English Practice & Support

Theory:

It is important to understand how the final essay you write will be marked, so you can work towards maximising your mark. The final document is judged in four ways: content communicative achievement organisation and language, and each of these parts is worth 5 marks, andd the marks you get for each part are added together to give you a final mark out of 20.

Let's look at what each section is looking for.

The section for CONTENT asks the following questions:

Is all content relevant to the task? - This means including material which is not relevant will lose you marks.

Have all the three points been covered? - You are required to write about three ideas. If you miss one, you will lose marks.

Has the writer given an opinion? - It is important to express what you think, and this should be made as obvious as possible.

The section for COMMUNICATIVE ACHIEVEMENT asks the following questions:

Have the conventions of the essay format been used effectively? - here it is important to understand the structure of an essay, which we will be looking at later.

Is there an introductory paragraph? - This is used to put the subject into context.

Is there a concluding paragraph? - This sums up what the writer feels.

Is the register consistently appropriate? - The essay is a formal document, and a formal register should be used.

Has the document been written in an objective manner?

Have simple and complex ideas been communicated?

The section for ORGANISATION asks the following questions:

Is the essay well organised and coherent? - the structure of an essay needs to be clearly understood.

How are the paragraphs introduced? - the concept of linking is very important here.

Is the final text cohesive? - That means all the parts should relate to each other, and there shouldn't be parts which seem disconnected.

Is the document the right size?

The final section for LANGUAGE asks the following questions:

Has a wide range of vocabulary been used?

Have simple and complex grammatical structures been used? - all the material that is dealt with in the use of English part, such as the passive, the conditionals, are expected to be used.

Have the ideas been expressed in an efficient manner?