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TasksCreating Tasks

Creating Tasks

You can create a new writing task in just a few clicks. Penmate offers two modes: Cambridge (AI-generated) and Custom tasks (teacher-written).

Cambridge Mode

Cambridge mode generates exam-style writing assignments automatically:

  1. Go to Tasks and click New Task
  2. Select Cambridge mode
  3. Choose a CEFR level — B1, B2, C1, or C2
  4. Choose a task type — essay, article, email, letter, story, report, review, or proposal
  5. Penmate generates the assignment with:
    • A clear task prompt appropriate for the selected level
    • The correct word range for that level and type
    • Instructions that match Cambridge English exam format expectations
  6. Review the generated task — you can edit the title before saving

Penmate avoids repeating topics. If you’ve recently created similar tasks, the AI will generate fresh topics to keep assignments varied for your students.

Custom Tasks

Custom tasks let you write your own instructions:

  1. Go to Tasks and click New Task
  2. Select Custom tasks mode
  3. Enter your own title and instructions
  4. Optionally set a word limit
  5. Choose a CEFR level for assessment — this tells Penmate what standard to evaluate against
  6. Choose a task type — this helps Penmate apply the right assessment criteria

CEFR compatibility check

After you save the task, Penmate checks whether your instructions are compatible with CEFR assessment criteria. If they are not, Penmate offers a revised version that aligns with the selected level and task type.

You can then choose:

  • Use the revised version — Penmate will assess student submissions with a full score across all four criteria.
  • Keep your original instructions — Penmate will still assess the submission, but will provide verbal feedback only, without a numeric score.

WIRE

When creating a task, you can enable WIRE (Writing Integrity Risk Evaluation). When enabled, every submission for that task will be automatically evaluated for writing integrity risks. This feature is available on request for school accounts.

Editing Tasks

You can edit a task after creating it — only the title can be updated. The task instructions cannot be changed after the task is saved.

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