In this paper William Stafford's varied descriptions and occasional judgments as to what it means to write a poem are gathered by prospecting through his essays, published lectures, and transcribed interviews. The paper describes Stafford's perspective on (1) the powerful language of poetry; (2) finding each poem's unique form; (3) practicing the…

Intended to familiarize persons with the scoring standards and criteria used for the 8th grade version of the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Writing Test, this scoring manual is in eight sections: (1) an introduction to the scoring dimensions and scale points; (2) definitions of the four scale points; (3) definitions of scoring dimensions and…

A survey gathered information on the uses of writing assessment and its potential impact on writing instruction, programs, and students. Respondents, 128 members (out of a random sample of 350) of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) from four-year colleges, two-year colleges, and institutions offering graduate degrees,…

This final report presents findings of a project designed to develop a model for state-wide assessment of student writing/language skills in conjunction with Utah's Core Curriculum in English/Language Arts (UCCLA). The project tested procedures for collecting baseline data on writing/language skills at grades 3 and 8. The report consists of the…

This newsletter contains 32 abstracts of approximately 1000 words each of papers presented at the 1988 conference of the National Testing Network in Writing. Abstracts, listed with their authors, include "Instructional Directions from Large Scale K-12 Writing Assessments" (C. Chew); "Portfolio Assessment across the Curriculum: Early Conflicts" (C.…

This handbook on Classroom Applications of Writing Assessment represents the fourth and final entry in a series of interrelated publications on the assessment of writing proficiency prepared over the past year by the Clearinghouse for Applied Performance Testing (CAPT). This handbook was written to meet the needs of the classroom teacher who is…

In a study exploring how writers use audience awareness and how that awareness is related to the writer's age, four eighteen-year-old and four nine-year-old writers were assigned letters to write for two different audiences: a friend and a great aunt whom they had never met. Thinking-aloud writing protocols were produced at the time of writing. At…

A study tested the hypothesis that essay examination topics specifying full rhetorical contexts are superior to less information-laden versions of the same topics. Subjects were 360 college students who were given 45 minutes to write essays on 6 topics phrased at 3 information (or specificity of rhetorical context) levels--high, low, and moderate.…

Presented is a research based method by which a state or regional professional organization may select the outstanding paper from those submitted for consideration. The procedure is conducted in three steps: submission, initial review, and final selection. During the initial review process the selection committee (four or more members) reviews all…

The areas composition teachers must address when developing a sound system of conferences with students include defining the conference, scheduling, preparing, conducting the conference, and keeping conference records. There are four general kinds of conferences: (1) the diagnostic conference for discussing students' writing experiences and…

The heavy concentration of time and funds to measure writing performance is the major reason other areas deserving scrutiny are so often neglected by evaluators. Three failings typical of the field of writing assessment as it is conducted for the purpose of program evaluation are: (1) a failure to view writing as a multiple construct; (2) a…

The underlying structure of meaning in a text is to a certain extent belied by the surface structure, or sequential organization, of the text. The underlying information structures (IS) organize information according to cognitive and cultural factors. It may be demonstrated that just three major IS with various subvarieties can describe any text:…

Designed for educators actively involved with the teaching of writing, this summary report contains an overview of the background, major findings, and recommendations of the 1979 Manitoba (Canada) Writing Assessment Program. Various sections of the report provide the following information: (1) highlights of the general report of the program; (2)…

Describes a 10-category criteria checklist that identifies skills journalism students have to improve and that emphasizes stylistic details in the context of the larger elements of magazine writing. Includes a copy of the checklist. (FL)

Describes a computerized grading system used in a journalism writing laboratory. (FL)