Writing for an Academic Discussion Questions in TOEFL Writing

Recommended approach

Here’s my recommended approach for answering Writing for an academic discussion questions. We’ll use the example question to go through the steps you need to take.

Note: There are many ways to respond to a Writing for an academic discussion question. What I suggest here is an effective approach that is easy to remember and can be applied to any question you might get on test day.

Step 1  >  Read the professor’s question

The first step is to quickly read the professor’s question. Because time is so limited, you’ll need to skim most of the question. The main parts to pay attention to are the subject area (in the instructions at the top) and the professor’s direct question (at the bottom).

Here’s the professor’s question again. You’ll see that the important parts have been highlighted.

Instructions: Your professor is teaching a class on education. Write a post responding to the professor’s question. In your response you should:

• express and support your personal opinion
• make a contribution to the discussion

An effective response will contain at least 100 words.

Professor Abadi

There is some disagreement about whether students should be required to learn a foreign language at school. Some people argue that learning a foreign language should be compulsory because it develops cultural understanding and improves career opportunities. Others argue that with technological advances, most notably artificial intelligence, there is less need for foreign language skills. What is your view? Do you think students should be required to learn a foreign language?

Apart from the subject area, the instructions for Writing for an academic discussion questions are always the same, so there’s no need to read them. The professor’s post will be different each time, but you can skim all of it except for the direct question at the end – that’s the part you need to make sure you understand.

Step 2  >  Skim the other students’ posts

There’s no requirement to respond to the other students’ opinions, but you should still skim them. You’re asked to make a contribution to the discussion, so you need to make sure you’re not just repeating the other students’ ideas.

If it makes sense, you can briefly respond to what one of the other students wrote at the start of your post by using phrases such as While I understand Jake’s point of view, I think … or I would like to add to Sarah’s point.

Step 3  >  Make a quick plan

Time is very limited, so you don’t have time to make a proper plan. But it’s still useful to write down your opinion and any reasons and examples that come to mind. Only spend about 30 seconds on this.

There’s no rule about how many reasons or examples you need to include in your response. For some questions, you may only be able to think of one main reason for your opinion, which is completely fine.

The plan for this question might look something like this.

Step 4  >  Write an introductory sentence

In the first sentence, clearly state your opinion. Optionally, you can respond to what one of the other students wrote. You could also add this later if you have time and/or need to write more words.

Your introductory sentence might look something like this.

Step 5  >  Support your opinion

The next step is to add some support for your opinion by giving reasons and/or examples. You should use some cohesive devices (e.g. Firstly, In addition, However, For example, This, etc.) to help you organise your ideas.

Here’s some possible support for our example. Notice the cohesive devices, which have been highlighted.

Step 6  >  Check your work

The final step is to check your work. At this stage, you won’t have time to make any major changes, but it’s still an important step.

Things to check for:

• whether you’ve used an adequate range of grammar and vocabulary;
• whether you’ve used cohesive devices to organise your response;
• spelling;
• your word count.