Integrated writing is an extremely common task type in life, especially at the college level. In fact, almost all of the writing you will do may be considered "integrated" to some degree. Integration means including ideas using one or both of your receptive language skills: reading and listening. At the most basic level, when we read or listen and then respond, we are using a receptive skill to support our writing. At the more academic level of this skill, you will express an understanding both of explicit and implicit information. This may include comparing/contrasting or providing your own opinion on the topic. 

Because this is such a common expectation of academic writing, you can expect to see integrated tasks in potentially any college course you enroll in. Typically a true integrated task would allow you the support of referring to the original material (or at least the notes you took) while writing. However, there may be instances when there will be a constraint of time (such as on a quiz or test). 

Writing about a topic you were expected to understand and drawing connections between different sources pushes you beyond a passive understanding to recreating the essential knowledge of the course in your own words.

Integrated Writing Expectations

When you start an integrated writing assignment, there are two main things to think about with the expectations: source content and task.

Source Content

Because you will be summarizing, comparing, or giving an opinion about the source material, you will first need to meet the expectations of comprehension for the sources. When you consider these expectations, think about the following questions:

• Is there one required source material or multiple?
• Is the content written or spoken?
• How complex are the ideas presented?
• What connections can I draw between the content and other concepts discussed in this (or another) course? Should I include these connections in my writing, or can I only write about the source content given now?
• What connections are there between the various sources?

As you read and/or listen, ask yourself some questions to make sure you get all of the necessary information:

• Who is writing? Who is the audience? Are people being discussed? (who)
• What is the main idea? What important details are included? (what)
• Is place important to this topic? (where)
• Is time important to this topic? (when)
• What purpose does the author have in saying/writing this? (why)
• How is the information organized? (how)

These are all skills you will continue to refine in your listening and reading classes. Pay close attention to the strategies you learn there and practice writing summaries of what you understood after each class period to practice this skill.

Task 

The next step is to make sure you understand what you need to do with the information you get from the sources.

Because integrated writing generally includes access to the source material in advance of writing and during the writing process itself, this will feel more like a drafted task. Sometimes you will receive the source material well before the essay is due, as in a literature class where you give an analysis of a book. Other times, like on the TOEFL, you will have a limited amount of time to work with the source content.

TOEFL Timed Writing Expectations

In the first integrated writing practice, you learned that integrated writing is a common task at the college level. Because incorporating ideas from outside sources through summary and synthesis is so important, it is a task included on the TOEFL. This section of the integrated writing practice focuses on the unique differences between a normal integrated writing task and the very controlled version you will encounter on the TOEFL.

It is important to first note that the TOEFL integrated writing task is not a true essay as you have likely learned to create. There is no introduction. There is no conclusion. There is no room for your own personal reactions and opinions on the topic. You do not write a thesis statement. You don't need 5 paragraphs with 5 sentences each. 

The TOEFL integrated writing structure is very prescribed, and the content is provided directly. The integrated writing task requires you to summarize and compare academic information.

Task format

You will have three minutes to read a passage about an academic topic. You should take notes about the main points that the author makes, but you do not need to write a lot because you will be able to see the reading again when it is time to write.

Then you will listen to a piece of an academic lecture that addresses the same topic that you read about. The professor that is speaking may have the same opinion as the author of the article you read, but the professor often has an opposing point of view. You need to take good notes during the listening. You can only listen one time. Make sure you listen for the main points you found in the reading.

You will have 20 minutes to write your response to the question.

Read the question carefully and address all the parts of the question. For example, in this example question, the primary task is to summarize the points made in the lecture. Then you should explain how they relate to points in the reading. Always answer both parts of the question.

Response format

Your answer will not look like a traditional essay because this task is not an essay. This task is a summary. In order to summarize the information they give you, you will typically need four paragraphs. The first paragraph will state the relationship between the reading and the listening (e.g., do they agree about the topic, or do they disagree?). The other three paragraphs will each focus on a specific point that was addressed in both the reading and the listening. You do not need a conclusion paragraph. An effective response will have approximately 200 words.

Be careful in your response to not summarize both the reading and the lecture. You should typically focus on summarizing the lecture. You should not copy from the reading passage word-for-word.

Scoring

In order to receive a high score on this section, you need to answer the question by writing about the important points from the reading and listening in a clear and accurate way.

Exercises