Precis Marking: Accurate but Overlong, Brief but Thin
You are setting and marking the Insha section of a 100-mark model paper. The précis item gives a 210-word passage on the usefulness of reading newspapers and asks for a précis in about 70 words, for 5 marks. The rubric you inherited is: content 3 (four key points, 0.75 each), concision and own words 1, language 1. The printed instructions state no word tolerance. Three scripts from the first 20 are troubling. A is 96 words, carries all four points, lifts two clauses verbatim, and is otherwise correct Urdu. B is 52 words, carries only two points, lifts nothing, and is written in excellent Urdu. C is 70 words, carries three points, and ends with one sentence giving the candidate's own view on newspapers. The school wants a defensible mark for each, because two parents have already asked to see the scripts.
1. How do you mark script A, and how do you justify the total to a parent?
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Award 4/5: content 3, concision 0, language 1.
- All four points are present, so the 3 content marks stand; the Urdu is clean, so language stands.
- 96 words against a 70-word target is roughly 37% over, and two clauses are copied from the passage. Those are the two specific failures the concision mark exists to catch.
- Do not let accurate content pull the total to 5, and do not drop to 3: the précis is complete and readable, and the loss is confined to one rubric line.
- Margin comment: name the two borrowed clauses and rewrite one of them, so the candidate sees the difference between compressing and copying.
- To the parent: the mark is out of a published rubric, each line is separate, and only one line failed. Check the paper wording again - if a tolerance such as ±10 words is printed, apply it before finalising.
2. How do you mark script B, which is disciplined and brief but drops half the argument?
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Award 2/5: content 2, concision 1, language 1.
- Content is awarded per key point retained. Two of four points in a 3-mark allocation gives 1.5, conventionally rounded to 2; decide the rounding once for the batch and record it, so that no later script is treated differently.
- Concision and language are earned independently and must not be cancelled because the content is thin. Each rubric line tests a different skill, and a candidate who compresses well should see that rewarded.
- Margin comment: list the two missing points and locate them in the passage, so B understands that brevity was not the problem - omission was.
- If school policy forbids half marks, the same reasoning yields either 1 or 2 at the content line; what matters is that the rule is fixed before the rest of the batch is marked.
3. Script C adds a personal opinion. Does that cost marks, and how do you record it?
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Award 4/5: content 2 (three of four points), concision 1 (70 words, own phrasing), language 1; no separate penalty.
- The added opinion is not a distinct offence to be punished twice. It costs a content mark only if it displaces a key point - here the fourth point is missing anyway.
- Bracket the sentence and write «not in the passage», so the candidate sees the boundary between summary and comment.
- Consider the counter-case: a candidate with all four points, within the word limit, plus one evaluative sentence. Full content should still stand; the task demands compression of the passage, and one added evaluative sentence does not make the summary inaccurate.
- Consistency check: if you penalise C's opinion, you must penalise every evaluative phrase in all 20 scripts, including single adjectives such as «useful». Write the rule in the key before continuing.