Writing
The knowledge, skills and understandings relating to students’ writing have been drawn from the Statements of Learning for English (MCEECDYA 2005).
Students are taught to write a variety of forms of writing at school. The three main forms of writing (also called genres or text types) that are taught are narrative writing, informative writing and persuasive writing. In the writing test, students are provided with a ‘writing stimulus' (sometimes called a prompt – an idea or topic – and asked to write a response in a particular genre or text type.
In 2012, students will be required to complete a persuasive writing task (as was the case in 2011). This is a change from previous years (2010 and prior) when students were required to write a narrative or story. Further information about the change of genre is in the 2012 Writing Fact Sheet.
The Writing task targets the full range of student capabilities expected of students from Years 3 to 9. The same stimulus is used for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 although the lines in the response booklet for Year 3 students are more widely spaced than for Years 5, 7 and 9 and more capable students will address the topic at a higher level. The same marking guide is used to assess all students' writing, allowing for a national comparison of student writing capabilities across these year levels.
Assessing the Writing task
Students’ writing will be marked by assessors who have received intensive training in the application of a set of ten (10) writing criteria summarised below. The full 2012 Persuasive Writing Marking Guide is available. The writing stimulus used to prompt the writing samples in the Marking Guide is also available for downloading. This stimulus is similar in format to the one students will encounter in the 2012 Writing test.
The Narrative Writing Marking Guide (old) is also available.
Descriptions of the Writing criteria
| Persuasive genre | |
|---|---|
|
Audience |
The writer’s capacity to orient, engage and persuade the reader |
| Text structure | The organisation of the structural components of a persuasive text (introduction, body and conclusion) into an appropriate and effective text structure |
| Ideas | The selection, relevance and elaboration of ideas for a persuasive argument |
| Persuasive devices | The use of a range of persuasive devices to enhance the writer’s position and persuade the reader |
| Vocabulary | The range and precision of contextually appropriate language choices |
| Cohesion | The control of multiple threads and relationships across the text, achieved through the use of grammatical elements (referring words, text connectives, conjunctions) and lexical elements (substitutions, repetitions, word associations) |
| Paragraphing | The segmenting of text into paragraphs that assists the reader to follow the line of argument |
| Sentence structure | The production of grammatically correct, structurally sound and meaningful sentences |
| Punctuation | The use of correct and appropriate punctuation to aid the reading of the text |
| Spelling | The accuracy of spelling and the difficulty of the words used |
The national minimum standards for writing describe some of the skills and understandings students can generally demonstrate at their particular year schooling. The standards are intended to be a snapshot of typical achievement and do not describe the full range of what students are taught or what they may achieve.
For further information on the national minimum standards see Performance Standards.