44 Words for a 60–80 Word Email: Marking Guided Writing
Section C is guided writing: 'Write an email of 60–80 words to your landlord about a broken boiler. Say what is wrong, since when, when you are available, and ask for a repair.' Candidate 214 writes 44 words: 'Ħej! Il-bojler mhux jaħdem. Il-ħsara bdiet il-ġimgħa li għaddiet. Jien għandi ċans nhar it-Tnejn fid-3. Ċempel lili. Ċaw.' The script is otherwise accurate. 'Ħsara', 'għandi', 'ċempel' and 'ġimgħa' are written without their diacritics ('hsara', 'ghandi', 'cempel', 'gimgha'), and 'fid-3' is used where 'fit-3' is required. The mark scheme is: Task achievement 5, Organisation 3, Language 4, Orthography 2, total 14. Published guidance says answers below the word minimum are marked normally but cannot score full marks in Task achievement, and that register is assessed under Task achievement.
1. Award marks out of 14 and justify each criterion with counts and examples.
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Total: 9/14
- Task achievement 3/5. Three of four bullets are covered: what is wrong, since when, availability. The repair request is only implied by 'Ċempel lili', so it is partial, not complete. Register is wrong for a landlord: 'Ħej' and 'Ċaw' belong to a peer message, and the guidance places register here. At 44 words the script is below 60, so the cap on this criterion applies.
- Organisation 2/3. The four sentences follow a logical order and there is a greeting and a closing, but there are no connectives beyond juxtaposition and no paragraphing. Cohesion is minimal but not absent.
- Language 3/4. Structures are simple and mostly accurate; range is narrow. Two meaning-level problems: 'għandi ċans' means 'I have a chance', not 'I am available' (better: 'inkun liberu'), and 'fid-3' should be 'fit-3'.
- Orthography 1/2. Four missing diacritics plus the preposition error. Meaning stays recoverable, so half marks rather than zero.
- Arithmetic check. 3+2+3+1 = 9. The score reflects a candidate who communicates but has not yet learned register or the diacritic system.
2. Decide whether the four omitted diacritics count as one error or four, and set a rule for the orthography mark that two markers can apply consistently.
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Treat the omissions as one systematic pattern, but still deduct - here 1/2.
- Why not four errors. 'hsara', 'ghandi', 'cempel', 'gimgha' all show the same underlying gap: the candidate has not internalised that Maltese distinguishes ħ/għ/ċ/ġ from h/g/c/g. Counting each word separately quadruple-penalises a single deficit and makes the mark depend on how many affected words happen to appear.
- Why not zero deduction. The orthography criterion exists because these distinctions are part of the Maltese writing system and because markers must be able to read the script without ambiguity.
- Rule. Count each affected word once, but when the pattern is systematic and meaning remains recoverable, cap the deduction at half the orthography marks. If an omission creates a different word or genuine ambiguity, deduct fully for that word.
- Reliability test. Two markers applying this rule to Candidate 214 both reach 1/2. A raw count would let one marker reach 0/2 and another 1/2 on the same script.
- Typed vs handwritten. Apply the same rule in both modes; do not assume a missing diacritic is a keyboard limitation unless the paper is typed and the candidate has shown the character elsewhere.
3. Write the feedback to the candidate in 3–4 sentences of B1-accessible Maltese: one strength, one target, one model phrase.
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Feedback text
Xogħol tajjeb: is-sentenzi tiegħek ċari u l-messaġġ jinfetaħ. Imma l-email lill-proprjetarju trid tkun aktar formali - tibda b''Għażiż Sinjur' u tispiċċa b''Dejjem tiegħek', mhux b''Ħej' u 'Ċaw'. Ukoll, ipprova żżid it-talbiet kollha: għid x'trid jagħmel il-proprjetarju. Ara din il-frażi: 'Jekk jogħġbok ibgħat lil min jiġi jsewwi l-bojler; jien inkun id-dar nhar it-Tnejn fit-3.'
Why this works
- It names one strength (clarity) and one main target (register plus the missing request), not five errors at once.
- The model phrase supplies the exact language the candidate lacked: a polite request, a time expression with 'fit-', and a formal closing.
- 'Inkun id-dar' replaces the false friend 'għandi ċans', so the correction is embedded rather than explained abstractly.
- The feedback is in Maltese at a level the candidate can read, which is itself part of the learning target.