching team, we are reducing the weight of the final exam in ECON 201 from 40% to 25% of the total grade. The remaining 15% will move to a new group project, due in week 11. Project teams will be assigned by the instructor next Monday. If you have concerns about the change, please reply to this email by Friday with your specific question or request. Best regards, Professor Tan
Instructions: Write a reply of 100-150 words. Address every point in the email and use a register appropriate for emailing a professor.
Sample response
Dear Professor Tan, Thank you for letting the class know about the change to the grading scheme for ECON 201. I support the shift toward a group project, since I think collaborative work will help us connect the macroeconomic theories to the case studies we have been discussing in lectures. I do have one concern about the timing. Week 11 falls during the same window as the midterms for two of my other courses, and I am worried that the workload may compress what should be a thoughtful project into something rushed. Would it be possible to release the project brief one week earlier so teams can begin scoping the work before that bottleneck week? I would also appreciate clarification on whether the project assessment will be entirely group-based or whether there is an individual component as well. Kind regards, Mira
Rubric breakdown
| Criterion | Score | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Organization | 5/5 | Standard professional email structure: greeting, brief acknowledgement, two clearly separated concerns, polite sign-off. Each paragraph addresses one point. |
| Development | 5/5 | Both raised concerns are concrete and specific (week-11 conflict with midterms; individual vs group assessment). Neither is generic. Reasoning is given for each, not just a complaint. |
| Language Use | 5/5 | Varied sentence structure including a complex concession ('I support... since I think...'). Mature vocabulary ('compress', 'thoughtful', 'bottleneck'). Zero grammatical errors. |
| Tone & Register | 5/5 | Professional but not stiff. Honorific greeting, courteous language ('I would appreciate'), framed as a question rather than a demand. Sign-off ('Kind regards') matches the register of the original email. |
What works in this response
- Hits all three required tasks: acknowledges the change, raises a specific concern, requests clarification.
- Names a concrete timing issue with reasoning, not just 'I'm too busy'. Examiners reward concrete reasoning.
- The clarification request shows engagement with the substance of the change — it's not filler.
- Length is well within the 100-150 word target (142 words). Going long doesn't help on this task.
- Hedged language ('I am worried that', 'Would it be possible') signals appropriate respect for the professor's authority.
How to push higher
At band 5.0 there's not much room to push without crossing into the 5.5+ territory that requires near-flawless idiom and rhetorical control. The one optimisation: the word 'bottleneck' is ambitious vocabulary used correctly — adding one more word at that level (e.g. 'compounded') would tilt the scoring.
Common mistakes at lower bands
At band 3, this task type usually fails on completeness — students raise one concern but forget the second required element, or write 'OK thanks' style replies that don't show engagement. At band 4, the response is complete but generic ('I am worried about my busy schedule') without naming specifics.
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