INTRODUCTION Assessment criteria for Section B Summary of descriptors
Marks available
Criterion A
Language For maximum marks you must use English effectively and accurately. Your ability to use a range of vocabulary and complex sentence structures is tested.
10
Criterion B
Argument For maximum marks you must develop your ideas methodically and convincingly. Your response should be coherent, organised, engaging and relevant to the stimulus.
10
Total
20
Written assignment: Receptive and productive skills The main requirement of the written assignment is similar at both standard level and higher level. In the second year of your course, you will write a text in response to another text or texts. Your teacher will give you 3–4 hours to complete this assignment, in an in-class, examstyle situation, which does not have to be held in one sitting. You may also use a dictionary and reference material during this time. Your written assignment will be accompanied by a rationale, which explains to the examiner how you have achieved the aim of your assignment. While the nature of this assignment and rationale is similar at both standard level and higher level, the parts of the course on which they are based are different. At standard level, your teacher will supply you with three different, unseen stimulus texts, of 300–400 words each, about a core topic. In response to these texts you will formulate a response, using a particular text type. For example, after reading a brochure on energy efficiency, a news article about global warming and a blog about solar panels, you may decide to write a letter to a politician, encouraging higher subsidies for those who want to invest in solar panels. You must use one of the text types from the standard level column in the table opposite. At higher level, you will respond to a literary work that you have read. You may write a letter from one character to another character within a novel. You may write a speech as if you were a character in a literary work you have read. Or you may decide to write an interview with a character. Your task must use one of the text types from the higher level column of the table. Notice the key differences between the standard level and higher level written assignments: standard level students may write an essay and higher level may students may write a proposal.
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