While formal, standardized assessment instruments provide valuable and necessary information about students' various abilities and skills, the use of informal and qualitative assessment approaches has the benefit of leading directly to instruction based squarely on an individual student's needs, strengths, and existing skills. This article describes a series of assessments that teachers can use to evaluate their students' writing abilities, knowledge, and goals. The assessments are described in the context of ongoing instruction and are accompanied by examples from the procedures used with a sixth-grade student. (Contains 5 tables and 12 figures.)