English for Academic Purposes I (2024) Assignment 2 Guidelines

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Assignment 2 Guidelines
Purpose
The main purpose of this assignment is to test your ability to identify and summarize the main
ideas and major details from a given text in your own words.

Assignment Details
Assignment 2 is to be completed in Lesson 13. You will be asked to read an article, and then
write a summary of 200 words using complete sentences and in paragraph form. Use your
own words as much as possible. Demonstrate your understanding of the text and your control
of language in paraphrasing and summarizing. You will get low marks if you just copy parts of
the source text.

Time Allowed

1 hour and 10 minutes (in class during Lesson 13)

No electronic devices are allowed. Please write on the question-and-answer sheets provided.

No make-ups will be allowed unless you have legitimate reasons and documentation for your
absence from Lesson 13
.

Reminders
Demonstrate your paraphrasing skills in your summary. Use your own words as
much as you can. Quote directly what you believe are key terms, if only sparingly.
Enclose it in quotation marks.
Write a proper introductory sentence. Write topic sentences that head each of your
body paragraphs. Point form should not be used.
Write in a formal, academic style. Avoid informal features as mentioned in the
Lessons 1 – 3 lecture notes.
Do not simply summarize the whole article. Do it selectively. Read the assignment
instructions carefully.
Do not lift large amounts from the source text. No marks can be given for copying.
Do not write more than 200 words.

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 English for Academic Purposes I (2024) Assignment 2 Guidelines
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Assessment

Please read carefully the “Assignment 2 Assessment Criteria” document posted on SOUL.

Key assessment items from the Assessment Criteria are highlighted here:

Lexical accuracy Grammatical accuracy Effective organisation

and range and range
Writing shows highly effective use Writing shows very good range An extremely coherent piece of
of vocabulary to meet the and control of grammatical writing, successfully organised
A range

requirements of the task. structures which are used with confident and appropriate
Vocabulary is used appropriately appropriately and effectively to use of cohesive devices where
and effectively to communicate address requirements of the task. necessary. Requires no effort on
and is accurate in all respects. There are very few errors. the part of the reader.
Writing shows good use of Writing shows a sufficiently good A coherent piece of writing with
vocabulary used effectively and range and control of grammar. occasional lapses which do not
B range

appropriately with occasional Structures are generally used affect the reader. Generally well
lapses. Spelling is generally appropriately. Despite occasional organised with appropriate use
accurate. Occasional errors do errors, communication is not of cohesive devices.
not affect the reader. hindered.
Writing makes a largely effective A limited range of structures is A generally coherent piece of
use of the vocabulary though at present. There are several errors writing though there are several
C range

times this does not meet the which occasionally hinder the errors in the use of cohesive
requirements of the task. There reader who has to think at times devices, which may affect the
are a few spelling mistakes that about what the candidate wants reader’s ability to follow the line
occasionally hinder the reader. to say. of communication.
Insufficient range of vocabulary Writing is lacking in range and A poor piece of writing,
used to meet the requirements of control of structures. There are generally lacking in
the task. Vocabulary is sometimes frequent errors which hinder organisation, with misuse of
used inaccurately and there are communication and confuse the cohesive devices. Requires
D – F range

several spelling mistakes that reader at times. effort from the reader.
slow the reader down.
Candidate shows poor use of Writing shows poor range and Generally incoherent and poorly
vocabulary. Vocabulary is used control of grammatical structures. organised, lacking in use of
inaccurately, spelling is generally The writing is generally inaccurate cohesive devices.
inaccurate and causes the reader and grammatical errors cause
some difficulty. confusion.

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English for Academic Purposes I (2024) Assignment 2 Guidelines
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Lexical accuracy and range
It is important that you use words with the right meaning for the context and that you do
so accurately in terms of spelling, part of speech, etc. If items of basic vocabulary are
incorrectly spelled or misused, it may be an effort for the reader to read the answer and
this will reduce the mark that they can be awarded.

Grammatical accuracy and range

The focus is mainly at the sentence level, with credit being given for accuracy in sentence
structure. Your lecturer is looking for evidence of different types of structure.

Effective organisation
This is about how the answer as a whole is held together. The answer needs to be
coherent – the reader should be able to follow the line of logic or narrative without
ambiguity or other confusion. Effective organisation is also concerned with devices such
as conjunctions that link a sequence of sentences together effectively and help the
reader follow the text.

Task achievement
There are 5 key points you can summarize from the article (note: a proper introductory
sentence is considered one such key point—the remaining 4 are content-based. ).

Apart from summarising the key points, you also need to include sufficient supporting
details so that your reader can have a good understanding of the points.

Do not write a concluding paragraph in this assignment. (An introductory paragraph, on

the hand, is absolutely essential.)

APA Referencing skills

In your summary, you need to include at least 1 in-text citation in the APA style, which
usually should appear in the introductory sentence. You also need to demonstrate at
least once your ability to cite an indirect source. Read your lesson 9 handout again if you
do not know how to do this.

Below are examples of “in-text citation” and “citing an indirect source” from Rachel
Nuwer’s article printed on pp. 4 – 6 of the L11 lecture notes:

(Nuwer, 2016) = an in-text citation

(Phalan, as cited in Nuwer, 2016) = citing an indirect source