The EETC writing tasks: the criteria your work is judged on

Part Two is Pass/Fail — and the criteria are the exam

Part Two of the EETC asks you to complete two professional writing tasks. Each one is scored as either a Pass or a Fail — there’s no partial credit, no curve. That makes the stakes feel high. But it also makes preparation unusually focused: if you know the criteria assessors use to assign a failing grade, you can build your writing directly around them.

According to the 2016 CEETC policy document, failing grades are assigned using a taxonomy of roughly nine criteria. Some of these are what you’d expect from any professional writing rubric. Two of them — instructions not followed and under minimum word count — are entirely avoidable process errors. We’ll walk through all of them.

Note: this reflects criteria described in CEETC’s 2016 policy. The exam may have evolved since then. Confirm current requirements with CEETC before you sit.

The roughly nine criteria — broken down

Avoidable process criteria (these are gifts — don’t waste them)

Instructions not followed. The writing task will give you specific instructions about the type of text, the intended audience, and what to include. If your response doesn’t reflect those instructions, you can fail on this criterion alone, regardless of how well-written the rest of the piece is. Read the prompt twice. Annotate it before you write a word.

Under minimum word count. The task specifies a minimum word count. If you don’t hit it, you fail. This is not a judgement of your writing quality — it’s a compliance check. Count your words before you submit. Write more than the minimum, not less.

These two criteria are entirely mechanical. You can eliminate both as failure risks with attention and habit, before your grammar or expression is even evaluated.

Writing quality criteria

Content. Your response must address the task with relevant, appropriate ideas. Vague generalities, off-topic material, or a response that doesn’t substantively engage with what’s asked will lose marks here.

Organisation. Does your text have a clear structure — an opening that establishes context, a body that develops your ideas logically, and a close that draws things together? Professional writing in an educational context follows recognisable patterns. Assessors expect to see them.

Vocabulary. You’re being assessed on your range and precision of word choice. Repetitive vocabulary, imprecise word choice, or register mismatches (casual phrasing in a formal letter, for example) affect this criterion.

Grammar. Sentence-level accuracy. Subject–verb agreement, tense consistency, correct use of verb forms. Errors that suggest shaky grammatical knowledge — not just the occasional slip — will drag this criterion down.

Spelling. Consistent, accurate spelling throughout. Canadian English spelling conventions apply (e.g., colour, recognise, programme where appropriate). A pattern of errors matters more than an isolated typo.

Punctuation. Correct use of commas, semicolons, apostrophes, and other marks in ways that serve the reader. Punctuation errors that distort meaning are more serious than stylistic inconsistencies.

Syntax and register. Syntax is sentence structure — are your sentences well-formed, varied, and readable? Register is the level of formality — does your writing suit the professional context of the task? A teacher-candidate writing to a parent, to a colleague, or to a superintendent should sound different in each case.

What this taxonomy means for how you practise

Most candidates focus their preparation on grammar and spelling because those feel most “testable.” But the criteria show that content, organisation, vocabulary, syntax, and register carry equal weight. And the two process criteria — instructions and word count — can fail you before quality even comes into consideration.

Practically, this means:

• Before you write: annotate the prompt (task type, audience, required content, word count). Don’t skip this.
• As you write: structure first. Know your opening, your main points, and your closing before you commit words to the page.
• After you write: check against the criteria list. Does your content match the instructions? Are you above the word count? Any spelling or punctuation slips? Does the register fit the audience?

This kind of systematic self-review takes two or three minutes. It’s the difference between a confident Pass and an unnecessary Fail.

Know where you stand before you sit

If you’re not sure how your writing stacks up against these criteria right now, the free EETC diagnostic is a good starting point. It’s fast, it’s free, and it gives you a clear picture of where to focus before exam day.

Take the free EETC diagnostic →

— The people of SN Academy