TCF Canada writing task 2: the 120–150-word article or letter

What the official instructions say

According to France Éducation international, task 2 means writing an article, a letter, a note… addressed to several readers. You report an experience or tell a story, and add comments, opinions or arguments that serve a specific goal, for example making a complaint or reconciling people. The expected length is 120 words minimum and 150 words maximum.

Compared with task 1, which is a simple message, three things change:

• You write for a group: the members of an association, the readers of a review site, your colleagues. Address them with « vous », or speak on their behalf with « nous ».
• The text has a recognisable format: an article needs a title, a letter a greeting and a sign-off, a note a clear subject line.
• The story serves a purpose: the prompt sets what your text must achieve (people signing up, a refund, an end to a dispute…), and the whole text has to lead there.

The official rules for the whole test apply too: the three tasks are done in order; a paper can be rated “A1 not reached” if a task does not respect the word count, is off topic or is missing; and a word is any group of signs between two spaces (« c’est-à-dire » counts as one word). With only 30 words between the minimum and the maximum, task 2 has the narrowest range of the three: aim for 130 to 145 words.

What the grader looks at

Each paper is marked by two graders trained by France Éducation international, independently and double-blind. On the computer-based test, the first marking of the writing may be done by FIDELIA, FEI’s automated marking-assistance system; the second is always done by a person. The published criteria, common to all 3 writing tasks and their scoring, are linguistic (vocabulary range, grammatical accuracy, spelling, how elaborate the sentences are), pragmatic (coherence, cohesion, development of the topic) and sociolinguistic (fit to the situation: forms of address, register, format). For task 2, they come down to five questions:

• Is the goal reached? If the prompt asks you to encourage other residents to take part, the text must end with a real call to action, not just « c’était bien » (it was nice). Justifying a choice or a position is one of the skills FEI lists.
• Is the story clear? Events follow in order, with past tenses under control: imparfait for the background, passé composé for the actions.
• Does the comment grow out of the story? Your opinion should build on what you have just told: that is what coherence and topic development cover.
• Does the format suit the readers? A title for an article, a greeting for a letter, a tone that fits the medium: that is the sociolinguistic criterion.
• Are the sentences elaborate? Relative clauses, the gérondif, the plus-que-parfait, varied linking words: that is the “degree of elaboration of sentences” in the linguistic criterion.

A 4-step method

1. Decode the prompt (2 minutes)

Before writing, answer four questions. For the prompt used below, that gives:

2. Plan four blocks (3 minutes)

1. A title or greeting, then one sentence that sets the scene (when, where, with whom): 10–15 words.
2. The story in the past, in three or four moments, in order: 55–65 words.
3. The comment: your opinion and two arguments drawn from the experience: 40–50 words.
4. The call to action or conclusion, which answers the goal directly: 15–20 words.

This split is not official, but it lands between 120 and 150 words and stops the story from eating the space the comment needs.

3. Write, watching your tenses (10 minutes)

In task 2, the story puts your past tenses on display. A simple guide:

The comment then moves to the present (« je suis convaincu que… ») and the call to action to the imperative or the future (« Inscrivez-vous », « La prochaine édition aura lieu… »). Changing tense from one part to the next is normal; slipping into the present in the middle of the story is a mistake.

4. Proofread and count (5 minutes)

Count the words first: over 150, cut the story rather than the comment. Then check the goal and the register, then agreement, tenses and accents.

One prompt, two answers: B1 then C1

Answer A — estimated B1 (135 words)

The answer covers the prompt: the story of the day, an opinion and a call to join in, plus a title. The paragraphs are clear and the tone suits a blog. But the story, which starts in the passé composé, slips into the present twice (« après on ramasse », « on parle »). The negation loses its « ne » (« que je connaissais pas »), and « Aussi » at the start of a sentence does not mean “also” in written French: it introduces a consequence (write « De plus »). The vocabulary goes round in circles (« très » twice, « c’est » three times, « on » five times) and the opinion rests on a single « parce que ».

Estimate: if all three tasks were at this level, the writing score would be about 8/20 (B1 on FEI’s scale), which is NCLC 6.

Answer B — estimated C1 (140 words)

Same day, same plan, but every block goes further:

Estimate: if all three tasks were at this level, the writing score would be about 15/20 (C1), which is NCLC 9. Both answers stay between 120 and 150 words, title included, counted with the official rule as our grader does. See how scores convert in our NCLC score chart, and find more task 2 prompts among our practice prompts.

Useful French phrases

To link the story and the comment without repeating « et » and « après », see also our guide to French linking words.

Costly mistakes

• Mixing tenses in the story. « Nous avons reçu des gants, après on ramasse les déchets »: switching to the present blurs the timeline. Once the story starts in the past, stay there until the comment.
• Forgetting the goal. A good story that claims nothing, recommends nothing or encourages no one only does half of what the prompt asks. Reread it before writing your last paragraph.
• Going over 150 words. Only 30 words of leeway: if you run over, shorten the story, never the call to action or the conclusion.
• Using the wrong register. « Salut tout le monde ! » in a complaint, or « Je vous prie d’agréer mes salutations distinguées » under a blog post: the format follows the medium and the readers.
• Telling without commenting. The prompt asks for comments, opinions or arguments: keep at least a third of the text for them.

According to France Éducation international (checked on 19 October 2026), re-marking requests for writing and speaking are suspended for sessions from 1 September 2026, for about a year; FEI plans to resume them in autumn 2027. It pays to get it right the first time.

Task 3, which comes next, is a different exercise: presenting two opinions in your own words before giving yours.

Task 2 FAQ