In this article, I’m going to share what I have learned from this book, “The Official Guide to the TOEFL Test,” the fourth edition. This time we will finish the remaining of writing task, integrated writing.
There are two tasks in the Writing section of the TOEFL iBT test. an Integrated Writing task and an Independent Writing task. The integrated writing task comes first and is considered as “integrated” because it requires some listening skill before writing.
This task gives you opportunity to show that you can communicate in writing about academic information you have read and listened to. The specific steps you will take are:
1. You will read a passage about an academic topic for 3 minutes.
2. You will hear a short lecture related to the topic.
3. You will be asked to summarize the points in the lecture and explain
how they relate to specific points in the reading passage in 20 minutes
How the Task is Phrased
If the lecture challenges the information in the reading passage, you need to summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt and challenge on specific points made, or how they answer the problems raised in the reading passage. On the other hand, if the lecture supports or strengths the information in the reading passage, you need to summarize the points made in the lecture and explain how they support the explanations in the reading passage.
Strategies for Preparing for the Integrated Writing Task
* You can take notes on your scratch paper. |
Scoring rubric
| Score | Task Description |
| 5 | * select the important information from the lecture successfully |
| 4 | * Generally good in selecting and presenting important information. * It may have minor omission, inaccuracy or vagueness. * It may have more frequent or noticeable minor language errors. |
| 3 | * A response at this level contains some important information. * It conveys only vague, global, unclear or imprecise connection. * The response may omit one major key point made in the lecture. * Some key points or connections may be incomplete and inaccurate. * Errors of usage or grammar may be more frequent or result in noticeably vague expression or obscured meanings. |
| 2 | * Significant language difficulties or omission of important idea. * Significantly misrepresents or omits the overall connection. * The response significantly omits important points in the lecture. * Largely obscure connection or meaning at key junctures. |
| 1 | * The response provides little or no content from the lecture. * The language level is so low that it’s difficult to derive meaning. |
| 0 | * Merely copy sentences from the reading. * Written in a foreign language. * Blank |
Here is an example:
1. A reading passage like the following will appear on your computer screen. You will have 3 minutes to read the passage:
In many organizations, perhaps the best way to approach certain new projects is to assemble a group of people into a team. Having a team of people attack a project offers several advantages. First of all, a group of people has a wider range of knowledge, expertise, and skills than any single individual is likely to possess. Also, because of the number of people involved and the greater resources they possess, a group can work more quickly in response to the task assigned to it and can come up with highly creative solutions to problems and issues. Sometimes these creative solutions come about because a group is more likely to make risky decisions that an individual might not undertake. This is because the group spread responsibility for a decision to all the members and thus no single individual can be held accountable if the decision turns out to be wrong. |
2. Then you will hear:
Narrator:
|
3. The reading passage will then reappear on your computer screen, along with the following directions and writing task:
You have 20 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response will be judged on the basis of the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the points in the lecture and their relationship to the reading passage. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words. |
Here is the sample scored response for the above question:
| The lecturer talks about research conducted by a firm that used the group system to handle their work. He says that the theory stated in the passage was very different and somewhat inaccurate when compred to what happened for real. First, some member got free rides. That is, some didn’t work hard but gotrecognition for the success nontheless. This also indicates that people who worked hard was not given recognition they should have got. In other words, they weren’t given the opportunity to "shine".” This derectly contradicts what the passage indicates. Second, groups were slow in progress. The passage says that groups are nore responsive than individuals because of the number of people involved and their aggregated resources. However, the speaker talks about how the firm found out that groups were slower than individuals in dicision making. Groups needed more time for meetings, which are necessary procceedures in decision making. This was another part where experience contradicted theory. Third, influential people might emerge, and lead the group toward glory or failure. If the influent people are going in the right direction that would be no problem. But in cases where they go in the wrong direction, there is nobody that has enough influence to counter the decision made. In other words, the group might turn into a dictatorship, with the influential party as the leader, and might be less flexible in thinking. They might become one-sided, and thus fail to succeed. |
Rater Comments:
There are several errors of spelling, word information, and subject-verb agreement in this response; however, most of these errors seem to be the result of typing errors common to first drafts. This writer does an excellent job of presenting the lecturer’s points that contradict the arguments made in the reading passage. The writer is very specific and has organized his points so that they are parallel with one another: in each of the supporting paragraphs, the lecturer’s observation of what really happened is given first, then explicitly connected to a theoretical point from the reading. The final paragraph contains one noticeable error (“influent”), which is then used correctly two sentences later (“influential”). Overall, this is a successful response and earns a score 5. |
In conclusion, we have reviewed how Integrated Writing is formulated. The test taker has to read a passage first, then listen to a lecture, and finally to summarize the idea developed in the lecture. Be careful that you have only twenty minutes for this task. All the content above is described based on the official guide.
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