SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
WRITING ASSESSMENT CRITERIA (PARAGRAPH)
CONTENT (5)
•Considerably irrelevant to the
given topic
1 •Shows little knowledge of
subject
• No development of ideas
• Inadequate coverage of the
2 topic with inappropriate and/or
insufficient ideas and examples
• Adequate coverage of the
topic, but addresses the topic
3 using somewhat appropriate
and/or sufficient ideas
•Good coverage of the topic with
4 relevant, clear, appropriate, and
sufficient ideas and examples
• Very good coverage of the
topic
5 • Fully developed paragraph with
very good justification
ORGANIZATION (5)
• Disorganized (no sentence with main
idea or supporting sentences)
• Serious disorganization
• Mostly incoherent; ideas and examples
are disconnected / almost no signal or
linking words
• Inadequately organized (badly expressed
or misplaced sentences, insufficient
supporting ideas/very short details/ no
sentence which concludes the paragraph.
• Considerably incoherent; ideas are not
well connected
• Adequately organized ( i.e. a weak topic
sentence containing the main idea with
correct placement, unbalanced
development of supporting ideas or a weak
concluding sentence)
• A coherent and fluent paragraph: ideas
flow meaningfully and logically, but may
contain some redundancy and some
unclear connections
• Generally well-organized (sufficiently
developed sentences)
• Coherent and fluent paragraph: ideas
generally flow meaningfully and logically
• Well-organized (a good topic sentence
which contains the main idea, fully
developed supporting ideas, and a good
sentence which concludes the paragraph)
• Very coherent and fluent passage with
appropriate linking/signal words
VOCABULARY (4)
• A limited range of level -
appropriate vocabulary.
• Most of them are inaccurate,
irrelevant or repetitive
• Translation-based errors
• Poor knowledge of words and
word forms
• Shows some use of varied word
choice that is relevant to the
content
• Frequent word errors;
inappropriate choice and usage
• Adequate range of level-
appropriate vocabulary that is
relevant to the content
• Some errors of word/idiom
choice, but effective transmission
of meaning
• A wide range of level-
appropriate vocabulary that is
relevant to the content is used
effectively and accurately
• Very few mistakes in the word
choice
GRAMMAR (4) MECHANICS (2)
• The language is rarely clear
• Significant defects in the use of •Occasional errors in spelling,
even basic structures punctuation, capitalization,
• Frequent errors in agreement, paragraph indentation, etc.,
number, tense, negation, word which do not interfere with
order, articles, pronouns, meaning
prepositions.
• Few examples of learned
structures • Almost no errors in
• Occasional mistakes in using conventions of spelling,
appropriate grammatical punctuation, capitalization,
structures, which cause problems paragraph indentation, etc.
in conveying the message.
•No major difficulties in the use
of appropriate grammatical
structures
• Some problems in the use of
complex constructions
•Use of a wide range of learned
structures effectively and
accurately
•Hardly any grammatical
mistakes causing problems in
conveying the message.