Marking a 5-mark प्रार्थना-पत्र: format, register and length
Your Class X half-yearly paper sets a 5-mark औपचारिक पत्र: 'अपने विद्यालय के प्रधानाचार्य को पुस्तकालय में पुस्तकों की संख्या बढ़ाने हेतु प्रार्थना-पत्र लिखिए।' The question paper says 80–100 words. The department's agreed scheme is प्रारूप 2, विषय-वस्तु 2, भाषा 1. Three scripts reach you as samples. Anil has sender's address, date, receiver, विषय line, महोदय, a 60-word body and a signature, but writes 'प्रिय महोदय' and closes 'तुम्हारा प्रिय मित्र अनील'; one spelling error. Bina has no sender's address and no date, begins 'सेवा में, प्रधानाचार्य महोदय', and her 120-word body makes three concrete demands (more books, longer hours, a reading room) in clean Hindi. Chandan has perfect format but writes 200 words attacking the principal for neglect - 'आपने आज तक कुछ नहीं किया' - before listing the same three demands.
1. Assign marks to all three scripts under the 2 + 2 + 1 scheme and justify each component.
Read the worked answer
Anil - 3½. प्रारूप 1½: everything required is present, but 'प्रिय महोदय' and 'तुम्हारा प्रिय मित्र अनील' are not format-neutral slips - an औपचारिक पत्र must open with महोदय/आदरणीय महोदय and close with भवदीय/आपका. Deduct ½ once, not twice, for the register break. विषय-वस्तु 1½: the demand is stated but with no specifics; 60 words of general request. भाषा ½: the spelling error plus the mismatched pronouns.
Bina - 4. प्रारूप 1: 'सेवा में' and the receiver are there, but a formal letter without date and sender's address is incomplete and the principal cannot reply to it; deduct 1. विषय-वस्तु 2: three specific, feasible demands, well ordered. भाषा 1: clean.
Chandan - 3½. प्रारूप 2: full. विषय-वस्तु 1: the demands are present, but a प्रार्थना-पत्र is a request; an accusation changes the purpose of the document, and the extra 100 words carry no new content. भाषा ½: repetitive rhetoric. Note that Anil and Chandan land on the same total for opposite reasons - say so, because the class will otherwise read 3½ as one kind of answer.
2. Chandan's script is double the stated length and hostile in tone. Rule on how length should be penalised, and on how tone should be treated.
Read the worked answer
Length: there is no separate penalty for length in the scheme, and you should not invent one at the marking table. Length has to show up where it actually does damage: in विषय-वस्तु, because 100 extra words of accusation replace no content and add none, and in भाषा, because the repetition is visible. That is exactly how Chandan loses 1½ marks above - the penalty is principled rather than mechanical.
Tone: this is a content failure, not a politeness failure. The question asks for a request; 'आपने आज तक कुछ नहीं किया' converts the document into a complaint and would not achieve the writer's aim. Mark it under विषय-वस्तु, and in the feedback name the register explicitly: 'प्रार्थना-पत्र में आग्रह होता है, आरोप नहीं; विनम्रता कमजोरी नहीं, औपचारिकता है।'
Then fix the paper: print the word limit in the question and write the length and register expectations into next term's scheme, so that the next batch is not marked against rules they never saw.
3. Write the two-line written feedback you would give Anil, and say what you would reteach to the whole class on the evidence of these three scripts.
Read the worked answer
Feedback to Anil: 'तुमने पत्र का ढाँचा ठीक रखा - पता, दिनांक, विषय, संबोधन सब है। पर प्रधानाचार्य को लिखे पत्र में प्रिय महोदय नहीं, महोदय लिखा जाता है, और अंत में भवदीय/आपका लिखा जाता है, तुम्हारा प्रिय मित्र नहीं; मित्रवत भाषा केवल अनौपचारिक पत्र में चलती है। अगली बार माँग को दो ठोस उदाहरणों के साथ लिखना - कौन-सी किताबें, कितने बजे तक पुस्तकालय।'
Whole-class reteach: one board with two columns, औपचारिक / अनौपचारिक, and the four fixed points of a formal letter - प्रेषक का पता, दिनांक, विषय, भवदीय - because Bina's missing date and Anil's wrong closing are the same lesson seen from two sides. Add the 'request versus complaint' contrast using Chandan's first line rewritten on the board. Do not reteach the format from scratch; the formats are largely known, the register is not.