CELPIP Writing Task 1 (Email): what gets marked
CELPIP gives you 53 minutes for the Writing section — two tasks. Task 1 gives you a situation, tells you who you are writing to, and lists what your email must cover. It is marked out of 12, the same scale as every CELPIP skill, and that maps straight to a CLB level.
Paragon's own sample instruction says to write "about 150-200 words."
Note the word about. It is guidance on scale, not a threshold you are marked against. An email of 211 words is not penalised for being 211. An email of 90 words is usually short because it left something out — and that is the thing that costs you.
The rule that costs more than anything else
CELPIP's scoring carries one line harsher than any advice about length:
A response giving insufficient information to assess scores 0 or 1.
Not marked down. Marked out. Miss one of the things the prompt asked for and you are not losing a point off a 9 — you are risking the entire task, no matter how good the English around it is.
So before writing a single sentence: count the demands in the prompt. They are usually set out as bullets under the instructions — Paragon's own free sample test gives exactly three. Answer three. Then check you answered three. That thirty seconds is the highest-value time in the whole task.
A worked example
The prompt (original AlmiWorld practice prompt)
You moved into an apartment three weeks ago. The building's laundry room has been out of order since the day you arrived. Write an email to the building manager. In your email:
- explain the problem and how long it has gone on
- describe how it has affected you
- say what you would like the manager to do
The three demands: the problem and its duration · the effect on you · what you want done.
The email
Dear Ms. Okafor,
I moved into apartment 304 on the second of the month, and the laundry room has been out of order the entire time — three weeks now. The sign on the machines has not changed since the day I arrived.
It has become a real difficulty. I have been carrying my laundry to a laundromat six blocks away, which costs me about fifteen dollars and most of a Saturday each week. I work six days, so that is effectively my only free morning.
Could you tell me when the machines are expected to be repaired? If it is going to take longer than another week, I would appreciate knowing that as well, so I can make other arrangements. And if residents may use the laundry room in one of the other buildings in the meantime, I would be glad to be pointed to it.
Thank you for looking into this.
Sincerely, Adaeze Nwosu
Why this works.
- One demand per paragraph, in the prompt's order. A marker looking for three things finds three things without hunting.
- The effect is specific. Fifteen dollars, six blocks, a Saturday, works six days. Compare "it is very inconvenient" — which tells a marker nothing and could have been written without reading the prompt at all.
- The request is actionable and gives the reader a way to say yes. It asks for a date, offers a fallback, and suggests an alternative. That is what a real email to a real manager does.
Length: 191 words. Nobody counted while writing it — the three demands, answered properly, land there on their own.
Why the templates on sale will not get you there
You can buy fifty CELPIP email templates. Each gives an opening line, a closing line, and middle sentences with blanks.
They fail in one specific place: the blanks. The blanks are exactly where the marker is looking — the specific effect on you, the specific thing you are asking for. A template can carry your greeting and your sign-off. It cannot carry the content, and the content is what is marked.
Learn the shape — one demand per paragraph, specifics in the middle, a concrete request at the end. Then fill it with something true. It is faster than remembering someone else's sentences, and it cannot collapse when the prompt is not the one the template expected.
Try one
The quickest way to find out where you actually stand is to write one and be told the truth about it.