ICAS Writing

Skill Areas

Students are assessed in the following skill areas:

• Text purpose and structure
• Language choices that enhance the writing
• Syntax and grammar
• Punctuation
• Spelling.

Content

Two forms of writing, narrative and persuasive, are assessed in alternating years.

For persuasive writing, the task requires students to write a text that persuades, for example:

• a review
• an advertisement
• a formal argument
• an opinion piece for a newspaper
• a campaign manifesto.

For a narrative, the task requires students to write one or two of the following aspects or stages of a narrative:

• the beginning of a narrative
• the complication or event in a narrative
• a description of a setting
• a description of a character
• the conclusion of a narrative.