Here are some notes / advice on the TOEFL email writing task.
This task is from ETS’s Teachers Resources, Test 1.
You are planning a business trip to another city. Your colleague, Maria, recently traveled to the same city for work. You want to ask her recommendations for places to eat and things to do during your free time.
Write an email to Maria. In your email, do the following.
Explain why you are traveling to the city.
Ask for her recommendations about restaurants and activities.
Mention what you’d most like to do and what you’d like to avoid.
To: Maria
Subject: Recommendations for Upcoming Business Trip
***
Here are some annotated notes and an answer that I wrote.
You are planning a business trip to another city (1). Your colleague, Maria (2), recently traveled to the same city for work (3). You want to ask her recommendations for places to eat and things to do (4) during your free time (5).
(1) The prompt doesn’t provide the city name. I would choose a specific city. Yes, I would invent a detail, but I’d use a real city name.
One of the new words that ETS has introduced in the new 2026 rubrics is “elaboration.” (入念)
A 5.0 essay: “elaboration is effective.”
A 4.0 essay: “adequate elaboration.”
A 3.0 essay: “elaboration partially supports the [email].”
A 2.0 essay: “limited or irrelevant elaboration.”
Since Tokyo is familiar to my students, I’m using that.
(2) If the prompt gives you the email receiver’s given (first) name, you should use it in your email.
In this case, I would use “Hi Maria.”
If I’m contacting my boss, I think I’d use “Mr. Johnson” or whatever name is provided.
If it’s to a professor, I’d use “Dr. Johnson.”
You don’t want to write too formally to a friend, and you don’t want to write too casually to a supervisor or professor.
(3) This is the reason that you are contacting her, and it should be in your email.
(4) Note that there are two requests for information: places to eat and things to do.
(5) The prompt doesn’t tell you when the free time is, so you should invent that detail. It’s a business trip, so I’d assume that the free time is on the weekend.
The writing task:
Write an email to Maria. In your email, do the following.
Explain why you are traveling to the city.
Ask for her recommendations about restaurants and activities.
Mention what you’d most like to do and what you’d like to avoid.
In the following essay that I wrote, the invented details (elaboration, 入念) are underlined.
To: Maria
Subject: Recommendations for Upcoming Business Trip
I’ve got a business trip to Tokyo next month. I’ll be meeting our Japanese partners for ten days. And I wonder if you can help me plan part of my trip. I remember that you said you had a good stay there last year. I’ve heard that Tokyo has a good restaurant culture, so if there are any restaurants that you recommend, I’d love to hear about them. I like fish and salads, but I don’t really like spicy food. Also, I’m curious about what weekend activities you’d recommend. We spend so much time in the office, so I’d like to get outside and experience the local culture if possible.
Cheers!
Donald Miller
110 words
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