writing assessment criteria

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IELTS Writing band descriptors and key assessment criteria

Date Published

03 May 2023

The full assessment scales used by IELTS Writing examiners, are now available. These consist of the IELTS band descriptors and the detailed, key assessment criteria which support the band descriptors.

IELTS' commitment to continuous improvement and ensuring fair and accurate results for test takers, combined with our extensive research capability and data from millions of test takers has seen completion of a review of our Writing assessment criteria to ensure they remain fair, transparent and fit for purpose.

Find out more about IELTS Writing band descriptors and key assessment criteria .

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2024. IELTS is jointly owned by the British Council; IDP IELTS; and Cambridge University Press & Assessment

A Guide to Standardized Writing Assessment

Overview of writing assessment, holistic scoring, evolving technology, applications in the classroom.

In the United States, policymakers, advisory groups, and educators increasingly view writing as one of the best ways to foster critical thinking and learning across the curriculum. The nonprofit organization Achieve worked with five states to define essential English skills for high school graduates and concluded thatStrong writing skills have become an increasingly important commodity in the 21st century. . . . The discipline and skill required to create, reshape, and polish pieces of writing “on demand” prepares students for the real world, where they inevitably must be able to write quickly and clearly, whether in the workplace or in college classrooms. (2004, p. 26)

My daughters are not alone. Increasingly, students are being asked to write for tests that range from NCLB-mandated subject assessments in elementary school to the new College Board SAT, which will feature a writing section beginning in March 2005. Educators on the whole have encouraged this development. As one study argues,Since educators can use writing to stimulate students' higher-order thinking skills—such as the ability to make logical connections, to compare and contrast solutions to problems, and to adequately support arguments and conclusions—authentic assessment seems to offer excellent criteria for teaching and evaluating writing. (Chapman, 1990)

Achieve, Inc. (2004). Do graduation tests measure up? A closer look at state high school exit exams . Washington, DC: Author.

Boomer, G. (1985). The assessment of writing. In P. J. Evans (Ed.), Directions and misdirections in English evaluation (pp. 63–64). Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Canadian Council of Teachers of English.

Chapman, C. (1990). Authentic writing assessment . Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 328 606)

Cooper, C. R., & Odell, L. (1977). Evaluating writing: Describing, measuring, judging . Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Duke, C. R., & Sanchez, R. (1994). Giving students control over writing assessment. English Journal, 83 (4), 47–53.

Fiderer, A. (1998). Rubrics and checklists to assess reading and writing: Time-saving reproducible forms for meaningful literacy assessment . Bergenfield, NJ: Scholastic.

Murphy, S., & Ruth, L. (1999). The field-testing of writing prompts reconsidered. In M. M. Williamson & B. A. Huot (Eds.), Validating holistic scoring for writing assessment: Theoretical and empirical foundations (pp. 266–302). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Ruth, L., & Murphy, S. (1988). Designing tasks for the assessment of writing . Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Skillings, M. J., & Ferrell, R. (2000). Student-generated rubrics: Bringing students into the assessment process. Reading Teacher, 53 (6), 452–455.

White, J. O. (1982). Students learn by doing holistic scoring. English Journal , 50–51.

• 1 For information on individual state assessments and rubrics, visit http://wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/Programs/EROD/org_list.cfm?category_ID=SEA and follow the links to the state departments of education.

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IELTS Writing Assessment Criteria

Writing assessment criteria, writing word count.

This criterion examines the overview and information that you provide, details of your content, and the accuracy with which you have mentioned key features and illustrations.

You are supposed to write 150 words for Task 1. Else there will be a penalty for under word count.

In this criterion, the type of response that you write for the essay type question is determined. It assesses the main idea of your essay and the way you develop it with relative examples.

You are supposed to write 250 words for Task 2. Otherwise, you will be penalized for writing fewer word counts. To avoid such problems, you must learn how the examiner counts your word and how many words you must write.

This IELTS Writing Criterion determines the proper use of linking words, paragraphing skills and use of cohesive devices (for example, connectors, conjunctions) is determined.

Also, the number of paragraphs is taken into consideration. Dividing your essay into more or fewer paragraphs might lower your score.

Under this criterion, the use of a sufficient range of vocabulary, proper spellings, correct implementation of collocations, and word formation are taken care of while scoring. You must avoid using wrong words and informal language.

To score this criterion, things taken into consideration include sentence structures, proper use of tenses, putting right punctuations, use of simple as well as complex statements with clear ideas, and control over Grammar.

Take a look at IELTS Writing Marking Criteria for Task 1 & Task 2

Ielts writing task 1.

• Task Achievement: 7
• Coherence & Cohesion: 7.5
• Lexical Resource: 6.5
• Grammatical Range & Accuracy: 7

Total Score for Task 1: 7 + 7.5 + 6.5 + 7 = 28 / 4 = 7

IELTS Writing Task 2

• Task Response: 6
• Coherence & Cohesion: 7
• Lexical Resource: 7
• Grammatical Range & Accuracy: 6

Total Score for Task 2: 6 + 7 + 7 + 6 = 26 / 4 = 6.5

Total Writing Band Score: 7 + 6.5 = 13.5 / 2 = 6.75 = 7 (rounded up)

Click here to download the Writing Assessment Criteria for Task 1. Click here to download the Writing Assessment Criteria for Task 2.

IELTS writing test will examine your writing skills, help you manage time, and develop strategies to complete the tasks in stipulated time. Practice more and more to fetch a high score.

IELTS Writing Evaluation Criteria in Detail

What will be the penalty for under word count.

You will get a lower score as a consequence of not writing enough words. This, in turn, indicates that you haven't completed the task.

The examiner checks and counts the words. So, to avoid writing fewer words you must practice writing on the official writing answer sheet . This will help you judge the length of your writing. You can then save time by counting just the number of lines you have written instead of counting each word.

Some other factors that diminish your score…

Handwriting: If the examiner finds difficulty in reading your answers, your band score will get affected.

Writing Memorized Answer: If you write an essay or letter/report that is memorized, you will receive low scoring for it.

Incomplete Answer: If you fail to answer the whole question or provide only half a response, you would lose your score.

What if you write more than the required words?

There is no set upper limit for both tasks. But, writing too much doesn’t mean you would achieve a high score. Instead, focus on writing quality content.

In how many paragraphs will you divide your essay?

The essay must be divided into several paragraphs. Make sure you have at least 4 to 5 paragraphs in which you divide your essay for Task 2.

Every essay has an introduction and a conclusion - this constitutes two paragraphs. Then comes the body of the essay which must be divided either into two or three paragraphs. In total, your essay must comprise four or five paragraphs.

• Organize the information properly while writing an essay
• Make use of excellent English i.e. avoid spelling mistakes, incorrect use of grammar or sentence structures
• Avoid copying the information provided in the question for writing the introductory paragraph of your essay. Instead, paraphrase the question and use it in the introduction paragraph.
• Don't waste time counting the number of words you have written. Prefer counting the number of lines

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Assessing Writing

How do you design a writing test? This video looks at the factors you need to consider when you are assessing writing.

• Assessing Writing worksheet (Adobe PDF 246KB)
• Answer Key Assessing Writing (Adobe PDF 253KB)
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Writing Assessment

Main navigation.

Effective writing pedagogy depends on assessment practices that set students up for success and are fair and consistent.

Ed White and Stanford Lecturer Cassie A. Wright have argued influentially that good assessment thus begins with assignment design, including a clear statement of learning objectives and comments on drafts (“response”); thus:

ASSESSMENT DESIGN + RESPONSE + EVALUATION = ASSESSMENT (White 1984; White and Wright 2015)

Assessment theory further supports the idea that good writing assessment is:

Local , responding directly to student writing itself and a specific, individual assignment

Rhetorically based , responding to the relationship between what a student writes, how they write and who they are writing for

Accessible , legibly written in language that a student can understand, and available in a time frame that allows them to take feedback into consideration for subsequent writing assignments

Theoretically consistent  such that assignment expectations, teaching, and feedback are all aligned

(O’Neill, Moore, and Huot 57)

For these reasons, we must think about assessment holistically, in terms of  how we articulate our evaluation criteria ,  give feedback to students,  and  invite them to respond to others’  and  their own writing .

Works Cited

O’Neill, Peggy, Cindy Moore, and Brian Huot. A Guide to College Writing Assessment. Logan: Utah State UP, 2009. Print.

White, Edward M. Teaching and Assessing Writing. Proquest Info and Learning, 1985. Print.

White, Edward M., and Cassie A. Wright. Assigning, Responding, Evaluating: A Writing Teacher’s Guide. 5th ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015. Print.

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Assessment Criteria and Assessment Rubrics

Assessment rubrics and assessment criteria are both tools used for establishing a clear understanding between staff and students about what is expected from assessed work, and how student knowledge is evaluated. Assessment rubrics and assessment criteria are often referred to interchangeably but it's important to understand they have slightly different purposes.

Assessment criteria are specific standards or guidelines that outline what is expected of a student in a particular assessment task. They are often used to set clear guidelines for what constitutes success in each assessment task but are generally not broken down into discrete levels of performance. They can, however, provide the foundations for creating assessment rubrics. 

An assessment rubric is a more detailed and structured tool that breaks down the assessment criteria into different levels or categories of performance, typically ranging from poor to excellent, on a percentage scale. They can make a markers life easier by ensuring consistency and objectivity in grading or evaluation, provide a clear framework for assessing performance, and reduce time spent on grading.

Additionally, assessment rubrics can help students to understand the aims and requirements of an assessment task and can support them in understanding the outcome of their assessed work i.e., how the markers reached their decision, positive areas of feedback and feedforward comments that allow students to recognise their future development needs. 

Top Tips for Writing Assessment Rubrics

• Start by clarifying the purpose of the assessment and what specific skills or learning outcomes you want to evaluate. This will guide the development of your rubric.
• Break down the assessment into its essential components or criteria . These should reflect the specific skills or knowledge you want to assess. Be clear and specific about what you're looking for.
• Use straightforward and unambiguous language in your rubric. Avoid jargon or complex terminology that may confuse students or other assessors.
• Create a clear and logical progression of performance levels, each criterion should provide detailed descriptions of what constitutes achievement at that level (check if your school has example assessment rubrics/criteria as a starting point).
• Consider assigning different weightings to each criterion. Some of the rubric criterion will be more significant than others , g., theoretical application, criticality, and structure weightings will defer (this will be guided by the knowledge outcomes).
• Check for parity across grade boundaries  Consider what a student would need to do to obtain each classification- be clear about the components which make up good performance, e.g., clear structure, argument, engagement with critical material. It is best to start at a pass, and work towards a first class. Criteria should concentrate on what the student has done, rather than what they have not done. 
• Leave space on the rubric for assessors to provide feedback to students . This can be particularly helpful for offering constructive feedback on areas of improvement.
• Best practice is to ask colleagues  to read your criteria and check them for clarity before using them.
• Criteria may be revised from year-to-year  in response to feedback and your own experience of using it Rubrics can and should evolve to become more effective over time.

Example: UG Stage 1 Rubric

Example: PGT Rubric

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There are lots of examples of how formative assessment is used here at Newcastle on our Case Studies Database.

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Know The IELTS Writing Task Assessment Criteria

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When you go into the IELTS writing exam, you will have to sit down and produce essays and letters that contain good English. But how does IELTS judge whether your English is good or not? Well, the examiners are carefully trained to use a set of assessment criteria that tell them how to assign you a grade.

Table of Contents

Ielts marking: a brief overview, task achievement/response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy.

Read on if you want to know what these assignment criteria are. This is important because it can help you to better understand how your essays will be judged and thus what you should focus on before the test.

For the IELTS listening and reading tests, you are given 40 questions and you have to answer them. A computer programme will then judge whether you were right or wrong and assign you a grade according to a simple formula. It is pretty simple and there is not much to think about.

However, it is totally different for IELTS writing and speaking. Computers are not yet capable of this sort of thing. They cannot tell good English from bad and they certainly cannot do so with the accuracy needed for IELTS.

Thus, examiners are given a detailed set of guidelines and extensively trained in order to judge candidates’ abilities. These are broken down into four sections, which for the IELTS writing test are:

Each of these are worth 25% of your total score and you will be given a grade of between 0 and 9 for each one. For example, if you scored 8/ 8/ 6/ 6, then your final score would be band 7.

That’s all well and good, but what do these terms actually mean? In the following sections, I will explain everything you need to know in simple terms.

Task Achievement and Task Response refer to how well you have answered the question. Task Achievement is the term used for task 2 and Task Response is used for task 1, but to be honest they are basically the same.

Essentially, in this area, the examiner is looking to assign a grade based upon your overall answer. Did you understand the question? Did you provide detail? Did you stay on topic? Did you give examples? These are all questions that the examiner will ask.

At its most basic, your grade for Task Achievement or Task Response will be given based upon whether or not your really understood the question. That is why you need to read the question carefully and respond without straying from the subject.

You also need to develop your ideas. If you are asked for the advantages and disadvantages, but you just list these with no explanation, you would not get a good score. Also, if your ideas are outrageous, naïve, or misguided, you might get a lower score because IELTS writing is, to some extent, a test of your basic thinking skills.

These two words might be unfamiliar to you, but basically they refer to how your essay is linked together. We often talk about coherence as the way that paragraphs connect and cohesion as the way that sentences connect. From the big to the small, your IELTS writing tasks should be logical and easy to follow.

The most important and most basic thing is having a sensible structure. For task 1, that could be two or three paragraphs, and for task 2 it is usually four but sometimes five paragraphs. Each paragraph must serve a clear function and all the sentences within that paragraph must be focused around a singular idea.

However, Coherence and Cohesion goes a little beyond just the basic essay structure. You are also judged on how your clauses are linked, how you use cohesive devices, how your sentences flow together, and how you use pronouns.

This last one can be a real headache. Native English speakers often use pronouns to avoid repetition, but these can be confusing for learners. When you write, you will sometimes have to use words like “this” and “they” and “it.” If these are not clear and obvious, then you will not be able to get a good score for Coherence and Cohesion.

Lexical Resource fundamentally means “vocabulary” but do not think of it in such a simple way. Vocabulary is not just about knowing lots of words.

For IELTS writing , you would not be helped by learning vast lists of vocabulary. Instead, you need to learn how to use words accurately and idiomatically. You must avoid spelling mistakes and collocate your words naturally. Failure to do any of these things would result in a fairly low score.

A lot of IELTS candidates try to cram really obscure words into their essays, but this is honestly one of the worst things you can do. No IELTS examiner is foolish enough to fall for such a cheap trick. Instead, you need to be able to use a range of words in a reasonable and accurate way.

Getting a high score in this section can be a challenge, but it is not impossible, and you can still make small mistakes and score band 7, 8, or 9. Those mistakes must be minor and there should not be many of them. The bigger the error, the more it will cause a deduction in your score.

Another area that is surrounded in confusion and mystery is that of Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Essentially, this is how the IELTS writing examiners judge your grammar, and grammar entails many different things. It takes years to learn and even then most people still cannot use it perfectly.

The key to this section is in the name: You should not focus on range or accuracy; rather, you must focus on range and accuracy. That means your IELTS essay should feature different types of sentences, different clauses, and different prepositions. Importantly, these should all be used with a high degree of accuracy.

The problem with IELTS test is that grammar is incredibly difficult to learn and even making three mistakes could prevent you from scoring band 7 in this part of the test. However, you must persevere and master grammar. There is no other way.

Start with simple sentences, then build up to compound and compound ones, always paying attention to tenses and collocations of prepositions. Think about articles and other troublesome little words. Don’t write anything that you aren’t confident of being correct.

Your IELTS writing score will be given based upon your performance in these four marking criteria. Each of them is worth 25% of your total score and you will be given a grade ranging from 0 to 9 for each section. The latter two are definitely the hardest to master, so you should devote extra time to these. Some people try to balance their score by getting higher scores for Task Achievement and Coherence and Cohesion, but you should not give up on grammar. It is very important and having poor skills here can even cause your score for the first two criteria to drop because your writing will become confusing and misguide the reader.

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WriteOn competition

WriteOn is an annual writing competition open to all NSW primary students in Years 1 to 6.

About the competition

The annual WriteOn competition gives students the opportunity to become published authors and develop skills in writing to express their ideas.

The competition is open to students in Years 1 to 6 who are using NSW syllabuses, including students registered for home schooling. Students compose an imaginative text of up to 500 words, using the image as the stimulus.

Each year, winning entries are published in 'The Best of WriteOn' anthology. The 2023 version of the anthology is available for purchase from the NESA Shop .

WriteOn 2024

WriteOn 2024 opens 25 March. This year the competition is held in association with the Art Gallery of NSW. The new stimulus image, courtesy of the Art Gallery of NSW is ‘The railway station, Redfern’ (1893) by Arthur Streeton.

Arthur Streeton (England/Australia 1867–1943), The railway station, Redfern 1893 , oil on canvas, 40.8 x 61 cm Art Gallery of New South Wales, gift of Lady Denison 1942, Image © Art Gallery of New South Wales 7209

Entries close at 4pm Friday 28 June (Week 9, Term 2).

Download the competition poster (PDF 465.45KB) .

How to enter

Each school/home school can submit a maximum of 3 entries . Schools/home schools use the online entry form to submit one typed entry per Stage of learning.

Please read the entry criteria before submitting student entries.

Entry criteria

• WriteOn is open to all students in Years 1 to 6 whose teachers are using NSW syllabuses.
• Entries must only be submitted by schools or registered home schooling families.
• All entries must be the student’s own work. Some students with disability may require adjustments .
• Each school/home school can submit a maximum of 3 entries. That is one entry per Stage of learning from each of Stage 1, Stage 2, and/or Stage 3.
• Only one entry per student can be submitted.

Teaching and learning advice for WriteOn 2024

NESA has developed new teaching advice to support teachers to include WriteOn in their Term 2 programs. WriteOn is a great opportunity for students to practise writing for different contexts, purposes and audiences. This advice can be used alongside the WriteOn 2023 Judges’ notes and the assessment criteria.

• Teaching and learning advice for WriteOn 2024 Stage 1 (DOCX 145.16KB) .
• Teaching and learning advice for WriteOn 2024 Stage 2–3 (DOCX 147.8KB) .

The WriteOn competition is judged by a selected panel comprised of school sector and NESA representatives.

The decision of the judging panel is final.

Better responses showed strength in:

• making the image central to the writing
• using the image to convey a particular perspective in a contextually relevant and interesting way
• writing coherently to develop a clear storyline that is easy for the reader to follow
• using language creatively and purposefully for effect on the reader
• building tension and creating an atmosphere or mood through well-crafted descriptions
• selecting a type of text that allows for creative expression
• having a clear personal voice
• writing appropriately descriptive settings
• using techniques such as repetition of words and ideas to build text cohesion and drive the plot
• creating believable characters
• experimenting with text structures such as a plot twist or a circular plot
• using well-structured sentences and paragraphs to organise the text
• engaging the reader with original ideas and taking them on a journey
• using affective language creatively
• using sensory description to add detail to the writing
• selecting language that is appropriate to the context and setting
• using original and creative figurative devices such as similes, metaphors or personification
• creating an interesting title relevant to the writing
• drawing on background knowledge or making connections to other learning
• using Stage-appropriate grammar, spelling and punctuation to enhance meaning
• adhering to the word limit
• editing their writing carefully, for example to ensure there is consistency of tense.

Assessment criteria for WriteOn 2024

Entries will be assessed on how well the text:

• makes connections to the stimulus image
• maintains the selected form, structure and text features appropriate to context, purpose and audience
• engages the audience in imaginative, interpretive, emotive or creative ways
• uses a range of language forms and features, vocabulary and punctuation.

For further information email [email protected]

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