“Why is my child getting low marks in their writing?”

“My child struggles to come up with arguments and doesn’t know what the topic is about!”

“How can my child write persuasive arguments?”

“How on earth do we fix up their writing and where do we even start?”

Figuring out where to start with writing improvement is hard.

But… it doesn’t have to be.

Written expression in any selective school entrance exam or scholarship is difficult with so many areas that can lead to a loss of marks (in fact, our scoring tool assesses 52 different areas).

We’ve made it easier for parents, like you, to figure out what needs improvement in your child’s written expression piece, from just reading your child’s essay and going through our 15-point essay checklist.

There’s one for persuasive / argumentative writing here (see below) and a separate checklist for narrative writing.

What’s Exam Success’ 15-Point Essay Checklist?

Exam Success 15-Point Essay Checklist for persuasive writing is a straightforward way to review your child’s writing and, most importantly, to diagnose exactly what they’re struggling with and how to help them.

Simply put, the purpose of this essay checklist is to show you:

• an existing writing problem;
• the likely cause of the problem;
• most importantly, how to fix it.

The best part?

It’s extremely easy to use. You don’t need to be good at writing yourself. All you have to do is:

1. Read through your child’s essay
2. Go through the first column to see if any of the impressions of the essay you have are those that match the description. If so, then check out the masterclass videos to help you improve on those weak areas.

How Does Exam Success’ 15-Point Essay Checklist Work?

There are 15 areas for you to self-assess. Each point describes a problem or a specific impression you get after reading your child’s writing piece.

These 15 “impressions” are essentially the most common writing mistakes that reveal themselves to the reader.

Here’s an example of the “impression”:

The piece wasn’t very “persuasive”.

Next to the “impression,” you’ll find the potential cause of the problem. This is the area your child needs to focus on in their writing test prep.

Let’s come back to the example.

If the piece doesn’t appear to be “persuasive”, it’s often caused by:

1. Poor organisation
2. Ineffective planning

This is where your child is likely to lose scores in their competitive exam.

After working through all 15 “impressions” and their causes, you’ll quickly see where to head with your child’s written expression test preparation.

Maybe your child needs to improve their planning skills, brush up on editing, or perhaps learn specific strategies and tricks to come up with strong arguments.

Next to the potential cause, you’ll find a recommended “how-to-fix” your child’s weak area. The how-to-fix is presented in the form of an online video masterclass (or several masterclasses). You can purchase masterclass videos individually or get unlimited access for 31 days to all 96 writing masterclass videos in a package for just $58.30.

Each masterclass video is carefully created by our best writing experts. They’re around 20 minutes each and are jam-packed with actionable tips and tricks that your child can use straight away to improve their writing in a matter of minutes. See an example of our masterclass videos.

Who Can Use Exam Success’ 15-Point Essay Checklist?

Our how-to-fix in the form of masterclass videos include essential writing strategies, tips, and tricks that are best suited for students sitting:

• a selective school entrance exam
• a scholarship test
• ICAS test
• NAPLAN

We have created this essay checklist so that parents can effortlessly assess their child’s writing.

That said, the checklist can also be easily used for essay peer editing practice.

You may also find it useful to print out the checklist (download the essay checklist pdf version below). Put it on a fridge or in a common area where it’s easily accessible to the whole family.

Run through the checklist with your child so they can start developing editing skills, know the common writing pitfalls, learn from your feedback, and try their best to avoid issues next time they’re crafting a piece.

Take Your Writing To New Heights with Exam Success’ 15-Point Essay Checklist - Persuasive Writing

Is your impression of the essay any of the following?	Check	Potential Cause	“How-to Fix It” Masterclass Videos
1. The piece doesn't take a position or you're not sure if the piece is for or against an issue.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Poor organization Ineffective planning	1. How to Clarify your Position on a Topic 2. How to Structure a Persuasive Writing Piece
2. The piece seemed too short or too long	Yes No. Move to next row.	Ineffective planning	1. How to Structure a Persuasive Writing Piece 2. Learn How Much to Write for your Persuasive Writing Piece
3. The piece sounded off-topic. It seemed as if it was written for another prompt.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Failure to interpret the question correctly	1. How to Read and Understand the Question
4. The piece included many reasons, yet no real support or evidence to show why these reasons should be believed. The piece wasn’t very “persuasive.”	Yes No. Move to next row.	Poor organisation Ineffective planning	1. How to Structure a Persuasive Writing Piece 2. How to Choose Examples to Develop your Argument 3. Claim vs. Explanation: How to Tell the Difference 4. How to Develop your Argument Step By Step
5. Struggled to come up with any good arguments.	Yes No. Move to next row.	No strategy Ineffective outlining	1. How to Come Up With Strong Arguments 2. How to Make your Arguments Interesting
6. Arguments for a chosen position were confusing.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Lack of clarity Poor editing	1. How to Write Out your Argument (the Easy Way) 2. How to Use Evidence Properly
7. There were heaps of spelling and grammar mistakes. The piece was a bit rough and seemed like a draft rather than a polished final version.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Poor editing	1. Learn the Basics Of Editing 2. How to Make your Sentences More Fluid 3. How to Make Paragraphs Flow Fluently
8. The piece seemed to be incomplete.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Poor organisation	1. How to Structure a Persuasive Writing Piece 2. Introduction: Must-Have Parts 3. How to Write a Strong Introduction (Templates) 4. How to Write an Effective Conclusion
9. The piece seemed exaggerated and unbelievable. The claims appeared to be unrealistic.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Poor word choice	1. Learn What Language to Avoid to Develop a Strong Argument
10. The piece seemed to include the same argument but put in different words.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Lack of argument selection	1. How to Come Up With Strong Arguments
11. The piece used casual language or personal expressions, such as “I think.”	Yes No. Move to next row.	Inappropriate tone Poor word choice	1. How to Recreate the Ideal Tone of an Effective Persuasive Writing Piece
12. Some paragraphs seemed to have too much information crammed into them.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Poor editing	1. Learn Where to Put Information in your Essay 2. How to Remove Excess Information 3. How to Make Paragraphs Flow Fluently
13. At some points, it seemed like the essay was a different type of writing piece.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Ineffective planning Lack of genre knowledge	1. Informative vs. Argumentative Expression: How to Tell the Difference 2. Argumentative vs. Discussion Piece: How to Tell the Difference 3. Argument vs. Solution: How to Tell the Difference 4. How to Structure a Persuasive Writing Piece
14. The piece wasn't finished OR Struggled with the time limit.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Ineffective planning	1. How to Plan and Write your Essay with Crystal Clear Focus 2. Learn How Much to Write for your Persuasive Writing Piece 3. How to Structure a Persuasive Writing Piece
15. Some sentences didn't flow. The piece used some complex words, but they didn't seem right for the essay.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Lack of tone creation Poor word choice Poor editing	1. Word Choice vs. Big Words 2. How to Make your Sentences More Fluid

Prefer to study offline? Download your free persuasive / argumentative writing essay checklist pdf here.

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There’s a reason our masterclass videos are so effective in improving your child’s writing score. The secret lies in their laser focus on one weak area at a time.

You might find that your child needs more than 5 masterclass videos and that’s why we’ve created a cost-effective Video Plan that offers unrestricted and unlimited access to all 96 masterclass videos for 31 days.

With the video plan, your child gets: 24+ hours of actionable writing advice from the top scorers; unlimited access to all videos for 31 days – re-watch the videos as much as you want, strengthen the weak areas and reinforce the strong ones; accessible on a computer, laptop, and mobile - anytime and anywhere.