Understanding the four writing criteria
By Michael Ukwuma
What the marker looks at and how to improve each area.
Content and coherence
This measures the quality of your ideas and how clearly they are organised. Use paragraphs, give examples and link ideas with connecting words such as because, for example, however and as a result.
Vocabulary
This looks at range and precision. Replace very common words with more exact ones, such as exhausted instead of very tired or reasonable instead of good. Use words you know well. A simple word used correctly is better than a fancy word used wrongly.
Readability
This covers grammar, spelling, punctuation and sentence variety. Mix short and longer sentences. Check subject and verb agreement, tense, articles and prepositions, because these are the errors that appear most often.
Task fulfilment
This asks whether you did what the task asked, in the right tone and with enough length. Reread the prompt before you finish and tick off every point.
Using the feedback
After each marked response on this site, read the mistakes list and write each corrected sentence in your notebook. Patterns will appear. Most writers repeat the same three or four errors, and fixing those gives the fastest gain.
Key points
- Ideas, vocabulary, readability and task fulfilment are marked separately.
- Fix your repeated errors first.
- Reread the prompt before you finish.