CAEL Essay Checklist
The essay checklist tells you what examiners want to see in your essay responses on Academic Units A and B of the test.
The five following aspects of your written work will be assessed.
So, keep these things in mind as you respond to the writing questions in the Academic Units on the CAEL.
1. Mechanics – “Mechanics” means grammar. So, the examiners will look to see whether your essay has any grammatical mistakes.
2. Structure – This refers to the structure of your individual sentences.
The examiners want to see that you can use a good variety of sentence structures.
So, your sentences should contain a wide array of verb tenses.
3. Organization – The examiners also look to see whether your entire writing response is well-structured.
Your extended essay should have a good introductory paragraph that contains a thesis statement. The thesis statement states the purpose of the essay.
You should finish the extended essay with a strong concluding paragraph.
In addition, the paragraphs of your main body should should be well-organized.
You should use phrase linkers and subordinating and coordinating conjunctions in both the extended and short writing responses.
4. Development – You need to include the most important points from the reading and listening passages in the Academic Units.
This means that you need to paraphrase the key points from the reading and listening tasks.
Remember not to copy exactly from the reading passages when in your essay responses, unless you use quotation marks.
5. Focus – The message of your essay must be clear. Your essay must demonstrate a logical progression of thought.
The responses should also have a good written flow.