CAE Writing Task 4:

Deadline for submission: 7th of February.

Deadline for peer assessment: 14th of February.

The Principal has asked you to write a report on the effects of social networking sites
on college students, with reference to the time spent online, their involvement in
social activities and their academic performance. You should make recommendations
for addressing problem areas. Write your report.

Write your individual code before pasting your work!

Ex1020SelfY_05

Introduction

This report outlines some of the effects of social networking sites on college students
considering social as well as academic factors. It is based on a systematic assessment
of several teachers and students interviews and makes three recommendations on
how to benefit from social networking sites usage.

Benefits of social networking sites

A large proportion of those respondents said that the internet website made the
process of searching the information much faster. This helped them to save a lot of
time they had to spend in the library because now they cooperated with their study
buddies to prepare for the lessons.

Also most of those responding to the survey stated that they could make their own
research and study the lecture topics in details themselves. This may be one of the
crucial benefits of social networking sites.

Issues

The arguments against the use of sites are the following:

· procrastination because of uncontrolled surfing on the internet;

 · decrease of face to face communication;

· eyesight problems;

· overweight.

Recommendations

Taking all the factors mentioned into account, the creation of social networking guide
for students would appear to be the most viable solution. I would suggest the
collaboration of teachers, psychologists and doctors for the best solution of the
abovementioned problems caused by inappropriate use of the sites. It would be a
good idea to elaborate the strategies for the effective social and academic
performance. These measures will ensure both safety and comfort of students.
Questions Yes No Y/N Comments

Content

1. Has the author covered all the points from the task? (essay: 2 +
aspects out of 3; report, proposal, review: 3 points mentioned
in the task)

2. Has the author mentioned which aspect is the most important?

(only for the compulsory essay; skip otherwise).

3. Is everything relevant to the topic and the task? Is there any + In my opinion, the
sidetracking or digression? author mentioned
rather general
ideas while the
task asked us to
focus the
relevance of time
spent online and
social
engagement

4. Are there any omissions? Is there something that should have +

been included?

Communicative achievement

5. Does this essay look like an essay? (semi-formal register,

introduction, conclusion, body paragraphs, opinion,
arguments, examples). +
Does this report/proposal look like report/proposal? (formal,
stating purposes, headings/subheadings, bullet points,
recommendations).
Does this review look like a review? (Intro, summary, personal
response and comments, recommendations).
Does this letter look like a letter? (appropriate register, opening,
closing, layout, stating the purpose, paragraphs).

(Optional) Are there any complex ideas? Give examples. Personally, I’d
highlight the
recommendation
part – the idea
seems fresh and
pretty appealing
for me

6. Is the whole text ‘readable’? Is there anything you need to + On the whole the text
stop and re-read? Is there anything you don’t understand? is readable and
ideas are relevant.
However, I had to
re-read the part of
the text because I
 didn’t grasp how
that argument
was connected
with social media

7. Are you convinced as the target reader by this + Frankly speaking, the
proposal/report/review/letter? If you were ‘the boss’, would issues mentioned
you approve of the project in a proposal/report? Would you in the 3 paragraph
agree to what was asked in the letter? Would you buy a book are relevant. But I
or watch the film if you were recommended in the review? would love to see
(skip the question for the compulsory essay). some deeper
insights

Organisation

8. Is the text well-organised? Are there clear paragraphs, +

introduction, conclusion?

9. Coherence. Does the text make sense to you? +

10. Cohesion. Are there any linking devices? Reference words? +

Do they make sense and really link the ideas? Give examples
or highlight in yellow.

Language

11. Is there a good range of vocabulary? Any less common lexis? + Good command of
Give examples or highlight in green. language

12. Are there a lot of natural collocations/chunks/formulaic +

language? Give examples or highlight in blue.

13. Are there any complex sentences (subordinate clauses, cleft + I found few examples
sentences, inversion, gerund clauses)? Give examples or
highlight in italics.

14. Are there any grammar mistakes? Give examples or highlight + Possessive case
in bold. (students
interviews),
syntaxes (Taking
all the factors
mentioned into
account,)

15. Do they impede the communication? Is it difficult to +

understand what the author meant because of them?