Word-limit penalties and a misread data table
A Grade 12 class of 32 writes a summary and information-transfer task. The summary passage is 260 words on a community garden project, and the instruction reads 'Summarise in not more than 70 words'. Nine candidates exceed the limit, the longest at 94 words; six copy whole clauses unchanged; four add their own opinion about the garden. The information-transfer part supplies a table: the percentage of households in one constituency using Khoekhoegowab as the main home language, by age of household head - 15–24: 38%, 25–44: 61%, 45–59: 74%, 60+: 82%, with an overall figure of 64%. Candidates must write three sentences describing the table. Two candidates write that 'most young people speak Khoekhoegowab at home'; another writes that 'the language is dying'. The marker asks whether the summary should be marked out of 10 before or after the word-limit penalty, and what the table misreadings should cost.
1. Settle the order of marking and the word-limit penalty, and justify both.
Read the worked answer
Fix the rule before marking and apply it to all 32 scripts. The defensible order is: mark content and expression against the 10-mark grid first, ignoring length; then apply a length penalty as a separate, stated deduction - for example 1 mark for each 10 words over the limit, capped at 2 - so that a candidate who understood the passage is not reduced to zero for verbosity.
Announce the scale in writing to the class before the paper is returned. Nine of 32 over the limit (28%) is a planning failure across the class, so it belongs in the item analysis and in the next lesson on drafting to a word budget, not only in individual scripts.
Do not let the length penalty do the work of the expression marks: poor phrasing is already penalised there. Keep the copied clauses under a separate heading as well, so that lifting and over-writing are not double-counted under one fault.
2. Explain how the two 'most young people' sentences should be marked, and what should be retaught.
Read the worked answer
The sentence misreads the variable and the percentage at once. The table classifies households by the age of the household head, not by the age of the speakers, so it says nothing directly about what young people speak; and 38% is not a majority in any case. Two faults, one sentence, so it earns 0 even if the grammar is correct.
The candidate can still earn marks for the sentences that do describe the table accurately, because the transfer mark is per accurate statement, not per answer sheet.
Reteach two moves explicitly: identify what one row represents before writing anything, and check whether a figure is above or below half before using words such as 'most' or 'the majority'. Both moves can be practised in ten minutes with a second table on the same pattern, which is more useful than another full summary task.
3. How should 'the language is dying' be treated, and why is it different from the 38% misreading?
Read the worked answer
'The language is dying' is an inference, not a description. The table shows a gradient by age of household head plus an overall 64%; on its own it shows an association at one point in time, not a decline, because there is no time series and no earlier comparable figure.
So that sentence cannot earn a description mark. But it is a different error from the 38% misreading: the candidate is attempting to interpret rather than misreading a cell. Give 0 for the sentence and, if the task invites a concluding sentence, allow a conclusion only if it is hedged to what the data support - for example, that the proportion is lower where the household head is younger.
In feedback, name the difference between describing a table and explaining it. Many candidates lose marks for answering a question that was not asked.