Many teachers have the tendency to look at only the standardized test scores of their students while ignoring how or why various dimensions of language proficiency has improved or not improved. Portfolio, however, reveals a clear picture of the student's growth and development. This study reflects that traditional approaches to assessment of…

The object of this exploratory study was to test two hypotheses. The first was that a student's preferential cognitive style, sequential or simultaneous, can negatively affect the imaginative fiction texts that he or she produces. The second hypothesis was that students possessing a sequential or simultaneous preferential cognitive style would…

This mixed methods study combining a single-subject experimental design with an embedded case study focuses on the impact of a visual treatment on the handwritten and typed output of a struggling male writer during his 5th through 7th grades who has undergone a longitudinal remedial phase of two and a half years creating text-only material as well…

This paper describes a study comparing paper-based marking (PBM) and onscreen marking (OSM) in Hong Kong utilising English language essay scripts drawn from the live 2007 Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) Year 11 English Language Writing Paper. In the study, 30 raters from the 2007 HKCEE Writing Paper marked on paper 100…

The current study examines second language (L2) learners' self-assessment of text changes that they made on their written drafts in self-revisions and peer revisions, focusing on linguistic features of their repairs as well as the validity of self-assessment. In the study, the term "self-revision" refers to writers' revisions of their own written…

Language performance assessments typically require human raters, introducing possible error. In international examinations of English proficiency, rater language background is an especially salient factor that needs to be considered. The existence of rater language background-related bias in writing performance assessment is the object of this…

This article is about the struggles to sustain identity as writers while accommodating the demands of the university experienced by Arianto and his thesis supervisor, myself. It shows how critical EAP was the on-going conversation between us about how to negotiate norms, voice and creativity in our writing and in the negotiations Arianto had to…

Multifaceted Rasch measurement was used in the present study with 91 student and 4 teacher raters to investigate how self- and peer-assessments work in comparison with teacher assessments in actual university writing classes. The results indicated that many self-raters assessed their own writing lower than predicted. This was particularly true for…

In a project-based approach to teaching a foreign language at the university level, students are often required to participate in several task-based writing activities. In doing so, language learners not only write incorrect forms, but also correct forms of the same structures, both of which provide useful information on their strengths and…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to determine how secondary students use conventions in classroom composition assignments compared to the Internet writing outlets of e-mail, instant messaging, and blogs. Thirty-two ninth grade students were identified to participate in this study. Half of the participants were deeply involved in online…

Calibrated Peer Review[TM] (CPR) is a web-based instructional tool that encourages "writing gain for students" without adding "grading pain for the instructor!" The use of CPR provides students frequent opportunities to hone both writing as well as peer review skills in a guided environment. And once an assignment is authored, instructors have…

A multiple-probe across-subjects design was used to examine persuasive writing performance of six 2nd- through 5th- grade students with emotional/behavior disorders (EBD). Students' writing was evaluated before and after self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) instruction for the POW (Pick my idea, Organize my notes, Write and say more) + TREE…

This article chronicles the evolution of a large research extensive institution's General Education writing assessment efforts from an initial summative focus to a formative, improvement focus. The methods of assessment, which changed as the assessment purpose evolved, are described. As more data were collected, the measurement tool was…

Although handwriting is often considered a matter of presentation, a substantial body of international research suggests that the role of handwriting in children's composing has been neglected. Automaticity in handwriting is now seen as of key importance in composing but this proposition is relatively untested in the UK and the assumption has been…

Business schools are often criticized for the inadequate writing skills of their graduates. Improving writing skills involves first understanding the current skill level of students. This research attempts to provide insights into the effectiveness of the current method of assessing writing skills in a school of business at a large regional…