It is particularly important when setting essays to ensure that students know what they are being assessed on. Race (2001: 57-59) suggests a number of approaches, which are adapted below to the language learning context.

The first is to involve students in looking at examples of past essays, and applying assessment criteria. This might be linked to peer assessment of each others' essays (see Module 13, section 13.3.2 on peer assessment).

Students need to know what exactly is required by an essay title. It is therefore a good idea to break up language essay questions into sub-questions, with the marks available for each section clearly indicated. This, along with a clear indication of target word length, will help to avoid verbosity and will provide some assurance and guidance to those who have difficulty coping with academic essays. This approach is especially advisable if the bulk of the marks are to be awarded to quality of language.

Particularly if you are teaching students majoring in a non-Arts discipline, it is good preparation for the stresses and strains of a timed essay in exam conditions for students to practise writing essay plans, introductions or conclusions in the FL, either during class time or as homework. In the time it takes to write a full essay, students might be able to do five or six such tasks. Appropriate feedback on these should ensure that when they have to write a full essay, students are better able to concentrate on language and style and not worry about structure or the marshalling of arguments.

Linked to this, it can be helpful for all students to spend some time brainstorming how to respond to typical essay titles. Even in L1 this can be useful preparation; in the FL it can have the added advantage of revising/rehearsing relevant vocabulary.

In general, it is not a good idea to overuse standard academic essays as this will advantage those who happen to be good at planning and writing them. So try varying your approach with other writing tasks, such as:

In giving feedback, be mindful of how what you write (or say) can help students to improve their essay writing. At the same time, try to reduce the time you spend giving different students similar feedback, for example by producing standard feedback sheets (see Module 13, Appendix 1 for an example, also Module 13, section 13.1.7 on 'Reducing the marking burden') and using an agreed system of error annotation (see 14.2.5 for examples).