The Writing part should be logically structured and it also should have the correct style in terms of communicative achievement (letter, statement, feedback etc.). The students should check if they have a good range of vocabulary and grammar. Very important is for them to check if they have completed the task (task achievement) leaving out irrelevant information.
Checklist & study buddy
But how can the student check if he/she got everything that is required? Good practice is to work together with someone from class or a friend, a so-called ‘study buddy’. They can give each other feedback and support which can be very useful in improving their writing skills.
So, how can they assess each other? The idea is that they use a checklist that includes all relevant points in the Writing part. With the checklist, they read through their study buddy's writing task and should be able to tick off each question with a “yes”. If something is missing and a question has been marked with “no”, the student should try to remember answering it in his next writing task or add it to the one that has been corrected. That way they get more confident with time and remember what is being assessed.
Here are examples of a checklist that your students can use:
See Writing sample tests: