SCORE DESCRIPTION

BAND 5

A fully successful response

The response is a relevant and very clearly expressed contribution to the online discussion, and it demonstrates consistent

facility in the use of language.

A typical response displays the following:

• Relevant and well-elaborated explanations, exemplifications, and/or details

• Effective use of a variety of syntactic structures and precise, idiomatic word choice

• Almost no lexical or grammatical errors other than those expected from a competent writer writing under timed conditions

(e.g., common typos or common misspellings or substitutions like there/their)

BAND 4

A generally successful response

The response is a relevant contribution to the online discussion, and facility in the use of language allows the writer’s ideas to be

easily understood.

A typical response displays the following:

• Relevant and adequately elaborated explanations, exemplifications, and/or details

• A variety of syntactic structures and appropriate word choice

• Few lexical or grammatical errors

BAND 3

A partially successful response

The response is a mostly relevant and mostly understandable contribution to the online discussion, and there is some facility in

the use of language.

A typical response displays the following:

• Elaboration in which part of an explanation, example, or detail may be missing, unclear, or irrelevant

• Some variety in syntactic structures and a range of vocabulary

• Some noticeable lexical and grammatical errors in sentence structure, word form, or use of idiomatic language

BAND 2

A mostly unsuccessful response

The response reflects an attempt to contribute to the online discussion, but limitations in the use of language

may make ideas hard to follow.

A typical response displays the following:

• Ideas that may be poorly elaborated or only partially relevant

• A limited range of syntactic structures and vocabulary

• An accumulation of errors in sentence structure, word forms, or use

BAND 1

An unsuccessful response

The response reflects an ineffective attempt to contribute to the online discussion, and limitations in the use of language may

prevent the expression of ideas.

A typical response may display the following:

• Words and phrases that indicate an attempt to address the task but with few or no coherent ideas

• Severely limited range of syntactic structures and vocabulary

• Serious and frequent errors in the use of language

• Minimal original language; any coherent language is mostly borrowed from the stimulus

0

The response is blank, rejects the topic, is not in English, is entirely copied from the prompt,

is entirely unconnected to the prompt, or consists of arbitrary keystrokes