Generic marking criteria for Exercises 5 and 6
The following general instructions, and table of marking criteria, apply to both Exercises 5 and 6.
· You should decide on a mark for Content and Language separately.
· Content covers the relevance (i.e. whether the piece fulfils the task and the awareness of purpose/audience/register) and the development of ideas (i.e. the detail/explanation provided).
· Language covers range (i.e. complexity of vocabulary and sentence structure) and accuracy (of grammar, spelling, punctuation and text organisation).
· When deciding on a mark for Content or Language, first of all decide which band is most appropriate. There will not necessarily be an exact fit. Then decide between the lower or the higher mark. Use the lower mark if it fulfills some of the requirements of the band and the higher mark if it fulfills all the requirements of the band.
· When deciding on a mark for Content, look at both relevance and development of ideas. First ask yourself whether the writing fulfills the task, in terms of points to be covered and the required length. If the task is generally fulfilled it will be awarded at least 3–4 marks.
· When deciding on a mark for Language, look at both the range and the accuracy of the language. A useful starting point would be first to gain an impression of the level, then to focus on the level descriptors in order to decide on the best fit.
· If the writing is considerably shorter than the stated word length, i.e. below 105 words, it should be given 1–2 marks or less for Content for only partially fulfilling the task.
· If the writing is only partly relevant and therefore can be awarded only 1–2 Content marks, the full range of marks for Language is still available.
· If the writing is totally irrelevant and has nothing to do with the question asked, it should be given 0 marks for Content and Language.
Award up to a total of 16 marks.
Up to 8 marks to be awarded for Content. Plus up to 8 marks to be awarded for Language.
See generic marking criteria for Exercises 5 and 6.