Alexander_Writing Item

Level: Lower Intermediate
Aim: Evaluating written communicative performance by students provided with a situation in which they have to give personal opinion.

WRITING ITEM

Your best friend left for another country in order to study a master’s degree. You want to let him/her know how much you miss him/her. Write an e-mail to this person in which you give a concise description of the characteristics that make him/her your best friend. (10 points)

Your e-mail should:

- Highlight this person’s qualities.
- Point out some of his/her negative aspects.
- Provide sample anecdotic situations exemplifying them.
- Finally, explain why he/she is, in general, a great person.

Organization: ______ Content: ______ Vocabulary: ______ Grammar: ______ Mechanics: ______


Writing Assessment Criteria


CONTENT

Excellent : Shows mastery of ideas; message unambiguously clear. Shows originality. 2.5
Good: No evidence of plagiarism. 2
Fair: Message occasionally difficult to follow. Some ideas lack originality. 1.5
Poor: Message very difficult to follow. Most ideas 1ack originality. 1
Nil: Message incomprehensible. Evidently p1agiarized. 0


ORGANIZATION

Excellent : Text shows cohesion and unity (parts smoothly and logically connected) 2
Good: Text is very coherent and logically connected. 1.5
Fair: Some sentences might look out of place in the text. Not all sentences support controlling idea. Some connectors and transitions used inappropriately. 1
Poor: Most sentences in the text are unified. Cohesive devices wrongly placed. 0.5
Nil: The text is not unified. Lacks of / wrong use of cohesive devices. 0


STRUCTURE

Excellent: Shows native-like grasp of English structure. 2.5
Good: Shows mastery of all grammatical structures taught to date. 2
Fair: Uses grammatical patterns taught to date with few mistakes. 1.25
Poor: Uses grammatical patterns taught to date with numerous mistakes. 0. 5
Nil: Incomprehensible due to faulty grammatical usage. 0


VOCABULARY

Excellent : Uses most vocabulary taught to date in appropriate situations.1.5
Good: Vocabulary is relevant to the topic. 1.25
Fair: Uses some appropriate vocabulary to the topic. 1
Poor: Shows limited vocabulary related to the topic. 0.5
Nil: Shows no vocabulary appropriateness in terms of the topic discussed. 0


MECHANICS & LAYOUT

Excellent : Shows commend of punctuation, capitalization and spelling rules. 1
Good: Neat presentation of information. 0.75
Fair: Some mistakes that do not impede comprehension. Layout somewhat disregarded. 0.5
Poor: Numerous mistakes that somewhat affect comprehension. Minor attention to layout. 0.25
Nil: Almost incomprehensible due to faulty use of mechanics. No attention to layout. 0



TOTAL OUT OF 10 (ADD CIRCLED NUMBERS) ________