Puts forth a plan for raising student consciousness about audience through peer evaluation sessions. Targets three areas of effective autobiographical writing: an engaging opening; focus; and showing, not telling. Discusses grading rubrics for these categories appropriate for student readers. (TB)

Suggests English teaching in Iran has been a failure, partly because the language is not used as a means of communication, but is taught in isolated fragments. Discusses methods for testing writing, recommending essay tests over multiple-choice ones so the washback effect will encourage teachers and students to change their attitudes about…

Examines student responses to their teachers' written comments on their papers. Finds that students are equally interested in getting responses on content, purpose and organization as on sentence structure, wording and correctness; and students prefer specific comments with explanations over negative comments or comments that seek to control their…

Explains how professors can either "mark the screen" or use separate attachments in the grading process for on-line assignments. Discusses e-mail as the analogue of face-to-face conferencing for providing feedback. (EV)

Notes that professional reflection is a powerful aspect of practice and, in welcoming many "English Journal" colleagues back to another academic year, the author suspects that many are thinking a good deal about grading. Discusses the importance of feedback for student writing. Suggests the need to relocate teacher feedback to the public forums of…

Attempts to put the field of writing assessment into a historical, linguistic, and geographical/cultural context, in order to stimulate work in writing assessment from across as broad a set of perspectives as possible. Presents a history of writing assessment, looks at writing assessment in the modern period, and considers the future of writing…

Describes a placement test for incoming college students and its holistic scoring procedures. (MG)

Annotates 146 books in the areas of writing, language, literature, and teacher education. (MG)

Discusses how examination of the assessment criteria in a basic writing program prompted fruitful, continuing program evaluation and change. Reports that the assessment study validated efforts to deemphasize grammar and spelling instruction in basic writing courses. (MM)

Researchers' interests in direct-writing assessment are traced, and conclusions are drawn about how far such research has come in the last 15 years. Focus is on the concerns evident in the bulk of the work done on writing assessment and on the direction in which writing assessment is moving. (SLD)

Provides strategies designed to help both mainstream and underrepresented students meet the rhetorical demands of placement exams and gain control in these situations. Describes the University of California Santa Barbara's Preparatory Program which serves a large, culturally diverse student population, acknowledges the variables embedded in the…

Presents an exercise designed to nullify student claims of subjectivity in the grading of essay examinations. Asks students to grade sample essay questions according to specific criteria. Discusses benefits of the exercise. Provides sample essays and answers, and illustrates the difference between analytical and narrative answers. (RW)

Discusses the use of computers in two college European history seminars. Students were required to perform online database searches to prepare their bibliographies, and to check their writing mechanics using a mainframe computer software package. Concludes that student-generated data searches should be included in required historical methods…

Examines the readability levels of two current children's periodicals and two nineteenth-century periodicals. Finds the language skills used by children writing poetry and letters to the editor have not declined over the last century. Finds nonfiction and recreational fiction articles to be more difficult in the nineteenth century. (RS)

Compares the teaching of writing to shipbuilding, where no craftsman would be expected to teach and evaluate shipbuilding had he never built a ship. Maintains that writing teachers must be writers. Describes seven essential writing skills which are also the basis for both instructional strategies and evaluation practices. (SR)