MARKING OF COMPOSTIONS IN LANGUAGES

SHOWING ERRORS AND MERITS: SECTION A

1. The main signs indicate three degrees of seriousness

UNDERLINING OMMISSION IN MARGIN

(a) GROSS ERROR C

(‘C may be used in the margin to denote a serious error of construction or agreement,
but not for tense errors. The marginal double lines may be used to indicate multiple
gross errors.

(b) ERROR ___________

(c) MINOR ERROR

N.B. The marginal signs are used when the error affects more than one line.

2. The following signs may also be used:

PARAGRAPHING NP OR
REPETITION and /or R
ILLEGIBILITY ?
3. MERIT Use a tick to indicate merit of vocabulary or expression, either in the test or
margin, if necessary with a bracket to encompass more than one line.
4. GROSS ERRORS
(a) Errors of agreement, number. My friend always look smart.
(b) Serious tense errors, wrong verb form. I meet my friend at a Christmas party last year.
(c) Elementary errors of sentence construction e.g. using conjunctions
(d) Spelling errors.
(e) Ridiculous idiom – literal translations, coined idioms
(f) Punctuation - omission or wrongly used, omission of capital letter at the beginning of
sentences, omission of full stops, question marks, exclamation marks and quotation
marks.
(g) Incomplete sentences.
(h) Missing phrases.
(i) Wrong cancelling e.g. bracketing, underlining, putting quotation marks, or stars etc.

NB. ACCEPT A CONSISTENCE ON THE USE OF CAPITALS ON:

(I) THE ADDRESS

(II)THE COMPOSITION/THE LETTER

Among ERRORS are:

- use of abbreviations except accepted acronyms e.g. NATO, HIV, AIDS etc.
- use of numerals except for dates, house numbers, street number, vehicle registration
models and numbers.
 - cutting of a word into two
- wrong prepositions
- hyphenated words e.g. self-help
- omission of commas , capital letters on names i.e. proper names
- using contracted words e.g. don’t unless used direct speech
- use of words not very appropriate e.g. handsome girl, nice, things
- use of small letters on some words e.g. Mabure primary school.
- omission and misuse of pronouns, articles
- repetitions

N.B. Allow American spelling where consistent except where the words are slangy or too informal

MINOR ERRORS: e.g. Use of informal words or language e.g. mom, daddy, guys, etc.

B: THE SCALE OF MARKS

Marks of 20 or 0 should be awarded, if appropriate.

There are 5 CLASSES (an internal categorisation, NOT GRADE 7 grades.

5. TABLE OF MARK CATEGORIES

Class Mark Mark Range

Category Section A
A A 17 -20
B B 14 -16
C C UPPER 12 -13
C LOWER 10 - 11
D D UPPER 8-9
D LOWER 5-7
E E UPPER 3-4
E LOWER 0 -2

C. AMPLIFICATION OF ESSAY CLASS DEFINITIONS

SECTION A

A CLASS (17 – 20)

Ample material, fully relevant, high interest value/persuasiveness; originality; positive merit of form
and arrangement/paragraphing; unity of tone/approach; fluency; very good to excellent linguistic
ability.

Descriptive essays have atmosphere, observation, sensitivity.

Discussions present complex, cogent argument with force and economy.
Narratives, where appropriate, show merits of structure, characterisation, description, suspense,
pace.
All work in this class must show awareness of significant detail, or wide information or apt
illustration.

NB. All scripts that fall into the A class; confirm with your supervisor.

B CLASS SECTION A (14 – 16)

Ample material, fully relevant, interesting and sustained theme/approach; well- arranged and
paragraphed; good to very good linguistic ability; vocabulary and sentence structure varied and
appropriate but not necessarily outstanding; very few gross errors; some slips and minor errors.

Some essays may be long, sound, well-arranged, but without much originality; others will original,
but not so well-sustained/balanced as A Class scripts.

C CLASS

UPPER C SECTION A (12 – 13)

Ample, competent but somewhat uninspired subject matter; less originality than in B Class, quite
well arranged, properly paragraphed; largely correct, varied vocabulary and sentence structure; free
from monotonous repetition; few major errors; some slips and errors.

LOWER C SECTION A (10 – 11)

Length without much originality but fairly correct; rambling, rather repetitive;

OR simple clarity and correctness, shortish, flat content, well-arranged; few gross elementary errors,
some errors, more minor errors and slips than in Upper C Class. The meaning must not be in doubt,
though the vocabulary may be limited. Sentences may be short and stereotyped, but there must be
some complex sentences. Sentences should be correctly separated, except for occasional slips.

D CLASS

UPPER D SECTION A (8 – 9)

Dull but sensible content not explored in depth, some repetition; ideas fragmentary or vague, lack of
sustained development, some attempt to arrange; clear evidence of relevance, but perhaps
occasional short digressions; expression flat, limited, uncertain; some serious faults of sentences
construction, punctuation, vocabulary and tense; paragraphs short or run together, sentence and
paragraph linking inappropriate or haphazard.

These types will fall into this classification:

(a) scripts with enough competence for a limited range of simple points to be expressed,
unambiguously, with fair clarity, but with little vocabulary, few, if any, complex sentences.
(b) short, trite content: mainly correct language because no risks are taken.
 (c) Long, racy scripts with interesting content but so much carelessness and in accuracy that we
should be unwilling to employ the writer in simple clerical tasks: inability to punctuate
consistently, especially in the separation of sentences.

LOWER D SECTION A (5 – 7)

Clear limitations of content and arrangement; digressions; confused thought; flimsy development,
poor links, repetitive ideas and constructions; many errors of all kinds.

Despite the obvious failings, scripts here have something relevant to say, and manage to
communicate without too much effort on the part of the reader.

E CLASS SECTION A (0 – 4)

Throughout the Class, we find the following:

Vague, confused ideas, with little sense of development.

Communication impeded by heavy error incidence

Errors in basic vocabulary and simple idiom.

Gross errors of all kind

No amplification of points

UPPER E SECTION A (3 – 4)

Countless grammatical and syntactical errors, fair spelling, sense mostly decipherable but some
passages necessitating re-reading and the exercise of the reader’s deductive powers. Content
flimsy, ideas disconnected. No amplification of points.

LOWER E SECTION A (0 – 2)

‘Multiple gross errors’, i.e. mistakes not easily definable or separable, whole passages not making
sense, chaotic word order; gross mis-spelling of basic words. No amplification of points.

D. MARKING NORMAL SCRIPTS

6. Scripts are marked by impression, that is to say they are assigned first to a marking category and
then to a final mark, after a careful and complete reading has been carried out and all errors and
merits have been indicated, following the marking code. Also consider the amplification of the given
points.

The category descriptions will help you to decide the category into which the script must go, as in
comparison with scripts in the batch of photostats which have already been standardised.

You should proceed in the following way:

a) When the script has been carefully read, you should ask yourself which of the category
descriptions most clearly matches this script, bearing in mind that a script does not have all
of the characteristics described to qualify for a particular category.
 b) You should address yourself first to the linguistic characteristics of the script. If the script
contains many gross errors and seems to fit the description of Class D or E scripts, you will
probably be able to make your decision at this point. Good subject matter, if presented in
highly inaccurate English, cannot, in this examination, be rewarded.
Always be aware, however, that good content cannot compensate for gross errors. A
composition must show clear, accurate communication before we can reasonably reward
the content.

E. MARKING ABNORMAL SCRIPTS (SECTION A ONLY)

1. ABNORMAL CONTENT

(a) BLATANT IRRELEVANCY i.e. evading the purpose of the examination by consistent distortion or
change of subject, or the inclusion of memorised passages.

ACTION: Mark the essay as normal, divide the mark by two and finally deduct one mark.

(b)MINOR IRRELEVANCY i.e. interpretation not fully acceptable. (N.B. Much M.I is misguided rather
than deliberate. Be tolerant.)

ACTION: Take MI into account when adjusting for the content and arrangement; a deduction of
more than 2 would be very unusual:

record your action at the end of the script and put comment on the script.

(C) CONTRAVENTION OF RUBRIC

More than one essay.

ACTION: Assess all on linguistic grounds only but reward as a single answer, i.e. Out of the
maximum of 20. Do not reward for the content and/ or arrangement. Write ‘rubic’ on top of
script.

(d) SHORT SCRIPTS i.e. under 80 words. (Although the rubic suggests a penalty for under 80 words,
we are lenient on ‘borderline’ cases.)

ACTION:

Section A: Assess linguistically; penalize for lack of content. (it is rare for short scripts to reach
higher than LOWER C. They usually fall into the D Class.)

Write ‘short’ on top of script

2. ABNORMAL LANGUAGE, i.e. E. Class scripts, ‘broken English’.

ACTION: Do not assume consistence of error. Sometimes a candidate’s best work is towards the
end of the script.

Distinguish between two types of ‘E’ language, as follows;

0 – 2: errors not definable or separable;

 Chaotic word order and spelling;

Whole passages not making sense.

3 – 4 countless grammatical and syntactical errors recognisable as English.

NB. DO NOT RAISE AN ‘E’ SCRIPT ON CONTENT AND ARRANGEMENT

GENERAL POINTS OF INTERPRETAION

It is important that we should not embark on a irrelevancy hunt, and that we should remember that
candidates have very little time in which to compose original and interesting stories/descriptions
especially in a second language.

We should positively reward sensible, relevant responses. Where answers cover only part of the
question or reveal an imperfect understanding of the intended implications of the title, there should
be enough legitimate evidence of the candidate’s quality to give a reasonably sympathetic
assessment.

NB. Only when we suspect that the question has been deliberately twisted to accommodate
prepared work should we reduce our mark.

It is assumed that questions will not be misunderstood, but unexpected interpretations will occur.

(a) Examine whether the answer covers most of the important points, and whether the brevity
is deliberate.
(b) Consider the vocabulary: What is repeated from the question paper? What has the
candidate added that is suitable and properly used?
(c) If the whole Section A is written in non-sentences, If non-sentences predominate to the
extent that you are unsure of the general quality, give it to your BMS.
(NB. Please record the candidate’s mark on the mark sheet before you submit the script.)
(d) Adjust the linguistic assessment according to the skills of amplification, logical arrangement,
and re-statement displayed. A disjointed, haphazard list is likely to merit more than a
middle D Class, i.e. 8 marks.

LETTER

Subtract up to a maximum of 2 marks for lay out i.e. the address, date, salutation and ending if
not properly done

COMPREHENSION

Omission of full stop – full mark.

Comma no other meaning is created – full mark award
Creates ambiguity - award full mark
Capitalisation – proper nouns - ½ mark

Grammatical mistakes – ½ of the total.

SECTION B: COMPREHENSION(10MARKS)

A New Constitution

a) A referendum is a vote in which people vote to make a decision about an

important issue in a country.
b) Anyone who is of voting age is eligible to vote.
c) People vote for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in a referendum.
d) Zimbabwe has held two referendums after independence.
e) The ‘no’ vote won in 2000.
f) Zimbabwe could not adopt the new constitution in 2000 because the ‘ yes’ did
not get majority votes.
g) The ‘yes’ vote won on 16 March 2013.
h) A word opposite in meaning to the word ‘secret’ is public.
i) A word from the passage which means nearly the same as allowed is ‘eligible.’
j) The meaning of the word ‘adopted’ as used in the passage is approved to a
proposal.