Assessment criteria

As I mentioned in my introduction, as a student it can be difficult to fathom what markers are looking for in an assignment. My mystification was cleared by attending an excellent workshop called First Class Writing, run by Dr Katherine Harrington of London Metropolitan University's Writing Centre. In this workshop, Dr Harrington discussed six core assessment criteria used to allocate marks. We were then invited to try this ourselves, using a specimen essay. It emerged that students were far more unforgiving assessors than university teachers, mercilessly critiquing what was actually pretty good work.

Anyway, I found the workshop and assessment criteria very enlightening. So much so that I have resolved to try and use them here as the foundation for my evolving essay. You can download the criteria in Word format by clicking on the following link (Criteria.doc), and I will be referring to individual criteria as I write and think.