The Career and Occupational Development (COD) assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was made up of about 70 percent free response exercises requiring hand scoring. This paper describes the techniques used in developing the "scoring guides" for these exercises and summarizes the results of two empirical…

What was once a fitting expression of revolt against the wild growth of indiscriminate imitation and excessive reliance on bookishness is today, according to the author, all too often a symptom of the extolling of the empty mind. (JT)

Prospective teachers judged the creativity of eleventh grade students' modified essay compositions on the following subjects; mirrors; if the schools should close; or the new woman. Higher creativity ratings were associated with two factors: number of sentences, and number of novel ideas expressed. (Author/GDC)

Argues that rhetoric, essay, and composition are not the same because each has a different history, purpose, and text structure. The composition is the easiest and most practical form to teach in a writing class for students of English as a second language. (CFM)

Offers information and suggestions for constructing and using essay questions for assessing inquiry learning. (Author/RK)

Describes a course which allowed students to exercise both creative and critical abilities in a multidisciplinary approach to an important history-of-ideas subject (nature) in American literature. (JM)

Describes how an anonymous sexuality essay was used in an undergraduate sociology classroom to bridge some of the conflicts between the traditional structure of the classroom and the somewhat unusual demands involved in teaching about sexuality. States that the approach rewards both students and professors, as the essays create a "world"…

Claims that Malthus'"Essay on Population" is preeminently a rhetorical achievement because it (1) originated from controversy; (2) traced and dramatized the effects of a principle that, in Malthus's opinion, was long known but little understood by the public; and (3) drew its power from the evocation and conscious imitation of Newton's…

This study examined the reliability of holistic scoring for a sample of essays written during the Spring 1985 MCAT administration. Analysis of variance techniques was used to estimate the reliability of scoring and to partition score variance into that due to level differences between papers and to context-specific factors. (Author/LMO)

Defining a web as a diagrammatic representation of any logical train of thought, this article describes how to use the web as a tool for teaching and evaluating essays. Provides several web diagrams. (JDH)

This article summarizes some of the testing changes which have taken place in the 'A' level economics course and briefly discusses the current role of the essay paper. States that the essay exam has been particularly effective in measuring higher order thinking skills and discriminating between more and less able students. (JDH)

Defends the CUNY-WAT against the charges made by Fishman (CS 731 865). Offers suggestions for those wishing to undertake research into the choice of topics for writing assessment tests. (FL)

Explains that a good essay question should be as specific in what it asks for as the students are expected to be in their answers. (HOD)

The Connecticut Assessment of Educational Progress assesses writing traits using different approaches to diagnose students' skills. These include multiple choice, direct assessment, "revising test," dictation, and note-taking. These measures and scoring guides are used to assess several elements of good writing. (DWH)

Reports on the views of black children in Soweto about life in their country fifty years from now. (Editor)