Responding to growing interests in alternative assessment practices, this article examines ungrading in two composition courses at a public university classified as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, detailing its implementation by two instructors in an Accelerated Learning Program composition class and a standalone composition class. Utilizing…

This study aims to explore to what extent syntactic complexity predicts holistic scores generated by China's two prominent automated writing evaluation systems--"pigai" and "iWrite," the results of which will have some implications for the validity of these two systems. In the meanwhile, this study targets how syntactic…

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of vocabulary in writing across three genres. Fifth graders (N = 105) wrote three compositions: story, persuasive, and informative. Each composition revolved around the topic of outer space to control for background knowledge. Written compositions were scored for holistic writing quality and…

This study examines score variations and differences in the reliability of ratings between English-as-a-second-language (ESL) and native English (NE) authored papers in a graduate course. Generalizability (G-) theory was used as a framework for analysis because it is powerful in detecting rater variability and the relative contributions of…

This study examined the relationship of holistic scoring with handwriting legibility, spelling accuracy and number of T-units within compositions written by children in grades 3 through 6 using path analysis. A sample of 223 compositions was rated for handwriting legibility and composition quality, and coded for number of T-units and percentage of…

Writing and the teaching of writing is changing at a rapid pace. How can educators understand writing assessment "as" and "with" technology in the 21st-century classroom? Michael Neal contends that new technologies are neither the problem nor the solution. Instead, educators need to tap into digital resources only inasmuch as they promote writing…

This article describes a holistic, discourse-based method for assessing the critical thinking skills of undergraduate senior-level finance majors. Rejecting a psychometric assessment approach in which component features of critical thinking are disaggregated, this study is based on a holistic scoring of student memos. Students were asked to…

It is important, when writing opinion essays, for students to consider and integrate both arguments and counterarguments to develop a final conclusion. In this article, the authors explored the effect of criteria instruction and a graphic organizer to promote integration of arguments and counterarguments. The researchers randomly assigned 84…

Three different scoring systems are described; these systems are widely used for evaluating students' writing samples. A new model for scoring is presented by comparing and contrasting that model with the other systems. A pilot study of the new model for writing-sample items, scoring keys, and scoring guidelines is discussed. The pilot study was…

Scoring systems for direct writing assessment are described. In holistic scoring, a global quality judgment of the writing sample is made. Primary trait scoring, developed by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, is conducted in accordance with specific goals. Analytic scoring identifies characteristics and quality of writing. These…

For the 1987-1988 North Carolina Annual Testing Program in the area of writing assessment, public school students in grades 6 and 8 were tested on the composing characteristics of main idea, supporting detail, organization and coherence. A total of 78,045 sixth-grade students wrote a clarification composition focusing on their favorite place to…

A study was conducted to obtain descriptive data on whether a student is aware of an audience when writing, what students perceive as the purpose of a persuasive writing assignment, and what steps comprise their writing process. Approximately 500 tenth grade student essays, prompted by an assignment based on the theme of the literature the class…

Urges teachers to set up a program for testing writing which uses holistic scoring. (DD)

Describes a "focused holistic" method of writing evaluation, which considers a total piece of writing, but in terms of predefined criteria. Provides sample evaluations. (HTH)

This handbook on Classroom Applications of Writing Assessment represents the fourth and final entry in a series of interrelated publications on the assessment of writing proficiency prepared over the past year by the Clearinghouse for Applied Performance Testing (CAPT). This handbook was written to meet the needs of the classroom teacher who is…