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…

Brief, impromptu essays written for the 1990 administration of the College Board's English Composition Test (ECT) were randomly sampled for four groups of examinees. These essays were subjected to further holistic ratings beyond those conducted for the ECT, and analytical ratings were also obtained. The holistic scores were correlated with the…

In a letter to her mother, herself a former English teacher, a teaching assistant details impressions of her first year in the Writing Program at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). During a semester an instructor gets to know writing students individually in a way that pierces deeply through the veneer of stereotype. The class published…

Portfolio assessment can be different in kind from traditional assessment measures: it can provide a fuller picture of the learner; it can be much more than an expanded grade book; but the criteria and language for evaluating and describing the portfolio must be different from those used for evaluating individual products. To describe the fuller…

Intended for teachers of all subjects, grades 3 through 12, this book explains how teachers can build a community of writers in which the students use portfolios to demonstrate progress and accomplishment across the curriculum. The book outlines practical strategies for ensuring that every student explores a variety of meaningful challenges. The…

Intended for teachers of kindergarten through grade 8 who want to improve their students' writing skills, this book is based on existing research findings to serve as a practical guide to procedures, methods, and skills essential for the development of proficiency in written expression of all kinds. The book includes practical, research-based…