WRINTING CODE

What to grade or score:

Task Grammar Vocabulary Mechanics Organization

Completion 3 points 3 points 3 points 3 points
3 points

1. Task completion: what the task demanded, keeping the focus on what students had to write
about, paying attention to the instructions.
2. Grammar: taking into account the use of appropriate verb tense, according to what the task
asked and the use of the grammar students have studied and are demanded.
3. Vocabulary: the properly use of new vocabulary, lexical abilities.
4. Mechanics: paying attention to simple mistakes, interfering with the correct academic writing
forms.
5. Organization: general coherence and cohesion, awkwardness.

*If students write only half of the lines they are asked take down half of the marks (7 points)
*Each 3 mistakes per item, takes down 1 point.

SHORT FORMS OF THE CODE

TYPE OF MISTAKE SYMBOL Group

Task completion T.C. Task
Subject-verb agreement agre. Gram
Wrong tense w.t. Gram
Wrong form w.f. Gram–vocb
Wrong preposition w.pre. Gram
Missing word ^ Gram
Unnecessary Word Ø Gram
Awkward Awk Org
Incomplete Idea … Org
Non understandable n.u Org
Spanish Like S.L. Org
Wrong order w.o. Gram
Spelling sp. Mech
Capitalization CAP Mech
Punctuation Punct. Mech
Low case l.w Mech

DEFINITION OF THE TYPES OF MISTAKES

TASK COMPLETION: It covers three basic aspects dealing with the correlation between, what the
task demands and what the student writes, to fulfill it. These aspects are the layout, the content,
and the appropriateness of the task.

- The layout requires the student to accomplish what is asked for; i.e., if the student is asked
for writing a 10-line paragraph, it is not acceptable for him to write isolated sentences, or a 6-line
paragraph.
- The content deals with what the student has to produce according to a given task. For
instance, if the task demands the student to write a paragraph talking about what he did
yesterday and the student writes about what he did last weekend, the content would be incorrect.
- The appropriateness of the task is related to the accuracy the student shows when
producing what has been asked for. That is to say, if the task demands to write about what people
are doing in a specific place, it is inappropriate for the student to write it in the present simple
tense or, if it supposed that the student has to write what he is going to do next weekend and he
writes everything (or most of the time) in the present perfect tense.

AWKWARD: Awkward sentences are those that are impossible to understand due to their
grammatical structures or to the use of inexistent words troubling comprehension. (e.g. I house to
the gardens)

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT: Commonly found in present and continuous tenses. (e.g. He have
two cars / I has two cars)

WRONG TENSE: Deals with the use of correct verbs in the wrong tense. (e.g. Yesterday, I go to the
movies)

WRONG ORDER: It is one of the most common mistakes made by students; specially, employing
adjectives (e.g. the car red / He quickly drives)

WRONG FORM: It is referred to the use of the appropriate word but in the wrong form. (e.g. I like
play football / She is do the dishes)

WRONG WORD: It has to do with the incorrect use of words. (e.g. My sister looks T.V.).
Furthermore, it covers the wrong use of prepositions (e.g. I go dancing in the night / I have lunch in
the 8:30), and of wrong articles (e.g. I like the milk / I want to travel to an cottage)

INCOMPLETE IDEA: It is similar to missing word but it deals with unfinished thoughts. (There are
many people… I watched a movie/He goes to…)

SPELLING: The improper way to write a word in the target language. (e.g. She’s beatifull / I go out
at nigth)

MISSING WORD: The absence of a grammatical element in a sentence. (e.g. I want drink orange
juice / I go the cinema)

UNNECESSARY WORD: The use of words which are not required. (e.g. I arrived at the Languages
Centre at the 8:00 o’clock)

NOT UNDERSTANDALE: When the teacher is unable to understand what the student wrote.

CAPITALIZATION: The omission of capital letters in nouns. (e.g. I live in bogotá / he is american)

PUNCTUATION: The wrong way to use periods, apostrophes, semi-colons and commas, among
others. (e.g. What’s your name. / Driving is difficult but I like it)

SPANISH LIKE: The use of the native language to express ideas in the target one. (e.g. I can to say
what to drive a car is much difficult for me. / I went to Cuba the last year.)