Recognizing that students shudder at revision and see it as a perfunctory task to satisfy only their teachers, the author offers an approach that motivates students to revise thoughtfully without increasing teachers' reading workload. Quite simply, good writing requires less time to read than poor writing. The Numbers Approach to grading can free…

Five hundred thirty-eight elementary school students participated in a study designed to examine the technical characteristics of curriculum-based measures (CBMs) for the assessment of writing. In addition, the study investigated rating-based measures of writing using the Six Trait model, an assessment instrument and writing program in use in many…

This article attempts to structure student assessment practices in the classroom. Informed by fourth generation evaluation, it discusses a pedagogy based on a recursive framework of writing, assessment, and reflection activities that move students toward productive praxis. Implemented over three semesters at a land grant university in the U.S.,…

This paper undertakes a review of the literature on writing cognition, writing instruction, and writing assessment with the goal of developing a framework and competency model for a new approach to writing assessment. The model developed is part of the Cognitively Based Assessments of, for, and as Learning (CBAL) initiative, an ongoing research…

The current research was conducted to investigate the validity of automated essay scoring (AES) by comparing group mean scores assigned by an AES tool, IntelliMetric [TM] and human raters. Data collection included administering the Texas version of the WriterPlacer "Plus" test and obtaining scores assigned by IntelliMetric [TM] and by…

The use of online rater self-training is growing in popularity and has obvious practical benefits, facilitating access to training materials and rating samples and allowing raters to reorient themselves to the rating scale and self monitor their behaviour at their own convenience. However there has thus far been little research into rater…

Maja Wilson believes that efforts to standardize language through rubrics and generalized comments provide a disservice to students and undermine the power of the reading and writing experience. She advocates making use of our subjectivity as readers, conceding that her values cannot be standardized and often shift in response to interactions with…

Since the first definitive references to portfolio evaluation in assessment literature, metaphors have been significant in shaping students' and teachers' understanding of the role of the portfolio in the writing classroom. Consider the range of metaphors employed in discussions about portfolios. Margie Krest, for instance, emphasizes the social…

Generative response modeling is an approach to test development and response modeling that calls for the creation of items in such a way that the parameters of the items on some response model can be anticipated through knowledge of the psychological processes and knowledge required to respond to the item. That is, the computer would not merely…

Much speculation abounds concerning how expensive performance assessments are or are going to be. Recent projections indicate that, in order to achieve an acceptably high generalizability coefficient, many additional tasks may need to be added, which will enlarge costs. Such projections are, to some degree, correct, and to some degree simplistic.…

This Digest provides a rationale for developing grading guides to use with business writing students. It describes the methods business communications teachers can use to construct and employ guides to provide students with quality writing instruction. The Digest maintains that teachers can construct either skills analysis grading guides and/or…

Students may forget that writing involves a relationship between writer and audience--a relationship foregrounded by speech-act theory. The writer should focus on what the audience is to be led to see about the subject. To be distinguished are "locution" (saying something), "illocution" (performance of an act in saying…

In carrying out a successful writing workshop, careful attention must be given to the proper role and function of the teacher. Research indicates the power of extended peer response to writing and the benefits of writers talking with their peers about their writing. To construct more specific guidelines for the function of teachers in writing…

One way to help teachers know how to give better assistance to students is to have students analyze their papers in a letter or memo attached to their essays. In one class, such memos are called "Learning from your own writing process," and typically describe: (1) what the student was trying to do; (2) what seemed to work or not work in…

This booklet provides Alberta (Canada) grade 9 teachers, administrators, and students with samples of the full range of students' writing that exemplify the criteria used to score students' written responses on the June 1990 Grade 9 English Language Arts Achievement Test. Commentary accompanying the students' writing samples in the booklet…