Test of Written English Essay Ratings

TWE essays are marked on a scale on 1 – 6

Level 6 

An essay at this level

• effectively addresses the writing task
• is well organized and well developed
• uses clearly appropriate details to support a thesis or illustrate ideas
• displays consistent facility in the use of language
• demonstrates syntactic variety and appropriate word choice, though it may have occasional errors

Level 5

• may address some parts of the task more effectively than others
• is generally well organized and developed
• uses details to support a thesis or illustrate an idea
• displays facility in the use of the language
• demonstrates some syntactic variety and range of vocabulary, though it will probably have occasional errors

Level 4

• addresses the writing topic adequately but may slight parts of the task
• is adequately organized and developed
• uses some details to support a thesis or illustrate an idea
• displays adequate but possibly inconsistent facility with syntax and usage
• may contain some errors that occasionally obscure meaning

Level 3

An essay at this level will have one or more of the following:

• inadequate organization or development
• inappropriate or insufficient details to support or illustrate generalizations
• a noticeably inappropriate choice of words or word forms
• an accumulation of errors in sentence structure and/ or usage

Level 2

An essay at this level is seriously flawed by one or more of the following:

• serious disorganization or underdevelopment
• little or no detail, or irrelevant specifics
• serious and frequent errors in sentence structure or usage
• serious problems with focus

Level 1

An essay at this level

• may be incoherent
• may be undeveloped
• may contain severe and persistent writing errors

Level 0

An essay will be marked zero if it

• contains no response
• merely copies the topic
• is off topic, is written in a foreign language, or consists only of keystroke characters