Grading a Short Leave Letter: Format, Register and Rubric
A 10-mark Arabic composition item asks: 'Write a letter to your principal requesting three days' leave because of fever.' The rubric is format 3, content 4, language 3. One student writes only: أَنَا مَرِيضٌ. أُرِيدُ إِجَازَةً لِثَلَاثَةِ أَيَّامٍ. شُكْرًا. There is no date, no address, no salutation, and no closing. The request uses أُرِيدُ ('I want'), which sounds demanding in a formal letter. The Arabic is grammatically correct, and the student does state the reason and the duration. The teacher must decide whether a very short letter can still score well, how to apply the format marks, and how to give feedback on register without rewriting the whole letter for the student.
1. Award marks out of 10 using 3+4+3 and justify each component.
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Format 1/3: the script is recognisable as a message, but a formal Arabic letter needs date, address, salutation, and closing. Three or four of these are missing, so only one format mark is defensible.
Content 3/4: the reason (fever) and duration (three days) are present, which are the core information items. The letter lacks a polite request for permission and any supporting detail, so it does not reach 4.
Language 2/3: the sentences are grammatically correct, but the range is minimal and the register is abrupt. Deduct one for register and appropriateness, not for grammar.
Total 6/10. A short letter can score well on content if the required information is there; it cannot score well on format if the conventions are absent.
2. Rewrite only two sentences to raise the register, keeping the student's information.
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Original: أَنَا مَرِيضٌ. أُرِيدُ إِجَازَةً لِثَلَاثَةِ أَيَّامٍ. Revised: أَرْجُو مِنْ حَضْرَتِكُمْ أَنْ تَمْنَحُونِي إِجَازَةً لِثَلَاثَةِ أَيَّامٍ لِأَنِّي مَرِيضٌ. Add a closing formula: وَتَفَضَّلُوا بِقَبُولِ فَائِقِ الِاحْتِرَامِ.
Reasoning: أَرْجُو ('I request') is more formal than أُرِيدُ ('I want'); حَضْرَتُكُمْ creates distance and respect; لِأَنِّي مَرِيضٌ subordinates the reason to the request instead of stating it as a bare fact.
3. A colleague says a short letter should automatically lose content marks. Decide and justify.
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No. Content marks should measure whether the required information is present and accurate, not length. This student supplies the two required pieces (reason and duration). Length becomes a content issue only if the rubric asks for development, e.g. explanation of how the days will be made up. Here the rubric does not say that, so 3/4 is fair. The shortfall belongs mainly to format and register. Deducting content for brevity would double-penalise the same weakness.