Writing should be assessed on the quality of the written work. Usually it is, but the consideration of other factors—or the lack of consideration of other factors—often has an impact on the assessment. In these cases, the actual assessment does not simply reflect the quality of the work, but many other factors as well.
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In “The Literature of Direct Writing Assessment: Major Concerns and Prevailing Trends,” author Brian Huot outlines many of the issues that affect the assessment of quality in student writing. The long-standing issue with writing assessment is centered on the unlikelihood that different raters can assign the same rating to the same piece of writing. He cites a well-known example conducted in the early 1960s
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NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) has found this type of scoring to be effective in large-scale assessment scenarios (238). It can be performed rather quickly, which can be strength, as Huot identifies. He does not identify its weakness, however; because areas other than those being assessed are generally ignored, evaluators will not identify faults such as inaccuracy of content, flawed reasoning, and inappropriate voice. Analytic scoring requires an examination of a writing sample for specific qualities that are generally considered essential for writing to be “good.” Assessment is based on “how many good qualities it contains” (238). It will, therefore, identify errors that primary trait scoring will miss. Naturally, it takes longer because it focuses on higher-order concerns such as content, development, and persuasiveness. According to Huot’s research, analytic scores have been proven to be the most reliable direct writing procedure (238). Holistic scoring looks at the entire essay, like analytic scoring, but it is relatively quick, like trait scoring. Therefore, while analytic scoring is more accurate, holistic scoring is usually recommended for large testing populations (239). Holistic scoring looks at general characteristics and assigns a score according to a pre-assigned scale. Huot’s goal in his article is to explore the ways in which direct assessment can be influenced by examining
Hargreaves (2007) as well as Quinn and Hughes (2007, p270) propose that assessment tool should be both valid (assess what it claims to assess) and reliable (perform in a consistent and stable manner). It is of the opinion now following the assessment that our assessment tool cannot be considered valid and reliable for the following reasons. Learning outcome was not part of the criteria so it was impossible to make a judgement about the quality of the students' presentation and thus could not be penalized. Hinchliff (1999) suggests that learning outcomes should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed (SMART). It should include an indication of the evidence required to demonstrate that learning has been achieved (Dix and Hughes, 2004), but Welsh and Swann (2002) caution that too many may create unreasonable expectations. Moreover, the ambiguity of the tool and individuals' subjectivity in terms of attitudes, beliefs and values (the ‘halo’ effect) resulted in perceived bias which affected the reliability. Bias however, remains an issue to overcome and as such I felt
The findings of this paper were interesting because I noticed that a lot of most popular and highest ranked types of writing coincided with my list of popular writing types. I made my own list of my five biggest areas of writing. My list consisted
Within the past eight weeks, I have realized my strengths and weaknesses within the writing process. I have realized that I do not utilize the first step within the writing process of prewriting. However, for the drafting, revising, and polishing steps of the writing process, I am very familiar and use additional resources to strengthen the writing assignment. I create multiple drafts, which includes revising and polishing in each step. Therefore, I use all three of these steps in multiple drafts as I reach the final product for
Murray is insightful not only to instructors but also to learners. Murray argues that the challenge facing writing is the fact that teachers have treated it as a product rather than a process and the same concept passed on to students. The author holds that the main problem with this view is that students get to receive irrelevant criticisms that are not related to their learning goals. While I tend to agree with the author based on the arguments presented, it is notable that Murray has paid little attention to the idea of education in the contemporary world. In most learning institutions, the outcome of the writing is considered more than the process. As a teacher paying attention to the process of writing but not be consistent with the students, who are mostly driven by
There can be many benefits to apply a holistic approach to an assessment. This can be more tailored to an individual’s need, looking at the person as awhole. When learners are engaged in a practical lesson take into account that sometimes there are natural occurring events that take place and can be assessed separately.
Ch. 2 – Who are the various users of assessment and its results? What specific instructional decisions can be made based on assessment results? Why must we build balanced assessment systems to support the instructional programs we offer students? This chapter nails down the purpose of assessing, which is gathering information to inform teachers of students of their instruction and learning, respectively. In this way, assessment is individualized to each student and classroom, and because all students/classes are different, it should inform the teachers of what is working or not working in the classroom, which should then influence some sort of change to instruction. This chapter also talks about the different levels of assessment – from the individuals
Initially, I was not confident having my writing assessed by an online tool, as I was sure there would be numerous errors. Surprisingly, however, I received a lot of positive feedback. Firstly, Paper Rater (2014) found no mistakes in my spelling, grammar or punctuation; my sentences were all an appropriate length, and the use of transitional phrases made my writing flow nicely. Additionally, while reading Grellier and Goerke (2014), I realised I had used simple, direct language in my wiritng and avoided using clichés or redundant phrases. Finally, Writer’s Diet gave me an overall diagnosis of ‘fit and trim’, with a lean use of nouns, prepositions and words like it, this, that and there. These results were, pleasing; however, there were
In assessment, validity and reliability are two major factors. “Validity is the soundness of your interpretations and uses of students’ assessment results” (Brookhart & Nitko, 2015, p. 38). This basically means, does the assessment measure what it was intended to measure? Validity has four principles: interpretations, uses, values, and consequences. An example of a valid assessment is the SAT. The SAT is valid, because it provides the assessor evidence to make appropriate interpretations and uses. The assessor is able to make meaningful judgments and actions based on the scores of the SAT (Brookhart & Nitko, 2015, p. 38-40). The other important factor is reliability. “Reliability is the degree to which students’ results remain consistent over replications of assessment procedure” (Brookhart & Nitko, 2015, p.67). For example, if a test is valid, the student should score consistently with no intervention. However, if a treatment or invention occurs, the score should be altered. An
See the Written Communications Rubric breakdown for Content (25 points), Organization (25 points) , Conventions (25 points), and Language/Audience (25 points).
In the first assignment, I assessed my writing with the online tool PaperRater. The score received was below average on almost all fronts, which surprised me. I established a goal to be writing weekly and applying online tools to provide feedback. While I have not completed this goal in a way I expected, my writing style has been enhanced. I put this improvement down to my research and study throughout this unit, as well as entering into a new workplace that requires a higher level of professionalism than my previous workplace.
By reading the book, I could not agree more with that premise. That is why WritersDiet Test does not make any effort or an attempt to measure for vividness of expression, the individual’s clarity of thought, the overall fluidity of style, and any other crucial factor that matter in making writing better. In fact, the author makes it clear that the purpose of the test is modest since it only seeks to alert writers to some of the sentence-level grammatical features that most frequently weigh down academic prose.
This for me was a very hard question to answer due to the fact that its an opinion, and there are very many types of writing. Different structures, ideas, metaphors, and concepts. You have to remember to ask, whether the writing in itself is good in my point of view or not, has to answer to my specific guidelines which in your case might not be the same. The first and foremost of the many guidelines is how the author set's up the introductory sentence or better yet, the hook. If the author for example, is writing a cook-book, his first sentence should be appealing to the sense of taste. For example, If you are writing on how to bake a chocolate cake, you can sound appealing by saying, it will almost feel like you added a hint of heaven
Over the course of my studies at university, I have grown and learned more about academic writing and numerous writing styles. I believe there is so much room for me to master my writing skills to succeed and complete my degree and improve my academic writing and personal skills through more practice. However, I have become concerned with my first attempt submitting my piece of paper through the online test in the Writers’ Diet diagnostic tool and was labelled ‘flabby’ in my writing. Analysing my errors and referring to the textbook ’Communication Toolkit’ by Grellier and Goerke (2014), also submitting my piece of writing to Grammarly and paper rater I was able to measure my weakness in the area of sentence structure, punctuation and grammar.
Writing is not just as simple as putting words down on a document or a piece of paper, it is a process. Within this intricate process are steps that involve more than just writing, such as critical thinking, planning, and editing. Using these steps has not only helped me when planning an essay but also when composing one. Throughout this course, I have managed to improve many skills and gain a lot of strengths, but I still possess some weaknesses. Overall, I believe my strengths have definitely outgrown these weaknesses and have led to a better, more high-quality writing process which leads to improved essays.
Assessment enables educators to provide feedback to their learners, this in turn promotes self-evaluation by the learner, as they use the assessment feedback to scrutinise and make judgements about the quality of their work (Spiller, 2009:6 & 7).