Writing (Expression écrite, EE) asks you to produce three texts of increasing difficulty in 60 minutes. The big difference from listening and reading is that there is no correct answer: trained raters judge the whole text against a rubric. Which means the route to a higher score is not "learn more words" — it is fixing your structure, your register and your checking routine, all three of which can be turned into muscle memory before exam day.
This guide covers word counts and time allocation, how the 0–20 score converts to NCLC, what each of the four criteria measures, a template for every tâche, and a checking list that actually works under time pressure.
The exam at a glance (five numbers to remember)
- 3 tâches, 60 minutes in one sitting
- Scored 0–20 (not the 699-point scale used for listening and reading)
- NCLC 7 requires 10–11
- Word ranges: 60–120 / 120–150 / 120–180
- Suggested split: 15 / 20 / 25 minutes
Format: three tâches, longer and harder as you go
Tâche 1: short message (60–120 words, about 15 minutes)
Write a message, email or text for a given situation. Common ones: replying to an invitation, reporting a repair to a landlord, rearranging something with a colleague, answering a job or rental ad. Targets A1–B1.
This is not a test of style; it is a test of completeness and register. The prompt lists the points you must cover, and missing any of them hits task completion directly. Circle the required points before you start, and tick them off when you finish.
Tâche 2: article or formal letter (120–150 words, about 20 minutes)
Write an article, blog post or formal letter on a given topic — describing an experience, explaining a phenomenon, or arguing a point. Targets B1–B2.
Here organisation starts to count: the introduction, body and conclusion have to be visible. It is also where you show grammatical range — one past narrative, one conditional hypothesis, one subjunctive of necessity.
Tâche 3: comparative discussion (120–180 words, about 25 minutes)
You get two short documents presenting opposing views (remote work versus the office, technology in the classroom), and you must summarise both fairly, identify the key differences, then state and justify your own position. Targets B2–C2.
This is the tâche that decides whether you clear 10. Comparing without taking a side is the most common and the most avoidable loss — however good the French, an unfinished task cannot score at the top.
Scoring: how 0–20 becomes NCLC
| CEFR level | EE / EO (points) |
|---|---|
| C2 — Mastery | 18–20 |
| C1 — Advanced | 14–17 |
| B2 — Upper intermediate | 10–13 |
| B1 — Intermediate | 6–9 |
| A2 — Elementary | 4–5 |
| A1 — Beginner | 1–3 |
Converted to the CLB / NCLC scale used for Canadian immigration:
| CLB / NCLC | EE (writing) |
|---|---|
| NCLC 10 | 16+ |
| NCLC 9 | 14–15 |
| NCLC 8 | 12–13 |
| NCLC 7 | 10–11 |
| NCLC 6 | 7–9 |
| NCLC 5 | 6 |
| NCLC 4 | 4–5 |
For the full four-skill table and the requirements of each immigration program, see the TCF Canada score chart.
The four criteria, and what each really measures
| Criterion | What it actually measures | Most common way to lose it |
|---|---|---|
| Sociolinguistic competence | Register and format matched to the situation | tu with a landlord; a formal letter with no greeting or closing |
| Lexical competence | Range and precision | chose, faire, très and beaucoup throughout |
| Grammatical competence | Accuracy and complexity of structures | Simple present-tense sentences only; broken agreement |
| Discourse competence | Organisation, cohesion, argument | One undivided block; no connectors between points |
Worth noticing: two of the four criteria have little to do with how good your French is. Sociolinguistic and discourse competence measure whether you followed the format, split your paragraphs and did what was asked. They are the easiest to fill in during preparation, and the most commonly left empty.
Tâche 1 template: the five-part short message
| Part | Formal (vous) | Informal (tu) |
|---|---|---|
| Greeting | Madame, Monsieur, / Bonjour Madame Dupont, | Salut Marie, / Coucou, |
| Purpose | Je vous écris au sujet de… | Je t'écris parce que… |
| Detail | En effet, … / Le problème est que… | En fait, … |
| Request | Serait-il possible de… ? / Je vous serais reconnaissant de… | Est-ce que tu peux… ? |
| Closing | Cordialement, / Bien à vous, / Dans l'attente de votre réponse, | À bientôt, / Bises, |
The part most often forgotten in a formal message is the closing. A formal email without one is a visible loss on sociolinguistic competence, and it costs one line to fix.
Tâche 2 template: introduction, body, conclusion
- Introduction (1–2 sentences) — name the topic and say what you will address: De nos jours, la question de… se pose de plus en plus. / Je souhaite vous faire part de…
- Body (2 paragraphs, 3–4 sentences each) — one point and one concrete example per paragraph, joined by connectors: D'une part… D'autre part… / Premièrement… Deuxièmement…
- Conclusion (1–2 sentences) — close without repeating the body: En somme, … / C'est pourquoi je pense que…
Deliberately place one instance of each of these three structures. They are the most direct evidence available for the grammar criterion:
Conditional — Si j'avais plus de temps, je participerais à ces activités.
Subjunctive — Il est important que chacun fasse un effort.
Relative clause — Ce qui me semble essentiel, c'est la communication.
Tâche 3 template: the five-part comparative text
| Part | Purpose | Opening you can use as-is |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Introduce | Name the debate, announce the plan | Le débat sur… oppose deux positions. Je vais d'abord présenter…, puis… |
| 2. First position | Summarise fairly | Selon les partisans de…, … Cet argument repose sur… |
| 3. Second position | Summarise fairly | À l'inverse, d'autres estiment que… |
| 4. Your position | State it, justify it, illustrate it | Pour ma part, je suis plutôt favorable à… En effet, … Par exemple, … |
| 5. Conclusion | Synthesise; an open question is fine | En conclusion, … Il reste néanmoins à savoir si… |
Part 4 is the centre of gravity. State your position in one complete, unambiguous sentence — do not bury it in a subordinate clause. Compare:
❌ Les deux positions ont leurs avantages et leurs inconvénients.
✅ Pour ma part, je suis plutôt favorable au télétravail, car il permet de réduire le temps de transport et d'améliorer l'équilibre entre vie professionnelle et vie privée.
Connector table
| Function | Phrases |
|---|---|
| Listing | d'abord, ensuite, enfin, premièrement, deuxièmement |
| Adding | de plus, en outre, par ailleurs, de surcroît |
| Contrast | en revanche, par contre, alors que, tandis que |
| Concession | cependant, néanmoins, toutefois, malgré tout, certes… mais |
| Example | par exemple, notamment, ainsi, c'est-à-dire |
| Cause and effect | car, en effet, par conséquent, c'est pourquoi, étant donné que |
| Conclusion | en conclusion, en somme, pour conclure, tout compte fait |
A quick self-test: if a 150-word text contains no connectors at all, discourse competence is not going to reach B2.
The checking list (keep five minutes)
Run it in this order, highest return first:
- Agreement — do adjectives and past participles follow the noun (la maison est grande; les décisions prises)?
- Conjugation — right auxiliary (il est allé / il a mangé), consistent tense?
- Accents — a / à, ou / où, la / là, des / dès
- Word count — clearly short, add an example; far over, cut modifiers
- The required points — go back to the prompt and tick each one off
The first three are where nearly everyone's errors cluster. Removing three or four of them is enough to move a text from "broadly correct" to "good accuracy".
The six-week plan
The week-by-week schedule is in the HowTo block above. The principle is templates first. Writing is like speaking: there is no time in the exam room to build a structure from scratch. Once the three templates are automatic, 60 minutes is enough for content and checking.
Practising writing on HiTCF
HiTCF covers Tâche 1, 2 and 3: AI feedback grades against the four TCF writing criteria and points to the specific sentence whose register, tense or linking is wrong, rather than returning a bare score; the timed mock runs all three texts in a real 60 minutes so you can practise the split; and mistakes go into the wrong-answer notebook grouped by type — that breakdown usually tells you what to fix faster than any tip does.
Want to fix your target score first? TCF Canada score chart. The companion guide for speaking: TCF Canada speaking guide.