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1. Many students have to live with roommates while going to school or university. What are some of the important qualities of a good roommate? Use specific reasons and examples to explain why these qualities are important.

General criteria for this essay:

To score a "6," an essay will be a well organized one that accomplishes the three requirements of the assignment. First, the writer must give at least two qualities which make someone a good roommate. Second, the writer must adequately support the qualities of a good roommate with specific reasons and examples. Third, through the specific reasons and examples given in the essay, the writer should show why the qualities are important. The writer may do this either explicitly or implicitly. The essay will have a high degree of grammatical correctness and syntactic variety but may have slight flaws in writing, consistent with timed, first draft prose.

Score Six

Choosing a roommate to live with is a much more important decision then most students think it is. To me, it is like giving your house key to someone you may not know too well. I need to be able to trust this person fully without a doubt in my mind that they will respect my privacy and personal belongings. Hanging out with someone and living with somebody are two very different activities. In order for me to choose a person worthy enough to be my roommate, that person must have specific qualities I am looking for. The most important characteristic should be honesty. Other traits I would look for is cleanliness and a clean slate.

If I am going to live with someone, it is imperative that they understand and practice honesty. My possessions are of high value to me and I want to be able to leave the room worry free; that is, even my smallest insignificant piece of property goes untouched unless permission is granted. I would treat the other person's property in the same fashion, so I expect it in return.

I cannot stand to live in a disorganized place where everything is cluttered around. I am a neat person and to me, everything has it own place. I like things to be organized so I know exactly where it is when I need it. I found that I do not get along well with messy people. This is not to say that I don't have messy friends, but living with messy people is a different ball game.

Having a clean slate is an important characteristic to me because I don't want to get caught up in problems resulting from the illegal activities of someone else. Even though I may not have committed any crimes, I could still be involved because I live with that person. Those are extra problems I could do without. Some of those activities can also be contagious, where I might start participating in it merely because I am around it. Living with the person forces me to be around it, whereas if I was just hanging around, I can just leave and go elsewhere.

There are many people I hang out with but I would not choose to live with them. In order for me to even consider living with them, they would have to be honest, tidy, and clean, at the very least.

1. Comments on how this essay meets ETS criteria for a "6:"

This essay demonstrates clear competence in writing on both the rhetorical and syntactic levels

•By introducing the qualities of honesty, cleanliness and a clean slate and by developing them in subsequent paragraphs with specific reasons and examples, the essay has effectively addressed the writing task The writer has shown that the qualities are important since it would determine whether or not he would choose living with that person.

•The essay has a strong thesis statement in the first paragraph, and the essay restates those key points as topic sentences in the remaining paragraphs to give the essay a tight organization. Though the conclusion is a bit short, the writer brings the main points of the essay to a closure by saying that a person has to be honest, tidy, and clean, at the very least.

•Paragraphs two, three, and four use appropriate details to support the thesis. For example, the writer says in paragraph two that he should not have to worry about his possessions being stolen by his roommate if the roommate has the trait of honesty. The writer uses appropriate examples in the next two paragraphs to further support the key points proposed in the thesis.

•Other than a few minor problems such as subject verb agreement (i.e., other traits I would look for is...) and punctuation (i.e., sometimes the writer uses a comma to join two independent clauses and sometimes not), the essay displays consistent facility in the use of language .

•Through the use of gerund subjects (i.e., choosing a roommate to live), simple sentences (i.e., the most important characteristic should be honesty) , adverb clauses ( i.e., if I am going to live with someone), noun clauses (i.e., where it is when I need it), adjective clauses (i.e., someone you may not know too well), and compound sentences (i.e., my possessions are of high value to me and I want to be able to leave the room worry free), the writer demonstrates syntactic variety.

•The writer also has a good command of vocabulary (i.e., clean slate, untouched, contagious, and merely...) to demonstrate appropriate word choice.