Salem State University
Spring 2013, Composición
Spanish 102
Elementary Spanish II
Dr. Jon Aske
Due: Monday, March 18
Topic: Mis vacaciones de primavera (my spring break)
Format: Two pages (min. 600 words), double-spaced, 1” margins all around, small header. E-mailed. No missing accents.
Write about what you did during your break. Jot ideas down and plan it out every day, before you start writing. Do not wait until
the last day to do it. If you write a little everyday then on Sunday you can just put it all together very easily.
Avoid writing a boring list of things you did, repeating events and sentences (I got up, I took a shower, …). Try to write a story,
even if your vacation wasn’t too exciting. Find a theme and major events to put it all together. You can make it interesting. You
can do that in Spanish too already with a bit of effort! Don’t let yourself think that you cannot do it or that it is hard.
Write it in Spanish, think it out in Spanish. Do not translate. Keep it simple. Ask yourself: How can I express this idea with the
vocabulary and the grammar I already know? Avoid translating from English, which will cause you to run into problems. Never
ever use a computer translator, since it is considered academically dishonest and it’s easy to detect since they don’t work very
well anyway. You can ask people (including tutors) for help with words or expressions, but do not let others (re)write or fix your
paper for you. That’s also dishonest (and can result in disciplinary action).
Simplify. Try to think in Spanish. Try to express your ideas with just minimal dictionary use for a word here and there. You can
figure it out if you try. That’s the point of the exercise.
If you don’t have a dictionary you can use this online one: http://www.wordreference.com. When you look in the dictionary,
remember that often a word has different possible meanings depending on the context. Don’t just grab the first translation. Look
at the examples.
This composition is worth 10% of your grade. It’s worth more than a single test. And you can learn a lot if you do it right!
Rubric
Comprehensibility
4 - Comprehensible to an unsympathetic reader
3 - Comprehensible to a sympathetic reader
2 - Somewhat comprehensible to a sympathetic reader
1 - Barely comprehensible to an extremely sympathetic reader
Content
4 - Addresses the topic, all information is appropriate and relevant, interesting
3 - Addresses the topic, all information is appropriate and relevant
2 - Attempts to address the topic, contains some inappropriate or irrelevant information
1 - Barely addresses the topic, contains largely inappropriate or irrelevant information
Vocabulary
4 - Exemplary control of vocabulary
3 - Most words appropriate and used correctly
2 - Inappropriate and/or erroneous words
1 - Numerous inappropriate and/or erroneous uses of words
Organization &
Complexity of
Discourse
4 - Well-organized, uses connectors and shows variety in sentence structure, creates coherent paragraphs
3 - Organized, uses connectors and shows variety in structure, creates paragraphs
2 - Disorganized, uses repetitive sentence structure
1 - Lack of organization interferes with comprehensibility, uses repetitive, basic sentence structure, presents lists of vocabulary words
Accuracy
4 - Excellent ability to manipulate all basic forms with some accuracy, and some ability to manipulate some other less frequently
practiced forms
3 - Ability to manipulate most basic forms with some accuracy, and some ability to manipulate some other less frequently practiced
forms
2 - Minimal or very unstable ability to accurately manipulate some basic forms
1 - Little to no ability to accurately manipulate basic forms (subject-verb agreement, adjective-noun agreement, references to different
time frames)
Spelling &
Punctuation
4 - No or very few errors in spelling, accentuation, punctuation and capitalization
3 - Few spelling errors, uses most accents and tildes correctly, and uses most punctuation and/or capitalization accurately
2 - Numerous spelling errors, minimal use of accents or tildes, some punctuation and/or capitalization errors
1 - Rampant spelling errors, no use of accents or tildes, inaccurate punctuation and/or capitalization
Grammar
4 - Hardly any errors
3 – A few grammatical errors
2 – Numerous grammatical errors
1 – Mostly ungrammatical
Effort
4 – Spent a lot of time working on it
3 – Spent a significant amount of time working on it
2 – Didn’t spend much time working on it
1 – Done in a couple of hours tops