Assignment (Retake)

Task

The retake is an on-site portfolio exam consisting of two components: a paper review with oral discussion and a written revision task.

Both components are completed on-site under supervised conditions. No prior preparation beyond the course content is required.

Procedure

You will receive a short academic paper (approx. 4–6 pages) at the beginning of the exam. The exam follows three phases:

1. Reading phase (30 minutes): You read the paper on-site and may take notes on a separate sheet. Annotations and markings on the paper are permitted.
2. Oral review / Fachgespräch (10 minutes): You present your critical assessment of the paper in a discussion with both examiners. The focus is on language topics and the overall narrative quality of the paper.
3. Written revision (60 minutes): You select one part of the paper (e.g., the introduction) and submit a revised version along with a short written justification of your changes. This is a pen-and-paper task.

Students are called in at staggered intervals. The paper, a notes sheet, and the revision submission sheet will be provided on-site.

Deliverables

The portfolio exam consists of two graded components:

• Oral review: a critical discussion of the paper’s strengths and weaknesses (45 points)
• Written revision with justification: a revised part of the paper and an explanation of the changes made (45 points)

Grading

Oral review (45 points)

A review discussion that fulfills expectations has the following characteristics:

• The student identifies relevant strengths and weaknesses of the paper.
• The assessment demonstrates a sound understanding of structure and story as discussed in class (e.g., problem statement, motivation, research gap, narrative flow).
• The student uses appropriate academic terminology to describe issues.
• The critique goes beyond surface-level observations and addresses underlying structural or argumentative issues.
• The student is able to suggest concrete, well-reasoned improvements rather than only pointing out deficits.

Written revision with justification (45 points)

A written revision that fulfills expectations has the following characteristics:

• The student selects an element where improvement is clearly warranted based on their review.
• The revised passage demonstrates a notable improvement in clarity, precision, or argumentative strength compared to the original.
• The revision reflects the principles of academic writing discussed in class.
• The justification is comprehensible and explicitly links the changes to identified weaknesses.
• The justification demonstrates reflective competence (i.e., it states why the revision is an improvement).

A note on grades

It is unlikely that every student will receive a very good grade, i.e., deliver an outstanding performance — see the meaning of grades. Instead, it is to be expected that the grades will spread across the spectrum.

Grade	Meaning
1 — very good	A truly outstanding achievement that (not only) shows no deficiencies in the criteria mentioned, but also gives both the supervisor and external assessors an excellent impression.
2 — good	Work that exceeds the average requirements/performance and is easily recognizable and presentable to the outside world as a “good performance”.
Note	2.5 is the average of passed assessments, i.e., an “average performance”
3 — satisfactory	A performance that achieves the desired goal “to a satisfactory extent”; however, deficiencies can be identified here and there.
4 — sufficient	A performance that “still adequately satisfies” the requirements, but deviates from the expectations placed on it in several ways.
5 — not sufficient	A performance that does not meet several of the criteria mentioned.

Note: Compliance with good scientific practice is a critical pass criterion. In case of non-compliance, the exam is automatically failed.

Permitted materials

• The provided paper (may be annotated)
• One sheet of notes (provided on-site)
• Writing utensils (pen/pencil)

No electronic devices, dictionaries, or other aids are permitted.