Scoring the writing test

Grammatical Range and Lexical Range &

Task Achievement
Task achieved at a high level
Intention: Entirely clear
Instructions: Completely
followed
Effect: A positive effect on
the target reader
5 to link words, clauses,
Outcome: Sure to achieve a
successful outcome
Content: All relevant details
included
Some original ideas
or presentation
4
Task achieved, some gaps
Intention: Clear in most areas
Instructions: All important ones
followed
Effect: A generally positive
3 effect on the reader
Outcome: Likely to achieve a
successful outcome
Content: Many relevant
details included
2
Task unachieved
Appropriacy
Style & Format:
Appropriate to genre, no
irrelevant information
Register:
Good awareness of
register and formality level
appropriate to genre
Style & Format:
Usually appropriate to
genre with little or no
irrelevant information
Register:
Limited exponents but
awareness of register is
shown
Coherence Cohesion
Accuracy Accuracy
Structure:
Cohesive devices: Grammatical Structures: Complex
Ideas sequenced logically
A wide range of cohesive Spelling: Very good
and accurately Wide range of lexis to complete
devices used naturally, Word order: Correct
the task, some original lexical
efficiently and appropriately Punctuation: Used properly
Purpose: solutions
throughout
Clear
sentences and paragraphs Errors: Very few, none
Lexis used appropriately with
of them impedes
Information: isolated misuse
Reference: meaning,
Well organised into a
Skilled use message
coherent text
Grammatical Structures: Simple
but mostly correct, some attempts
Structure: at complex structures with some
Some confusion in logical Cohesive devices: mistakes that do not impede
and accurate sequencing Adequate amount of comprehension
Sufficient range of lexis to
devices used to link words, Spelling: Some mistakes
complete the task
Purpose: clauses, sentences mostly that do not
Mostly clear appropriately impede
Lexis used mostly appropriately
comprehension
with occasional misuse
Information: Reference: Word order: Mostly correct
Adequately organised into Limited use Punctuation: Mostly effective
a mostly coherent text Errors: Some, but do
not significantly
impede meaning
Structure:
Euro B2 Webset - Writing - MARKING CRITERIA & MODEL ANSWERS

Intention: Very unclear Style & Format: Muddled Grammatical Structures: Very
Cohesive devices: Poor range of lexis to complete
Instructions: Many not followed Inappropriate to genre, or simple with frequent and serious
Minimal the task
Effect: Negative minimal evidence Purpose: mistakes
1 Outcome: Will not achieve a Unclear Spelling: Very poor
Reference: Lexis used inappropriately in
successful outcome Register: Word order: Often wrong
Simple / none most cases
Content: Omission, Minimal Information: Punctuation: Often wrong
irrelevance Very confused
Task unattempted / partially No meaning or the
Not enough language to No effective use of cohesive Little or no evidence of grammatical
attempted meaning conveyed is No relevant lexis organised into
0 make an assessment, or devices and reference, or knowledge of simple structures, or
Not enough language to make an irrelevant, or under 20 sentences, or under 20 words
under 20 words. under 20 words under 20 words
assessment, or under 20 words words
Page 1
Page 2 Euro B2 Webset - Writing - MARKING CRITERIA & MODEL ANSWERS

Model Answers:
Task One:
122 words
Dear Sir / Madam,

I have your advertisement for three flats in the Grenberg area.

My client, Jana Wolski, is interested in renting the 100 square metre attic in the
centre of the town to accommodate both herself and her university sculpture
work.

I can see the rent is EUR 950 per month, but I would also like to know if a deposit
is payable and if so how much. I assume the flat is currently vacant and that the
tenant can move in immediately.

Jana would also like to inspect the flat. I wonder if that could be arranged for next
Thursday at 10.30. I would be grateful if you could send me the exact address.

Jill Pipes
Accommodation Office
Grenberg University

Task Two: Review (161 words)

The Golden Eagle pub on the Meckham Road has finally closed its doors to
business after more than eighty years.
The last night, Saturday, saw a full house. Over two hundred people turned up
for a last drink with the party mood spilling out onto the pavement.
The closure was confirmed by the licensing committee of Grenberg City Council
last month even though a thousand-strong petition against closure had been
handed in by local residents. The committee sought the closure after repeated
warnings about noise had gone unheeded.
Reactions in the neighbourhood were understandably mixed. Long term local
resident, eighty-year-old Jack Hemmingway said, A very sad day indeed, I had
my first drink in there when I was fourteen in 1946.
But others welcomed the closure. Rebecca Gold, an office manager, said, I
sometimes could not get to sleep till after midnight because of the noise. I was
falling asleep at work.
Planning permission has been given to turn the building into three residential
flats.
Euro B2 Webset - Writing - MARKING CRITERIA & MODEL ANSWERS Page 3

A review (161 words)

Beyond the Graves by Rudolph Duvall was the first adult play which I saw at
the age of twelve. It is also one of the best plays ever written, so I was eager to
see Brian Smiths rendition which had its first performance in the Grenberg State
Theatre last Friday.

The play features a nineteenth century family torn apart by the competing claims
of modernity and tradition. Gertrude, the only daughter of the rich farming
family, wants not to marry, to live in the town and to study art. The relations
between Gertrude, her parents, brothers and friends are intricate and delicate.

I was horrified, therefore, to see Smith portray these touching and difficult
matters in the form of a comedy. Even in its own terms the comedy failed
as Sarah Jenner, Playing Gertrude, is no comedy actress. In the end the play
fell flat; and one could feel the wave of confusion and disappointment in the
auditorium.

A disappointment indeed!

An essay (147 words)

People in all countries are fundamentally the same.

The core physiological and mental make up of all human beings are the same, but
the values and behaviour of people are moulded by different cultural histories.

Many of the structures that determine human life and behaviour are not within
the power of human beings to change. Our physical capacities (e.g. we can walk
but not fly), our need to live in communities, and our capacity for language are
fixed. Even areas like differences between men and women and the themes in
literature have a fixed pattern across societies over time.

Yet, society and technology do mould people. The way people live and think
today in the twenty-first century is different from that of the nineteenth. The
role and relationship between men and women have changed, the structure of
families has changed.

In conclusion, similarities there are, but also differences between countries,

within countries and over time.