Given the concern for reliability in essay evaluation and the prospect of "error" variance in its absence, methods to promote interrater reliability in the evaluation of written compositions have been developed. These methods reduce variation in the value systems being applied by readers to texts, either by limiting the group of readers…

This paper attempts to provide an updated overview of the current theory and practice of English as a second language (ESL) composition. The following topics are addressed: (1) the goals of composition courses in the ESL curricula; (2) course content, derived in part from goals in the curricula; (3) a review of techniques and procedures for…

Every writing program contains implicit information on the amount of writing that should be assigned, how the essays should be evaluated, the type of grammar--if any--students should study, and the type of composition instruction that will be most effective. Research has not identified an optimal level of writing frequency, and although frequent…

This resource package has been prepared as a means for distributing not only the results of the 1978 British Columbia Assessment of Written Expression but also to provide educators with clear, well-organized, classroom-ready materials which will assist them in teaching and evaluating the skills of written expression. It contains all of the test…

The minimal writing skills proficiency program in the Phoenix Union High School District was initiated as a result of basic competency legislation passed in 1972; in 1976, writing was added to the basic skills requirements for graduation. Writing proficiency is determined by teacher evaluation of pieces of writing using the criteria established…

Measurement experts in the field of writing and writing-related competencies have to deal with fluctuating test reliability, implementation of efficient scoring procedures, and examining the validity of objective measures of writing. This study was undertaken to address measurement concerns brought to light by the competency-based assessment…

Three pilot studies--effects of writing prompt modality on writing performance; effect of topic familiarity; and effect of topic, sample and rater group membership on the stability of scoring criteria application--are used to identify the variability in student writing performance. A writing competency test aims to assess writing-specific skills…

A study examined factors related to the high failure rate of architectural students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on an essay writing task designed to show proficiency in writing before gaining junior standing. Students become eligible to write the essay by getting a score of 65 or better on the Wisconsin English Placement Test (WEPT)…

The freshman composition courses at a southwestern university were originally designed with detailed and explicit standards for the first course, which emphasized grammar, while the standards for the two rhetoric courses were general and left much to the judgment of the teacher. No penalties were exacted for rhetorical or logical lapses, while…

The approaches used by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to characterize syntax, cohesion and mechanics are described. These approaches are different from the Primary Trait System, a scheme used by NAEP for rating essays. Part one of the publication describes the procedures NAEP used to characterize differences in syntactic…

In the area of large scale assessment, there is increasing interest in the measurement of students' written performance. At issue is whether the task demands in writing assessment can be simplified to involve the production of paragraph-length writing samples and/or multiple choice testing, rather than full-length essays. This study considers data…

A study was conducted to examine how composition characteristics identified on the Diederich scale (ideas, organization, wording, flavor, usage/sentence structure, and punctuation) related to teacher evaluation of student writing. For each of three academic years, teaching assistants of freshman English were given typed, mimeographed copies of…

A study designed to examine the differences in quality ratings that 20 teachers in each of three senior high school curricular areas (business, English/social studies, and mathematics/science) gave to samples of written argument by college freshmen also investigated the relationship between the three groups of quality ratings and eight syntactic…

Investigated relationships between individual differences in (1) levels of writing skills and (2) proficiencies at simultaneous and successive cognitive processing. Correlated students' writings with the following word and sentence level problems: spelling errors, missing or inappropriate punctuation of sentence parts, missing noun and verb…

Investigation of examiners' (N=44) evaluations of writing performance of learning-disabled (LD) students indicated that the LD label influenced ratings assigned by examiners (undergraduate education students) who were simply familiarized with the scoring procedure. Evaluations by examiners who received additional practice and training were not…