Citizenship · Writing Test Sentences

The USCIS writing test accepts which of the following as the best evidence of passing ability?

Correct answer

Writing the dictated English sentence with correct key words, legibly, in English — demonstrating basic English literacy

  1. A Writing the sentence from memory without being prompted
  2. B Writing in your native language with perfect grammar
  3. C Writing the dictated English sentence with correct key words, legibly, in English — demonstrating basic English literacy
  4. D Having someone else write for you

Why this is the answer

USCIS writing test standard: The naturalization interview requires applicants to demonstrate basic English writing ability. PASSING requires: Writing in ENGLISH (not a native language); Writing the CORRECT WORDS (key vocabulary from the dictated sentence); Writing LEGIBLY (officer must be able to read it).

Acceptable errors: Minor misspellings of secondary words; acceptable variations in word endings. The writing test has two parts: the sentence dictated by the officer and the sentence written by the applicant. The officer evaluates whether the written response demonstrates that the applicant understands and can reproduce basic English sentences.

Source: USCIS Citizenship Writing Test — Evaluation Standard

Practice more questions

This question is from our US Citizenship Test Practice practice test. Take the full practice test to test your knowledge across all Writing Test Sentences and other topics.

Take the Writing Vocabulary practice test →

About this topic: Writing Test Sentences

In the writing test the officer reads a sentence aloud and you must write it so that it has the same meaning; spelling, capitalisation and punctuation errors are tolerated unless they change the meaning. The words come only from the official USCIS writing vocabulary list. This is one of 25 Writing Vocabulary questions on writing test sentences, each with a full explanation on a single study page.

New to this exam? Our Citizenship exam guide explains the format, scoring, and how to prepare.

Related questions