ABSTRACT
In the grammar domain of International English Language Testing System writing descriptors, the major focus is on sentences. Candidates are required to write with a variety of accurate sentence structures. As shown from the concept map, this domain is divided into two aspects: structure variety; and sentence accuracy. For higher achievers, in addition to writing both simple and complex sentence patterns, candidates should be able to demonstrate their ability to ‘use a variety of complex structures'. A compound sentence comprises at least two independent clauses (simple sentences) and no dependent clauses (which means clauses which are incomplete in terms of meaning and syntax, and thus, cannot stand alone). A complex sentence includes an independent clause and at least one dependent clause. The second aspect of ‘grammatical range and accuracy’ is related to sentence accuracy, which is further broken down into two sub-categories: punctuation errors; and other error types.
