The "e-rater"® automated essay scoring system is used operationally in the scoring of "TOEFL iBT"® independent and integrated tasks. In this study we explored the psychometric added value of reporting four trait scores for each of these two tasks, beyond the total e-rater score.The four trait scores are word choice, grammatical…

The "e-rater"® automated essay scoring system is used operationally in the scoring of the argument and issue tasks that form the Analytical Writing measure of the "GRE"® General Test. For each of these tasks, this study explored the value added of reporting 4 trait scores for each of these 2 tasks over the total e-rater score.…

A generic approach in automated essay scoring produces scores that have the same meaning across all prompts, existing or new, of a writing assessment. This is accomplished by using a single set of linguistic indicators (or features), a consistent way of combining and weighting these features into essay scores, and a focus on features that are not…

Because there is no commonly accepted view of what makes for good writing, automated essay scoring (AES) ideally should be able to accommodate different theoretical positions, certainly at the level of state standards but also perhaps among teachers at the classroom level. This paper presents a practical approach and an interactive computer…

This study examined the construct validity of the "e-rater"® automated essay scoring engine as an alternative to human scoring in the context of TOEFL® essay writing. Analyses were based on a sample of students who repeated the TOEFL within a short time period. Two "e-rater" scores were investigated in this study, the first…