Blog Comment

Part three of the exam is one task: a blog comment of about 250 words, written in 60 minutes. Twenty points, and nothing else in that part.

Nobody here asks whether you know a rule. They read the text you wrote and put four marks on it: one for the task, one for how it holds together, one for the range of the language, one for how correct it is. Which is why this article is built differently: you will look at other people's comments and settle one question at a time about them, which is exactly what a marker does.

The scale, left open on the desk

Every point below leans on it, so keep it in view.

Criterion	What it asks	max
Task achievement	all three content points, done as a blog comment	5
Organisation and coherence	how the text is structured and linked	5
Structural and lexical range	how varied the grammar and the vocabulary are	5
Structural and lexical accuracy	how correct they are	5

The four names are the ones printed on the official scale, and this article uses them as they stand.

Two rules that settle the outcome before quality comes into it:

a zero for Task achievement drags the other three criteria to zero as well; it is given to a text that does not address the task;
a text under 110 words is not assessed at all, which is not the same as points taken off a positive mark.

Length. 250 words are asked for, and anything from 225 to 275 costs nothing. The user name and the date do not count towards it. Outside that range whole points come off the total, after the four criteria have been added up:

Words	Off the total
476 or more	3
376–475	2
276–375	1
225–275	0
210–224	1
190–209	2
170–189	3
150–169	4
130–149	5
110–129	6
under 110	whole task: 0

Point 0: the post, the task, and a comment already marked

Here is the post being answered. It is the only one in this article.

"Nobody cooks any more", a post by Tomas Aldner (tomcooks), 12/03/2021

Last week I asked forty of my students how often they cook a meal from raw ingredients. Eleven said never. Most of them told me they simply have no time, and several added that ordering food is cheaper than buying it. I find that hard to believe, and I think we are losing something that used to be ordinary. What do you think?

Under the post the paper prints the task. The three content points are always there, and the first one always asks for the same thing.

Write a comment on Tomas's post. In your comment you should:

summarise Tomas's attitude towards cooking in one sentence and comment on it

explain why many young people cook less than their parents did

suggest what could get more young people cooking

Include a range of interactive elements to engage your readers. Write 250 words (+/- 10%).

And here is somebody's comment on it, already marked. The mark sits beside it and explains itself.

fromvienna_22, 14/03/2021

I disagree with this post. Cooking is not so expensive. In my family we cook every day and it is cheaper than delivery. Also it is healthier. My mother taught me when I was ten. Students today have many things to do but one hour is enough for a simple meal. I think people should try.

Mark: 0 out of 20. Not because it is badly written: it runs smoothly and there is hardly an error in it. It is 56 words long, and texts under 110 words are not assessed at all.

Notice what did not happen here: nobody gave it three points for language and then took two off for length. Nothing was assessed. This is the first of the two places where the outcome is settled before the marker reaches quality at all.

What the marker looks at first

Not the language. First, whether the task was done: all three content points, in a text that is recognisably a blog comment.

A comment is brilliantly written, lively, full of direct address, exactly 250 words. But it deals only with the second and third content points: there is no summary of Tomas's attitude anywhere. What happens?

Exam level

0 for Task achievement, and the other three criteria are pulled down to 0 with itno loss at all: Task achievement checks the text type, and this is a lively commentone mark off each of the four criteria, so four marks lost across the whole scaleat most 2 for Task achievement, while the other three criteria are marked as usual

So your own draft wants reading in the same order: not "how is it written" but "was it done". There are three content points, and the first is the one people turn into something else.

Five sentences from the opening of one comment on Tomas's post. Which of them does the first content point: Tomas's attitude in one sentence, plus a comment on it?

Exam level

I read this post yesterday on the train home and I wanted to say something about it straight away.The author thinks we have stopped cooking and are losing something ordinary, and I mostly agree.Eleven of the forty students in that class never cook at all, which is a lot in a group that size.My grandmother cooked every single day of her life and never once thought of it as a hobby.So what do the rest of you actually cook on an evening when you are in a hurry?

Restating the blogger's attitude is not a polite opening, it is the first of the three content points. Skip it and the whole comment counts as two points addressed out of three: Task achievement can go no higher than 2, before the marker has judged a single one of your ideas.

Length: one zero and a table

You can do the whole task and still walk away with nothing. The second route has nothing to do with content and everything to do with length, and it catches the people who ran out of time.

Two drafts answering the same post. The first: 95 words, all three content points covered, almost no errors, reads smoothly. The second: 230 words, the third point only half done, six grammar mistakes. Which one will the marker not assess at all?

Exam level

neither: anything over 50 words gets assessed, and length only brings deductionsthe second: six errors are a zero for accuracy, and any zero wipes out all 20the first: under 110 words is not assessed at allboth get marked: the length deduction only starts at 90 words

Hence a conclusion worth accepting before exam day: when time is running out and you are under 225, getting to 225 words matters more than fixing mistakes. The table in the box above is certain: a text of 200 words loses 2 points off the total whatever its quality, and 25 more words win them back. A corrected error counts only if it lifts Structural and lexical accuracy by a whole band, and one error rarely does.

The arithmetic is done, now the reader decides

The word count is settled before anyone reads a word, and whether the three points are there takes one read. After that the marker reads for something else, and the first thing they look for is whether there is an I and a you in the text.

A blog comment is written for people and answers a person. The exam says so outright: the readership has to be addressed, not written about.

Five sentences from one paragraph of a comment. In which of them does the writer stop writing about readers and start writing to them?

Exam level

People often say that cooking simply takes far too much time on a working weekday.In my opinion that is only partly true, and the rest is habit rather than time.Have you ever cooked three meals on a Sunday and frozen them?Why does one planned evening matter so much? Because the worst evening is the unplanned one.Plenty of students in my city already do exactly this and never mention it.

One such place across the whole text is not enough: the task asks for a range of interactive elements, and the marker is deciding whether this is a conversation or a report. The exam's own description of a blog comment names what counts: questions, the word you, question tags, and an invitation to comment back. The last two are the ones candidates forget. A question tag turns a statement into a nudge: Cooking for one is the hardest part, isn't it? An invitation hands the thread to the other readers, not only to Tomas: Has anyone else here tried cooking for the whole week on a Sunday? Tell me how it went.

The last point: call it in advance

Next comes a comment you have not read yet. Read it through and keep your verdict ready: two steps from here you will have to name it.

lenaK, 15/03/2021

Dear Mr Aldner, I have read your article about cooking with great interest. It is true that many young people do not cook. There are three reasons for this. Firstly, they lack time. Secondly, ingredients are expensive. Thirdly, cooking skills are not taught at school. In conclusion, the situation is regrettable and something should be done about it.

The first content point asks you to summarise the blogger’s attitude in one sentence and comment on it. Which of these four openings does that?

Exam level

Aldner thinks we are losing an everyday skill and doubts the money excuse, and he is right.Eleven of the forty students Aldner asked never cook at all, and that number honestly surprised me.I have read your article about cooking with great interest, and I have thought about it all evening.Students in shared flats almost never cook, and I can name at least three reasons why.

lenaK leaves the first content point open, and waves at the third with "something should be done" without suggesting anything. Before you read on, decide what that costs here.

This comment is 58 words long, and the first content point is not done. What is it worth?

Exam level

0 out of 20 twice over: it is under 110 words, and a missed content point zeroes Task achievement2 out of 20: Task achievement stops at 2 for two content points, the rest is lost to length6 out of 20: the language marks survive, minus the deduction for a very short text0 out of 20 for one reason only: under 110 words nothing is assessed

Now give lenaK enough words to be marked. The question becomes what an unfinished content point costs.

lenaK rewrites the comment to 240 words. She adds a first sentence that summarises Tomas's attitude and comments on it, develops her three reasons without saying what would help, keeps 'Dear Mr Aldner', and still ends with 'something should be done about it'. What is the highest mark Task achievement can reach now?

Above exam level

5: all three reasons are there, and the summary now opens the comment3: all three points are addressed, only not yet fully developed2: the third point still suggests nothing, so only two are addressed0: a comment that started life as a letter has failed the task

With lenaK the conversation never started, and you can see it in the first line: a letter to Mr Aldner, not a comment among readers. It gets harder where a text does look alive: the difference only shows when two paragraphs sit side by side.

Two paragraphs about the same thing. A: "Cooking at home is cheaper than most people think. A pot of soup costs less than two deliveries. Students in my building share the cooking on Sundays. It works surprisingly well." B: "Cooking at home is cheaper than you think. Have you ever priced a pot of soup against two deliveries? We share the cooking on Sundays in my building. Try it with your flatmates!" What is B doing that A is not?

Exam level

bringing in two more examples from the writer’s own life than A doeslinking its sentences with signposting words that A does not use at alladdressing the reader: a question and a direct youusing the passive and conditionals instead of simple tenses

If you called it before the explanation, you are taking away the thing this article was written for. Read your own comment in the same order: first whether the task was done and whether there are enough words, then whether the text talks to its reader, and only after that everything else.

What to take away

The order to run through your own draft in the five minutes before you hand it in:

Are all three content points covered? The first of them is: restate the blogger's attitude in one sentence and comment on it.
Between 225 and 275 words? Below or above, whole points come off the total; under 110, nothing is counted.
Does the text contain a you, a question (a question tag counts) and an invitation to the readers to reply, three different things rather than one thing three times?

The first two are where the largest losses are made. The third is what makes it a comment rather than a letter.

This article stops at the task and the reader. How the comment is built before you write it, and what the marker looks for in its language, have articles of their own.

The plan before the text: three lines, one per content point The language itself: register, range and accuracy The last check: what still fits into the final five minutes

0/8

drills solved