Word Count, Register and the Grid: Moderating a 10-Mark Letter
The composition section carries 20 marks: a 10-mark formal letter (application to the headmaster for a library book, or for leave) and a 10-mark essay of 200–250 words. At moderation three scripts are disputed. Script A: a 95-word letter, all six format features present, the honorific address form used correctly, one clear request, two spelling errors. Script B: a 210-word letter, no sender's address, the intimate address form used to the headmaster, flawless language, sound content. Script C: an essay on the set topic, 170 words, three good points, one paragraph copied verbatim from a guidebook sold in every shop in town. The class is 38 strong; eleven scripts last term lost format marks, and the guidebook is treated by students as the safe route to full marks.
1. Set the 10-mark split and mark scripts A and B against it. Where does the honorific address belong?
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Split: format 3 (sender's address, date, salutation, subject line where used, closing, signature); content 4 (relevance, one clear request, supporting detail); language 3 (accuracy, spelling, sentence control).
- Script A: 3 + 4 + 2 = 9. All format features present, the request is unambiguous, language loses 1 for the spelling errors. Length is not a criterion for a formal letter; 95 words can do the job, and penalising it would teach padding.
- Script B: 1 + 4 + 3 = 8. Two format faults (missing sender's address; intimate address to the headmaster) reduce format to 1. Language is full marks, content full marks.
The honorific address belongs to format/appropriateness, not language: it is a convention of the genre, and the same word used correctly in a personal letter would be right. Decide this before marking and write it into the grid, or two examiners will disagree by a mark on every script. The point to give the class is uncomfortable but true: B's grammar is better and B still scores lower, because a letter the headmaster finds disrespectful has failed at its job.
2. Mark script C: it is 30–80 words under length and contains a copied paragraph. What errors does the word count penalise, and what does the copied passage earn?
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Word count bites on content, not language: 170 words in a 200–250 word task means the argument is underdeveloped, so take 1 from content and say 'under length' on the script. Do not touch the language mark for length - a short script can be perfectly written.
The copied paragraph earns nothing - not content, not language. Identify it line by line, bracket it, and mark the remaining 130–150 words on their own merits. Script C is not zeroed: the copied part scores nothing, the rest is the candidate's own work, and if the remaining points are sound the essay can still reach 6 or 7 out of 10. Set the whole-script threshold in advance (for example, if more than half is copied, refer the script to the controller of examinations rather than marking it), and apply it uniformly.
Announce the rule before the next composition test, with the reason: the guidebook paragraph was written to answer a different question, and the question is the one being marked.
3. Name one change you will make in your teaching of composition this term, and how you will measure whether it worked.
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One change: a four-minute skeleton drill at the start of every writing lesson for six weeks. Students write only the frame of the formal letter - address, date, salutation, subject, opening line, request, closing, signature - on a half-sheet, and swap with a partner who ticks the six features. No full letters during the drill. The honorific address form gets its own tick-box so it is practised and not merely mentioned.
Measure: count format losses in the next test. Baseline is eleven of 38 scripts losing format marks; target is five or fewer. Also record how many scripts use the intimate form to the headmaster - that number should reach zero before the format count does, because it is a habit, not a skill.
Against the guidebook: set topics that cannot be copied - a local problem with a date and a place in it, or a letter about something that happened in the school this month - and require one specific local detail. Copied prose cannot supply a detail it has never seen, and the class learns the rule by watching it fail.