Writing Formal and Informal Letters. Part 1. Домбровская И.В - 8 стр.

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is obviously necessary to downgrade candidates who attempt these topics without
preparation.

Marking
The panel of examiners is divided into small teams, each with a very experienced ex-
aminer as Team Leader. The Principal Examiner guides and monitors the marking
process, beginning with a meeting of the Principal Examiner and the Team Leaders.
This is held immediately after the examination and begins the process of establishing
a common standard of assessment by the selection of sample scripts for all the ques-
tions in Paper 2. These are chosen to demonstrate the range of responses and different
levels of competence, and a task-specific mark scheme is finalised for each individ-
ual task on the paper. This summarises the content, organisation and cohesion*,
range of structures and vocabulary, register and format, and target reader indi-
cated in the task, in the form of satisfactory band descriptors. The accuracy of lan-
guage, including spelling and punctuation, is assessed on the general impression scale
for all tasks; accuracy is more prominent in Part 1 assessment, and range in the as-
sessment of Part 2 performance.
Examiners discuss these individual mark schemes and refer to them regularly while
they are working.
During marking, each examiner is apportioned scripts chosen on a random basis from
the whole entry in order to ensure there is no concentration of good or weak scripts or
of one large centre of one country in the allocation of any one examiner. A rigorous
process of co-ordination and checking is carried out before and throughout the mark-
ing process.

*COHESION - logical organisation of the text, which presupposes the use of
linking devices (see the table below).

Linking and Logical Devices
Addition                                       Cause and result
In addition to...                              Because ...
as well as ... + N                             as... + clause
besides...                                     since...
both... and ... + N                            in case...
not only ... but also ... + N/clause           due to...
Furthermore...                                 owing to ... + N
Moreover... + clause                           as a result of...
... also...                                    so (that)...
... too /as well                               so + ADJ/ADV + that... + clause
                                               such + N + that...
                                               therefore + clause
                                               consequently