Cutting a 210-Word Essay to 150 Words Without Losing the Argument
A SSLC Tulu composition task asks for a 150-word essay on 'Save water, save life'. The rubric gives 3 marks for content, 2 for language, and 1 for organisation. One student submits a 210-word draft. It has a clear opening, three examples (a leaking tap, a village tank, a school rally), a personal anecdote about a grandmother's well, and a short conclusion. The anecdote takes 55 words and repeats the opening idea. There are two spelling errors and one local dialect word used in an otherwise formal essay. The teacher has 24 hours to return the drafts and must decide whether to penalise the extra length directly or only through the rubric. Two other students have submitted memorised paragraphs that do not answer the question. The class has been told that quality matters more than length, but the word limit is printed on the paper.
1. Apply the 3+2+1 rubric to the 210-word draft and decide the mark. Explain how length affects your judgement.
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Content: the draft answers the question and gives three relevant examples, so it earns 3, though the anecdote repeats the opening and adds little. Language: the two spelling errors and the dialect word in a formal essay keep it from full marks, so 1 of 2. Organisation: the opening, examples, and conclusion are clear, but the anecdote interrupts the argument, so 1 of 1 is still defensible. Total: 5 of 6. Length matters here because the extra 60 words are mostly repetition, which weakens organisation and content rather than language. I would not deduct a separate automatic mark for exceeding the limit, because the rubric already captures the effect. If the paper's instructions set a hard penalty, that must be applied consistently to all scripts; otherwise the rubric should do the work.
2. Write the 30-word feedback you would give the student to reach 150 words while keeping the argument.
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'Cut the grandmother's well anecdote and one repeated sentence. Keep your opening claim, the leaking tap, the village tank, and the school rally. End with one sentence on what people should do.' This is about 30 words and gives a concrete cut, a concrete keep list, and a closing task. It does not say 'make it shorter', which the student already knows. It also protects the content mark by telling the student which examples are carrying the argument. If the student wants to keep the anecdote, the alternative is to replace one example, but that would weaken the range of examples.
3. Two essays reproduce a memorised paragraph that does not answer the question. What is the defensible response?
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Mark what is actually on the page against the rubric. A memorised paragraph that does not address 'Save water, save life' earns little or no content credit, even if the language is polished. Do not accuse the students of copying unless there is clear evidence; identical wording across scripts is evidence to record, not a conclusion to announce. The defensible steps are: mark anonymously if possible, note the mismatch between the question and the answer in the feedback, and ask the students to rewrite one paragraph in class under supervision. If the same paragraph appears in several scripts, the department should record it and apply the same content ruling to all. This keeps the response about the answer, not about character.