IELTS Research Reports

Anthony Green and Roger HawkeyAPPENDIX A: COMMISSIONING LETTER (BASED ON A MODEL LETTERUSED IN IELTS COMMISSIONING SUPPLIED BY CAMBRIDGE ESOL)DateAddressDear XXXIELTS Academic Reading Commission (Item Writer Research Study), September 2008Thank you for agreeing to produce material for our Item Writer Research Study. I am now writing toconfirm that we would like you to produce the following as indicated:■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■One IELTS Academic Reading section with 16 or 17 items.The text should be of between 750 and 950 words in length.Suitable sources include magazines, newspapers, books, academic papers and journals.The text may be cut and edited as you see fit to make it more suitable for IELTS.You may use 2 or 3 different item types for your questions.The items should be arranged in sections according to type - e.g. 6 multiple choice itemsfollowed by 6 matching questions followed by 5 short answer questions.Each item will carry 1 mark.The tasks may focus on understanding gist, main ideas/ themes, specific information,making inferences or recognizing opinions/ attitudes.The item types used should be based on the list and guidance provided by CambridgeESOL at http://www.cambridgeesol.org/teach/ielts/academic_reading/index.htm332 www.ielts.org