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Quick answer
How does TEF Canada Writing Section A (Task A) work?
TEF Canada Section A gives you the start of a fait divers, a short news story about a local incident, and you finish it in 25 minutes. Le français des affaires asks for at least 80 words in several paragraphs, with no maximum. The safe answer adds new facts, keeps a news register, and leaves out your own opinion.
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TEF Canada writing practice with AI feedback in French
Write Section A and Section B against the clock, then get feedback on both tasks and a CEFR level estimate. Practice sessions are on paid plans. You can try the free Demo Mock Exam first.
Open TEF Canada writing practiceSection A, which many candidates call Task A, is the first of two tasks in the TEF Canada Expression écrite paper. You read the headline and opening lines of a press article and write what comes next. According to the Exemples de sujets TEF, Expression écrite published by Le français des affaires, the paper lasts one hour with a time limit per section: 25 minutes for Section A, then 35 minutes for Section B. Both sections count toward one writing result.
Key Takeaways
- Section A is the first of two writing tasks: at least 80 words, in several paragraphs, in 25 minutes.
- Finish the news story with new facts, not a personal opinion paragraph.
- The official tutorial says not to copy, summarize or reformulate the opening.
- For an Express Entry profile, IRCC asks for the Old score equivalence column of the certificate, which runs from 0 to 450 in writing; CLB 7 writing is 310 to 348 there.
- Use an event, detail, reaction, consequence plan, then check agreement and tense.
What is TEF Canada Writing Section A (Task A)?
Section A is an article-continuation task. The official sample subjects describe the document as the start of a press article from the faits divers column, and they give this standard instruction:
Voici le début d'un article de presse. Terminez cet article : en ajoutant à la suite un texte de 80 mots minimum ; en faisant plusieurs paragraphes.
So the form has two rules: at least 80 words, with no maximum, and more than one paragraph. A single block of text does not follow the instruction, however good the French is.
A fait divers is a short news item about a local incident: an accident, a theft, an escaped animal, a surprising discovery. It is the kind of story a local paper runs in a small column. The four official sample subjects include a lion missing from its cage at a zoo and an 80-year-old woman who catches two men stealing her car.
Your job is not to summarize the opening. The official Section A tutorial says "Ne recopiez pas le début du texte" and "Ne résumez pas ou ne reformulez pas le texte", then asks for the opposite: "Apportez des informations nouvelles, en faisant appel à votre imagination." It adds that the headline sometimes gives useful information. In practice that means names, places, causes, reactions and consequences that the opening does not contain.
Two correctors mark the paper independently, as the sample subjects explain. They assess la qualité et l'efficacité des textes produits (respect for the situation, overall organization, clear information, the ability to develop your points) and la richesse et la maîtrise de la langue française écrite (vocabulary, syntax, spelling). The situation here is a press article, which is why slipping into "I think" or dramatic storytelling works against you.
- Keep the register journalistic and neutral throughout.
- Add new information that fits the prompt logically.
- Use past tenses for reported events, present tense for current impact.
- Invent freely, as the tutorial suggests, but do not contradict the opening.
For broader timing across both writing tasks, see the 30-day TEF and TCF study plan.
What does a full Section A answer look like?
Below are two practice prompts that follow the official instruction. The first has a stronger and a weaker answer, with corrections. The second has a stronger answer.
First prompt
Une voiture finit contre un lampadaire
Mardi matin, une voiture a quitté la chaussée de la rue Principale, à Sherbrooke, et s'est immobilisée contre un lampadaire, devant une pharmacie. Les clients de la terrasse voisine regardaient la scène…
Voici le début d'un article de presse. Terminez cet article en ajoutant à la suite un texte de 80 mots minimum, en faisant plusieurs paragraphes.
Stronger answer
Selon les premiers témoins, le conducteur, un homme d'une soixantaine d'années, aurait perdu la maîtrise de son véhicule après un malaise. La voiture a traversé la voie en sens inverse, puis a franchi le trottoir avant de heurter le lampadaire, qui s'est plié sous le choc.
Les ambulanciers sont arrivés en quelques minutes et ont transporté le conducteur à l'hôpital. Ses blessures ne mettraient pas sa vie en danger. La pharmacie n'a subi aucun dommage, mais son entrée est restée bloquée par le véhicule pendant plus d'une heure.
« J'ai entendu un grand bruit, puis le lampadaire a vacillé. On a tous retenu notre souffle », a raconté une cliente de la terrasse.
La rue Principale a été partiellement fermée jusqu'en début d'après-midi, le temps de remorquer la voiture et de sécuriser le lampadaire.
This continuation adds new facts (the probable cause, the injuries, the road closure) instead of repeating the opening, and it splits them into clear paragraphs. The tenses are the ones a news report uses, with the passé composé for events and the conditional for unconfirmed facts (aurait perdu, ne mettraient pas), and the single short quotation is attributed to an anonymous witness. The writer stays in the third person and never gives a personal opinion.
Weaker answer
Le conducteur a perdu le contrôle de son voiture parce que il roule trop vite. Heureusement, personne n'a été blessé, mais le lampadaire est tombé sur le trottoir. Les policiers sont arrivé rapidement et ils ont demandé des questions aux témoins.
Une cliente de la terrasse a dit qu'elle avait très peur. La voiture est restée devant la pharmacie pendant deux heures et la rue était fermé.
Je pense que les gens doivent conduire plus prudemment dans le centre-ville. C'est très dangereux pour les piétons. Les accidents comme ça arrivent trop souvent à Sherbrooke.
This text reaches the minimum length and gives a few new facts, but the last paragraph turns into a personal opinion, which a news article never does, so that paragraph works against the task. Several agreement and gender mistakes and an anglicism weigh on the command of the language. The information is also thin: two short paragraphs of facts, then filler.
| In the answer | Better | Why |
|---|---|---|
| son voiture | sa voiture | voiture is feminine, so the possessive must be sa. |
| parce que il | parce qu'il | que drops its e before a vowel (elision). |
| il roule trop vite | il roulait trop vite | background circumstances in a past narrative take the imparfait. |
| sont arrivé | sont arrivés | with être the past participle agrees with the plural subject. |
| ont demandé des questions | ont posé des questions | anglicism from 'asked questions'; French says poser une question. |
| la rue était fermé | la rue était fermée | rue is feminine, so the participle takes a feminine ending. |
| Je pense que les gens doivent conduire plus prudemment... | a factual closing paragraph (for example the road reopening or a police statement) | a news article reports facts in the third person; personal opinion does not belong in the genre. |
| Les accidents comme ça arrivent trop souvent | Ce type d'accident se produit régulièrement, selon la police | comme ça is spoken register and the sentence is an unsupported opinion; a report attributes such a claim to a source. |
| Move | Question to answer | Example from the stronger answer |
|---|---|---|
| Event | What happened next? | The car crossed the oncoming lane and the sidewalk before hitting the lamp post. |
| Detail | Who or why? | The driver, a man in his sixties, may have lost control after feeling unwell. |
| Reaction | What did someone say? | A customer on the terrace describes the noise and the swaying lamp post. |
| Consequence | What changes now? | Rue Principale stays partly closed until early afternoon. |
Second prompt
Embouteillage à plumes
Jeudi, à l'heure de pointe, une famille de bernaches s'est arrêtée au milieu d'un pont. Les automobilistes ont stoppé et un cycliste est descendu de son vélo pour suivre les oisons…
Voici le début d'un article de presse. Terminez cet article en ajoutant à la suite un texte de 80 mots minimum, en faisant plusieurs paragraphes.
Stronger answer
La petite troupe, deux adultes et six oisons, a mis près d'un quart d'heure à traverser les quatre voies. Chaque fois qu'un klaxon retentissait, les parents s'arrêtaient et tendaient le cou vers les voitures.
Le cycliste a marché à côté des oiseaux jusqu'à la piste cyclable, puis les a guidés vers la berge en agitant doucement son sac. Deux automobilistes sont sortis de leur véhicule pour bloquer la circulation dans l'autre sens. Aucun blessé n'est à déplorer, ni parmi les oiseaux ni parmi les conducteurs.
« Je suis arrivé vingt minutes en retard au bureau, mais ça valait la peine », a confié le cycliste.
Selon la Ville, les bernaches nichent chaque printemps sur l'île voisine et ces traversées se répètent plusieurs fois par saison. Des panneaux temporaires seront installés dès la semaine prochaine.
The writer picks up the story where the opening stops and invents believable details that do not contradict it: the size of the family, how the crossing ended, the reaction of other drivers and what the city plans to do. Each paragraph carries one idea, the facts are in the passé composé with the imparfait for the scene, and the one quotation is short and attributed. The light tone suits an animal story without sliding into the writer's own opinion.
Unique insight: Weak Section A answers usually fail because feeling or opinion replaces facts. Le français des affaires asks correctors whether the information is vague or detailed, so put new, concrete detail first and keep interpretation to a minimum.
Which mistakes lower a Section A response?
Most problems in the 25-minute Section A come from format drift, missing new information, and unstable tenses. The form is short, so a single off-topic paragraph takes up a large part of the answer.
The most common drift is writing an opinion response. That belongs in Section B, not Section A. Another frequent issue is a generic opening such as "de nos jours" that ignores the news item entirely. A third is overusing direct speech: one short reported reaction helps, but a full dialogue turns the script into a scene.
Did you leave time to proofread? Spelling and syntax are named in the official criteria, so gender agreement, accents, and verb endings are worth the last two minutes.
- Avoid first-person opinion: the last paragraph of the weaker answer shows why.
- Do not copy the opening as your first sentence. The tutorial says it wastes time and earns no points.
- Write several paragraphs, because the instruction asks for them.
- Do not pad past the point where the story is complete.
- Keep 2 minutes to check agreement, accents, and tense.
How should you practice Section A?
A productive Section A drill takes about 30 minutes: 25 under exam timing, with the first 3 for planning, then 5 to annotate. That cycle is short enough to repeat several times a week while still leaving room for Section B work. Le français des affaires publishes four sample subjects for Section A and four for Section B, without sample answers, and they are worth pairing with timed reps.
Start with one prompt. Before writing, list four facts you'll add. After writing, label each sentence with its role: event, context, reaction, or result. If two sentences share a role, revise one. If no sentence delivers a consequence, add one. That makes the article feel complete without wasting words.
Use TEF Canada writing practice when you want AI rubric feedback on task completion, coherence, vocabulary, and grammar. Pair it with the CLB conversion tool to track your target band.
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