| CATEGORY |
Level 2 |
Level 3 |
Level 4 |
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| Audience, Awareness and Purpose |
The writer recognises that an explanation is required and that he/she is writing for an audience other than the self. Assumed shared knowledge with the reader may interfere with the meaning. |
Language and writing style of explanation is appropriate to the audience. May rely on context and require some reader inference to understand explanation. |
Language use and writing style appropriate to purpose and directed to the reader/audience. Explanation is clear and can "stand alone". |
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| Content Inclusion |
The writer makes an attempt to identify the phenomenon or process and gives two or three simple reasons for its occurance. May include statements that are tangential to the topic and/or task or include a personal perspective to the explanation (e.g. "I like rocks." "I saw a tuatara at the zoo in Auckland"). |
The writer identifies the phenomenon or process clearly. Body of text contains further elaboration and gives associated reasons for why or how it occurs. Limited tangential information evident. |
The writer identifies the phenomenon or process clearly in an introduction that may also give contextualising information. Body of text contains a sequenced account of elaborated aspects or processes, and gives detailed associated reasons for why or how it occurs. Includes only relevant content. |
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| Coherence: sequencing ideas and linking |
Generally organised at sentence level. May attempt to show cause-and-effect relationships in the explanation by using within-sentence links (e.g. because, so). |
Evidence of attempts at structuring content through the grouping of ideas within and across sentences. May be attempting to associate ideas and reasons by using devices such as paragraphing and between-paragraph links. |
Attempts at grouping or sequencing of explanation evident (e.g. descriptions and reasons are gropued thematically). Across the text there is a sense of an attempt to sequence content (using conjunctions and expression causal relationships through links) to give a full and explicit explanation sequence. |
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| Language Resources For Achieving The Purpose |
Simple factual statements are evident. Topic-related vocabulary present but little detail conveyed through the language (e.g. nouns may lack adjectives). Action verbs choices reflect topic and task. Shows some understanding of pronoun use but unclear or overused pronoun reference may interfere with meaning. |
Evidence of use of task-appropriate language (e.g. action verbs mainly present tense to tell how it is or happens). Topic-related vocabulary contributes to understanding of parts or aspects of phenomenon to be explained. Some use of adjectives and /or adverbs to give detail and precision to explanation. Some unclear or repetitious reference. |
Consistent use of appropriate language (for task and topic) enhances the clarity and coherence of the explanation (e.g. technical language is included where appropriate). Conjunctions used to link ideas within and across sentences. Reference links clear. |