Marking Insights
What an NSW Teacher Flagged in 25 Marked Essays
In October 2026 we paid an independent NSW primary teacher to mark 25 practice essays against six criteria built on the selective writing rubric, with a written reason for every mark. 7 of the 25 drew only praise. Of the other 18, 13 got the same note: develop the ideas, with a specific example and a sentence explaining how it backs the point. After that came sentence variety (7 essays), organisation and linking (6), and punctuation and spelling (6).
How the Essays Were Marked
We built EurekaWrite to give feedback on selective writing, and we wanted to check our scorer against a real teacher, especially on everyday and weaker writing, which the published NSW samples don't cover. So we paid a primary teacher in NSW to mark 25 essays:
- 23 real essays by Year 3 to 6 students, submitted to EurekaWrite, with names and other identifying details removed;
- 2 published NSW sample responses hidden in the set, as a check on the marking itself.
She marked each essay on the six criteria EurekaWrite uses, which are built on the official selective writing criteria (content, structure, style, sentence control, punctuation and spelling), wrote a reason for every mark and an overall comment, and marked without seeing any of our scores. She agreed to us describing her marks; we don't name her. How our scorer compared with her is on the accuracy page. This page is about what she flagged, because that is the part every family can use.
One caveat up front: this is one teacher and 25 essays, not an official marking guide. NSW publishes marker commentary only on a handful of strong sample responses. Treat the counts below as a well-documented sample, not a rule.
The Most Common Note: Develop the Idea
Her overall comments kept returning to the same wording: "developing ideas with more specific examples", "ideas need further development through detailed explanations", "more relevant reasons and supporting evidence". It appeared in persuasive pieces, a speech, an advice sheet, a how-to guide, a procedure and a narrative, and not only in the weaker essays: several of the essays she rated highly still got it.
A developed paragraph does three things, usually in three to five sentences: it states the point, backs it with one specific example, and explains how the example proves the point. Compare:
The first version says the same thing three times. The second has a point, one example a reader can picture, and a "because" sentence that connects them. Three things that look like examples but don't count:
- The vague example: "many people think so", "for example, sports". A real example names one person, one event or one number.
- The restatement: saying the point again in different words.
- The orphan example: a good example with no sentence saying how it supports the point.
In a narrative the same note means something slightly different: not more adjectives, but one scene made specific enough that the reader can see it. Our top 10 mistakes guide covers the related trap of listing too many thin ideas.
Want a second pair of eyes on your child's paragraphs? Paste an essay and get a practice score across all six criteria in about 30 seconds, with the exact sentences holding it back. Free, no signup. (Be aware that AI is weaker on development than on spelling and punctuation; the check below covers that gap.)
Score my child's essay now →The Other Things She Flagged
| What she asked for | Essays | What it usually meant |
|---|---|---|
| Develop ideas: specific examples, reasons, detail | 13 | Points stated but not backed up or explained |
| Vary sentence structures | 7 | Sentences of similar length and shape, often starting the same way |
| Organise and link ideas | 6 | Clearer paragraphs, topic sentences, linking words between ideas |
| Punctuation and spelling | 6 | Missing commas, run-on sentences, slips that affect readability |
| Stronger persuasive language | 5 | More forceful, more certain wording in persuasive pieces |
Counted from her overall comment on each essay (an essay can appear in more than one row). The reason she gave for each individual mark has more detail, so these counts are conservative.
What the Essays With Only Praise Had in Common
Seven overall comments contained no improvement point at all: two narratives, a diary entry, an advertisement, a persuasive email, an argument and an advice sheet. What she praised in them, in her words: "vivid description", "language devices", "a strong voice", "an engaging tone for the audience", "clear paragraphs and supporting ideas", "Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary". The common thread is that each piece did the job its form asked for, for its reader, with details specific to that piece.
Decoding Teacher Feedback: The Terms That Keep Coming Up
| Term | Essays | Plain English, with an example |
|---|---|---|
| Simple, compound and complex sentences | 12 | Simple: one clause. Compound: two clauses joined by and, but or so. Complex: a main clause plus a "because / when / although" clause. e.g. "Although it was late, she kept reading." |
| Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary | 11 | Tier 2: precise words used across subjects. Tier 3: words that belong to one subject. (Tier 1 is everyday words.) e.g. reluctant, significant (Tier 2); photosynthesis (Tier 3) |
| Linking words | 10 | Words that show how one idea connects to the next. e.g. however, as a result, on the other hand |
| Persuasive language | 9 | Wording chosen to win the reader over: emotive words, rhetorical questions, "we" and "us". e.g. "Wouldn't we all rather walk to school safely?" |
| Short, sharp sentences | 7 | A deliberately short sentence for impact or tension, usually after longer ones. e.g. "Then the lights went out." |
| High modality | 5 | Words that sound certain and forceful, as opposed to tentative ones (might, could, perhaps). e.g. must, will, certainly, always |
"Essays" counts how many of the 25 sets of comments (overall comment plus the reason for each mark) used the term, as praise or as a point to work on.
A Two-Minute Check at Home: The Cover Test
- Cover everything in the paragraph except the first sentence, and read just that sentence.
- Uncover the paragraph and read all of it.
- Ask: did the extra sentences make me believe the point more? If not, that paragraph needs a specific example and a "because" sentence.
A quicker version for your child: after writing, underline the example in every paragraph. Any paragraph with nothing to underline is the one to fix first.
Why do this by hand? Because AI scorers are weaker here than on spelling or punctuation. We tested our own: in 17 strong and mid-range essays we deleted every example and explanation, keeping only the first sentence of each middle paragraph (about 60% of the words gone), and the total dropped by only about 3 marks out of 25 on average. The accuracy page has the details.
If you'd still like an AI to do a first pass for missing examples, this prompt works in any chatbot and keeps it from rewriting the essay:
It finds paragraphs with no example at all. Whether an example is strong enough is still a judgement for you, or a teacher, to make.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does "develop your ideas" mean in selective writing feedback?
It means each point needs more than a statement. A developed paragraph states the point, backs it with one specific example (a person, an event or a number, not "many people"), and adds a sentence explaining how the example supports the point, often starting with because, this shows or as a result.
What are Tier 2 and Tier 3 words?
Teachers sort vocabulary into tiers. Tier 1 words are everyday words (happy, big). Tier 2 words are precise words used across many subjects (reluctant, significant, observe). Tier 3 words belong to one subject (photosynthesis, democracy). Feedback that praises Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary means the student chose precise, ambitious words.
What is high modality language?
Modality is how certain or forceful a word sounds. High modality words (must, will, certainly, always) sound sure; low modality words (might, could, perhaps) sound tentative. In persuasive writing, teachers look for high modality in the main claims.
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