Criteria for marking writing

Give points out of 6 for each criterion (content, organization, vocabulary and grammar and punctuation), and then calculate a mean to give a total mark out of 6. All fractional marks should be rounded up to the closest whole mark.

Mark / Criterion	Content (relevance and development of ideas)	Organization (cohesion, paragraphing and format)	Vocabulary (style and accuracy)	Grammar (style and accuracy) and Punctuation (accuracy)
6	· All content is relevant to the task. · The register completely corresponds to the requirements of the task; consistent and intentional misuse of register* may indicate a writer’s personal style. · All content points are fully addressed and developed in a balanced way. *Such misuse of register should not harm the format of writing.	· Uses a range of basic connectors correctly and attempts to use referencing, but not always clearly or appropriately. · Uses paragraphs to separate ideas; all paragraphs revolve around one idea or a set of like ideas; the size of each paragraph allows for a proper and balanced development of ideas. · The format is appropriate, but may be modified for a better reading experience.	· Uses a range of everyday vocabulary appropriately; attempts to use less common lexical items with occasional inappropriacies. · Has good control of word formation; may make occasional errors in producing less common word forms. · Spells common vocabulary items correctly; very few (one or two) occasional spelling mistakes may be present. · May occasionally misspell less common lexical items. · Errors in word choice and/or spelling do not distort meaning.	· Writes simple and compound sentence forms correctly and demonstrates some variety in length. · May attempt some complex sentences, but they tend to be less accurate, including punctuation. · Errors in grammar and/or punctuation do not distort meaning.
5	· All content is relevant to the task; insignificant content omissions may be present. · The register on the whole corresponds to the requirements of the task; occasional and inconsistent misuse of register may be present. · Most content points are addressed, but their development may be slightly imbalanced.	· Uses a range of basic connectors correctly. · Uses paragraphs to separate ideas; most paragraphs revolve around one idea or a set of like ideas; the size of each paragraph may reflect imbalanced development of ideas. · The format is appropriate.	· Uses a range of everyday vocabulary appropriately; attempts to use less common lexical items, but may make frequent errors. · Has good control of word formation; may make errors in producing less common word forms. · Spells common vocabulary items correctly; few (no more than five) occasional spelling mistakes may be present. · May often misspell less common lexical items. · Errors in word choice and/or spelling do not distort meaning.	· Writes simple and compound sentence forms correctly, but does not demonstrate variety in length. · Occasional errors in grammar and/or punctuation do not distort meaning.
4	· Most content is relevant to the task; insignificant content omissions may be present. · The register on the whole corresponds to the requirements of the task. · Most content points are addressed, but some content points may be more fully covered than others.	· Uses some basic connectors, but these may be inaccurate or repetitive. · Uses paragraphs to separate ideas, but tends to misuse paragraphing (a script is a set of very short paragraphs or some paragraphs may be much longer than other ones for no apparent reason). · The format is generally appropriate.	· Uses everyday vocabulary generally appropriately, while occasionally overusing certain lexical items. · Has good control of word formation; can produce common word forms correctly. · May make infrequent errors in spelling more difficult words. · Errors in word choice and/or spelling rarely distort meaning.	· Writes simple and some compound sentence forms correctly. · While errors in grammar and/or punctuation are noticeable, meaning is rarely distorted.
3	· Some content is relevant to the task; significant content omissions may be present. · The register barely corresponds to the requirements of the task. · Only some content points, which are minimally addressed.	· Uses a very limited range of basic cohesive devices correctly. · Writes in paragraphs, but may not use them to separate ideas (a script may have random breaks between paragraphs). · The format may be inappropriate in places.	· Uses basic vocabulary reasonably appropriately. · Has some control of word formation; can produce some common word forms correctly. · Makes frequent errors in spelling more difficult words, but simple words are spelled correctly. · Errors in word choice and/or spelling distort meaning at times.	· Writes simple sentence forms mostly correctly. · Errors in grammar and/or punctuation may distort meaning at times.
2	· Severe irrelevances and misinterpretations of the task may be present. · Only few content points, which are minimally addressed.	· May use a very limited range of basic cohesive devices, and those used may not indicate a logical relationship between ideas. · Attempts to write in paragraphs, but their use may be confusing (may start every sentence with a new line). · The format may be inappropriate.	· Uses an extremely limited range of vocabulary. · Has very limited control of word formation; can produce a few common word forms correctly. · Makes many errors in spelling, including a range of simple words. · Errors in word choice and/or spelling distort meaning.	· Writes some simple sentence forms correctly. · Frequent errors in grammar and/or punctuation distort meaning.
1	· Attempts the task, but it is largely misinterpreted and the response is barely relevant to the task.	· Links are missing or incorrect. · Does not write in paragraphs at all (a script is a block of text). · The format is not appropriate.	· Can only use a few isolated words and/or memorized phrases. · Has essentially no control of word formation; can barely produce any word forms. · Displays few examples of conventional spelling.	· No evidence of sentence forms.
0	· Does not attempt the task in any way. OR · The response is completely irrelevant to the task. OR · There is too little language to assess. OR · Content is completely incomprehensible due to extremely poor handwriting: very few words are distinguishable, so there is a lack of context to verify meaning.