CELPIP Writing Checker: Test 8
A grammar checker tells you a comma is wrong. A CELPIP checker tells you your register is wrong, your third bullet is missing and your survey answer switched sides. Write both tasks here and get the second kind.
Most tools that call themselves a CELPIP writing checker are general grammar checkers with a CELPIP label. They will find your subject-verb agreement and they will not notice that you wrote a stiff business email to a friend, which is a Task Fulfilment penalty, or that you covered two of three bullets, which is a bigger one.
What this checker actually returns
- A band on each of the four official criteria. Content and Coherence (30%), Vocabulary (20%), Readability (25%) and Task Fulfilment (25%), each 1 to 12, combined into a weighted overall band.
- Error highlights. Your mistakes in red with the correction in green, in your own text rather than in a list.
- A register check. Task 1 on this test is informal, and an over-formal answer is marked down for it. The feedback says so explicitly rather than leaving you to guess.
- A bullet-by-bullet coverage check. Three bullets, three verdicts. This is the fastest score improvement available to most candidates.
- A high-band rewrite. Your content, rewritten at CLB 9, so you can see the distance rather than read about it.
What is on this writing test
Task 1 is an informal email to your friend Omar, who has offered to lend you his pickup truck for a Saturday so you can collect a used dining table from a seller in Guelph. You have never driven a truck and the table is a good deal bigger than you first told him, and he has also offered to give up his whole Saturday to help, which you would rather he did not do. The bullets ask for the exact date, collection time and number of hours; a description of what you are moving and how you will load and tie it down, plus a question about driving his truck; and a kind refusal of his offer to come along, with how you will manage without him.
Task 2 is the Workplace Commute Survey. Your company will fund one commuting benefit for all 90 staff. Option A is a transit pass subsidy of $110 a month for anyone who gives up their parking spot, which removes 40 spaces so drivers cannot change their minds later. Option B is two fixed work-from-home days a week, with desks shared, only 55 desks kept for 90 staff, and a booking required the day before if you come in on a home day.
The refusal in the third bullet is the interesting part of this prompt. Declining a favour warmly, in an informal register, without sounding either curt or grovelling, is precisely the band that separates CLB 7 from CLB 9, and it is the thing a grammar checker cannot see at all.
CELPIP Writing format: tasks, length and time
| Task | Length | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Writing an EmailEmail to a named recipient, three bullet points | 150 to 200 words | 27 min |
| 2. Responding to Survey QuestionsChoose option A or B and argue for it | 150 to 200 words | 26 min |
| Total | 2 tasks | 53 min |
How the checking works
You write both tasks in the browser on the real clock, 27 minutes then 26, with the automatic advance the exam uses. Your submission is evaluated against the official 2026 descriptors and returned with the overall band, the four criterion bands, the feedback summary, the error highlights and the rewrite. It is free, and nothing about the checking depends on you paying afterwards.
Free, both tasks on the exam clock, with a band on all four criteria.
FAQs
What does the CELPIP writing checker look at?
The four official criteria: Content and Coherence at 30 per cent, Vocabulary at 20, Readability at 25 and Task Fulfilment at 25. Each is scored 1 to 12 and combined into a weighted band, and the feedback names what cost you marks in each one.
How is this different from a grammar checker?
A grammar checker cannot see register, bullet coverage or a survey answer that switches sides, and those are the three things that most often cap a CELPIP writing score. The checking here reports on all three, alongside the ordinary error highlights.
Is the writing checker free?
Yes. Both tasks, the exam timing, the band on each criterion, the error highlights and the high-band rewrite are all free.
What is on writing test 8?
Task 1 is an informal email to a friend called Omar about borrowing his pickup truck for a Saturday to collect a used dining table from Guelph, including turning down his offer to come and help. Task 2 is a workplace survey choosing between a transit pass subsidy and two fixed work-from-home days a week.
Does an over-formal email lose marks?
Yes. Task 1 on this test is informal, and an answer written in stiff business English is penalised under Task Fulfilment for missing the register the prompt set. The feedback flags it directly.