Reports the findings of a small-scale study assessing whether students revise essays more effectively when given written diagnoses that identify textual flaws and prescriptive comments, compared with a group of control students who received only directions stating that flaws were present. Concludes that while both groups' revising skills improved…

Describes how the three paradigms of assessment (assessment as measurement, as procedure, or as inquiry) are similar and how they are different, using writing portfolios to help distinguish between them. Presents several factors that support teachers making a "paradigm shift" from assessment as measurement to assessment as inquiry. Explains…

Focuses on the evolution of an assessment scheme implemented in an English for academic purposes (EAP) process writing course that sought to meet the assessment needs of three different audiences: learners, teachers, outsiders. Assessment plans and revisions are described. (Author/VWL)

Highlights a performance assessment process used by one teacher with her second and third grade students, in which teacher and students work together to generate specific performance standards for a variety of reading and writing tasks. Looks at setting the stage; teacher-student collaboration in structured rubric development; expanding the…

Explores the portfolio process as an evaluation tool for authentic assessment of writing. Discusses (1) current literature related to use of portfolios; (2) the critical elements of the portfolio process; (3) their relationship to the authentic assessment of writing; and (4) effective ways of implementing individual educational portfolios for…

This article presents the first results of the study of argumentative essays in English as a foreign language and in Spanish as a foreign language and as a native language, carried out at Radboud University Nijmegen (formerly the University of Nijmegen) between 2002 and 2008. The aim of the project is to compare teachers' holistic assessments with…

If writing matters, how can we improve it? This study investigated the nature of writing plan quality and its relationship to the ensuing writing scores. Data were drawn from the 1998 Provincial Learning Assessment Programme (PLAP) in Writing, which was administered to pupils in Grades 4, 7, and 10 across British Columbia, Canada. Common features…

We assessed whether and how the discourse written for prototype integrated tasks (involving writing in response to print or audio source texts) field tested for Next Generation TOEFL[R] differs from the discourse written for independent essays (i.e., the TOEFL Essay[R]). We selected 216 compositions written for six tasks by 36 examinees in a field…

Specialists in the field of large-scale, high-stakes writing assessment have, over the last forty years alternately discussed the issue of maximizing either reliability or validity in test design. Factors complicating the debate--such as Messick's (1989) expanded definition of validity, and the ethical implications of testing--are explored. An…

This study examined the possible gender differences in teachers' scoring and written feedback on two narrative and two persuasive writing samples sent to 108 grade six teachers throughout one Canadian province. Participating teachers read a narrative and a persuasive piece of writing from one boy, and a narrative and persuasive piece written by…

The purpose of Study 1a was to determine the criteria that differentiate students who perform well and those who perform poorly on a standardized test of university-level writing. Discriminant function analysis revealed that measures of structure, sentencing, paragraphing, and grammar play the most important role in separating these two groups.…

Noting that within the area of literacy, writing is a young area of study, this research report looks at the impact of the national Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy's 10 years of sustained research. The paper first considers how Center research projects and activities have been tied together to address three interlocking sets of…

It is a commonly held assumption that Harvard-trained rhetoricians during the late 19th and early 20th centuries were concerned mainly with superficial mechanical correction, and, further, that they dissociated student writing from any meaningful context and contributed to the division between composition and literature. Howard James Savage was…

This thesis describes a study that engaged 2 sections of English Composition I, 50 randomly selected students at Union County College during the fall semester of 1995. The goal of the study was to determine if in this sample population there was a positive correlation between self-concept and writing ability. The variables of the New Jersey…

Supplemental Instruction (SI) has been firmly established as a tool for helping college students succeed in beginning writing courses. The SI model is based on a Piagetian-constructivist theoretical framework, which holds that learning is an active process in which learners "construct" their own knowledge, making it an essential part of…