As English for Academic Purposes is becoming an increasingly important module with an increase in the number of international students, considerable attention is being paid to make the EAP assessment supportive, fair and standardized. Thus, much research has been done in the area of EAP assessment, particularly the assessment of academic writing. However, very little research has examined the task input and output in EAP essay writing. This paper aims to investigate some aspects of context validity in EAP essay writing. It examines whether the task input and students’ academic essays are at a required level. To achieve the aims of the study, the essay task rubric, 30 students’ essays and marking criteria are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings indicate that the task input is appropriate to the required level and other reference documents. However, the study has identified some issues with the marking criteria. There is an overlap between criteria used to mark students’ essays, which may mean that the same thing is marked twice. The study concludes by offering some recommendations and stating limitations of the study.