Written assignment: Receptive and written productive skills

Weighting: 20%

This component consists of inter-textual reading linked to the core, followed by a written task of 300–400 words and a 150–200 word rationale. It must be written during the final year of the course and is externally assessed. It is not timed and must be the student’s own independent work, produced under the teacher’s guidance (see below for the role of the teacher).

Objectives

The purpose of the written assignment is to:

• deepen understanding of a chosen topic(s) from the course
• develop inter-textual receptive and productive skills
• select, use and reference source texts appropriate to the chosen task
• produce an appropriate text in the selected text type
• organize writing purposefully and coherently
• extend language skills
• demonstrate intercultural understanding through reflection on the assignment.

“Inter-textual reading” refers to the ability to read across different texts one of which may be audio/audio-visual, that may be linked by a common theme.

Requirements

The assignment has two parts: a rationale and the task.

The rationale: Students must write a 150–200 word rationale introducing the assignment which must include:

• the subject investigated
• a brief description of each of the sources
• the student's intended aim(s)
• explanation of how the student intends to achieve his or her aim(s)—choice of text types, audience, register, style and so on.

The task: Students produce a piece of writing that may be chosen from the recommended text types listed for paper 2 in this section, after discussion with the teacher as an advisor. The task should be suitable for a piece of writing no more than 400 words in length. The content must be linked to one or more of the core topics and based on the information gathered from the three (minimum) or four (maximum) sources such as articles, blogs, audio/visual materials and interviews selected by the student in consultation with the teacher.

The student should:

• address the subject presented in the rationale
• organize the information from the sources in a manner appropriate to the task
• use language appropriate to the text type and communicative purpose.

The following example is for English B:

Formal guidelines

• The assignment should be written in the final year of the course and is not timed.
• The subject of the written assignment must be the choice of the student in consultation with the teacher, based on the three (minimum) to four (maximum) sources selected by the student.
• The task and the rationale must be in the target language and word processed.
• The assignment must be the independent work of the student (see below for the role of the teacher).
• Source texts must be relevant to the target culture, must be originally written in the target language, and must be referenced by the student.
• Students may include illustrations in support of their work where this is appropriate, however, artistic merit is not assessed. These must always be electronically embedded, not separately reproduced and physically attached. Written assignments submitted for assessment must be word processed and the electronic files must not exceed a maximum size of 2 MB, including any images.

The role of the teacher

The assignment should be defined with the teacher’s guidance to ensure that it is the student’s original choice of task, that it complies with the requirements of the assignment, and that it is the student’s own work.

The teacher is an advisor who guides the student through the process. The student is responsible for the entire process, but the teacher must advise on the choice of subject, the choice of source texts, and the choice of text type.

It is not the role of the teacher to correct the written assignment but the teacher can give verbal advice on a first draft of the task. This advice may help the student to identify ways in which the work could be improved but the first draft must not be annotated or edited by the teacher. After making general comments on the first draft, teachers should not provide any further assistance.

Teachers should familiarize the students with the assessment criteria.

Student exemplars