ASSESSING WRITING ASSESSING WRITING

The assessment of writing is not an easy task. Before assessing writing, we

As a partial fulfillment of the Requirement for the Advanced
Assessment in English Language Teaching Course taught by
Fachrurrazy, MA., Ph.D
have to make clear our objective or criterion. In this case we have to decide what we
want to test. Is it handwriting ability? Correct spelling? Writing sentences that are
grammatically correct? Paragraph construction? or Logical development of a main
idea? These tests have different objectives and each objective can be assessed
through a variety of tasks.

Before looking at specific tasks, we have to scrutinize the different of

written language, types of writing, and micro and macro skills of writing. Therefore,
this writing are going to discuss how to assess writing based on the different of
written language, types of writing, and micro and macro skills of writing. Also the
BY: writer will provide some examples of writing tests and how to score the test.

SUKIRMAN 1. Genres of Written Language

Generally, there are three kinds of genres of written language (Brown,
2004: 219). They are academic writing, job-related writing and personal writing.
The following table will show to us the examples for each genres of written
language.

Genres of
No. Examples
Writing
1. paper and general subject reports
2. essays, compositions
Academic 3. academically focused journals
1.
Writing 4. short-answer test responses
5. technical report (e.g., lab report)
6. theses and dissertations
1. messages (e.g., phone messages)
2. letters/emails
3. memos (e.g., interoffice)
Job-related
2. 4. reports (e.g., job evaluation, project reports
Writing
5. schedules, label, and signs
6. advertisement announcement
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING PROGRAM
7. manuals
SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES 1. letters, emails, greeting card, and invitations
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MALANG 2. messages and note
MARCH, 2012 Personal
3. calendar entries, shopping lists, and reminders
3. 4. financial documents
Writing
5. forms, questioners, medical reports,
6. diaries, and personal journals
7. fiction (e.g., short stories and poetry)

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2. Types of Writing Performance
Brown (2004: 220) classifies types of writing performance into four
classifications. They are:
a. imitative : This category includes the ability to spell correctly and to
perceive phoneme-grapheme correspondences in the
English spelling system. At this stage, form is the primary
if not exclusive focus, while context and meaning are of
secondary concern.
b. intensive : As one may think, Intensive writing as described here has
nothing to do with writing intensively, but controlled.
Under this definition, students are supposed to copy
sentences and words, rewrite texts and passages, order
sentences among others.
c. responsive : It requires learners to perform at a limited discourse level,
connecting sentences into a paragraph and creating a
logically connected sequence of two or three paragraphs.
The writer has already mastered the fundamentals of
sentence-level grammar and is more focused on the
discourse conventions that will achieve the objectives of
the written text.
d. extensive : It implies successful management of all the processes and
strategies of writing for all purposes. Writers work
focusing on the achievement of a purpose. Organizing
ideas logically, using details to support or illustrate it and
demonstrating syntactic and lexical variety.
3. Micro- and Macro-skills of Writing
The elements of micro- and macro-skills of writing are:
a. Micro-skills of writing
1) produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose
2) produce an acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order
patterns
3) use acceptable grammatical systems (e.g., tense, agreement,
pluralization), patterns, and rules
4) express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms
5) use cohesive devices in written discourse.
b. Macro-skills of writing
1)  use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse
2) appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts
according to form and purpose
3) distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing
2
4) convey links and connections between events, and communicate such
relation as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given
information, generalization, and exemplification.
5) correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the
written text.
6) Develop and use a battery of writing strategies, such as accurately
assessing the audience’s interpretation, using prewriting devices,
writing fluency in the first drafts, using paraphrases and synonyms,
soliciting peer and instructor feedback, and using feedback for revising
and editing.
The taxonomy of micro- and macro-skills will assist us to in defining the
ultimate criterion of an assessment procedure. Micro-skills of writing apply
more appropriately to imitative and intensive types of writing task, while the
macro-skills of writing are essential for the successful mastery of responsive and
extensive writing.
4. Designing Assessment Tasks
a. Imitative Writing
1) Tasks in [Hand] Writing Letters, Words, and Punctuation
It aims to increase the use of personal and laptop computers and
handheld instruments for creating written symbols. Handwriting has the
potential of becoming a lost art as even very young children are more
and more likely to use keyboard to produce writing. Handwriting
remains a skill of paramount importance within the larger domain of
language assessment.
a) Copying
There is nothing innovative or modern about directing a test-taker
to copy letters or words. For example:
Handwriting letters, words, and punctuation marks
The test-taker reads: Copy the following words in the
spaces given:
car cat bat go
sin did sit pin
b) Listening cloze selection tasks
The test sheet provides a list of missing words from which the test-
taker must select. For example:
 Test-takers hear:
Write the missing word in each blank. Below the story is a
list of words to choose from.

Have you ever visited San Francisco? It is a very nice city. It is

cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I like the cable cars
and bridges.
e) Converting numbers and abbreviation to words.
Test-taker see:
In this test, the test-takers are asked to write down abbreviation
Have ever visited San Francisco? It a very nice . It is
such as numbers, hours of the day, dates, or schedules into words.
in summer and in the winter. I the cable cars
This task can serve as a reasonably reliable method to stimulate
bridges.
handwritten English. For example:

The test-takers hear: Fill in the blanks with words:

Test-takers see:
c) Picture-cued tasks 9:00 : 3:35 :
The test-taker will be displayed a poster or picture such as car, cat, 11/11/1985 : 11.04 :
watermelon, or pen, and they are asked to write the word that
picture represents. For example:

2) Spelling Tasks and Detecting Phoneme – Grapheme Correspondences

A number of task types are in popular use to assess the ability to spell
words correctly and to process phoneme-grapheme correspondences.
a) Spelling tests
In a traditionally, old-fashioned spelling test, the teacher dictates a
simple list of words, one word at a time followed by the word in a
sentence, repeated again, with a pause for test-takers to write the
1. 2. 3.
word. Scoring emphasizes correct spelling.
d) Form completion tasks
b) Picture-cued tasks
A variation on pictures is the use of a simple form (registration,
Pictures are displayed with the objective of focusing on familiar
application, etc.) that asks for name, address, phone number, and
words whose spelling may be unpredictable. Items are chosen
other data. For example:
according to the objectives of the assessment, but this format is an
opportunity to present some challenging words and words pairs:
The test-taker will be asked to fill out this application form based
boot/book, read/reed, bit/bite, etc.
on their data.
c) Multiple-choice techniques
Presenting words and phrases in the form of a multiple choice task
risks crossing read:
Test-takers over into the domain of assessing reading, but the
items have a follow-up writing component. For examples:
Choose the words with the correct spelling to fit the
sentence, then write the word in the space provided.
3 1. He washed his hands with
a. soap c. sop
b. sope d. soup
2. I tried to stop the car, but the din’t work.
a. braicks c. brakes
 tap into knowledge of grammatical forms that will be performed
through writing. Numerous versions of the task are possible:
 Change the tenses in a paragraph.
 Change statements to yes/no or wh-questions.
 Change question into statements.
 Combine two sentences into one using a relative pronoun.
 Change from active to passive voice.

3) Picture-Cued tasks
The main advantage in this technique is in detaching the almost
d) Matching phonetic symbols ubiquitous reading and writing connection and offering instead a
If the test-takers have been familiar with the phonetic alphabet, nonverbal means to stimulate written responses. Numerous types of this
they could be shown phonetic symbols and asked to write the task are:
correctly spelled word alphabetically. For example: a) Short sentences
A drawing of some simple action is shown: the test-taker writes a
brief sentence. For example:

Test-takers see the following pictures

b. Intensive Writing
1) Dictation and Dicto-Comp Test-takers read: What is the man doing?
a) Dictation
What is the boy doing?
Dictation is an assessment of the integration of listening and
What is the baby doing?
writing. It is simply the retention in writing of what one hears
aurally, so it could be classified as an imitative type of writing, What is the man doing?
especially since a proportion of the test-taker’s performance Test-takers write:
centers on correct spelling. 1. …………………………………………………………………………
2. ………………………………………...................................
b) Dicto-Comp 3. ………………………………………....................................
This kind of tests, the teacher will read a paragraph at normal 4. …………………………………………………………………………
speed, usually twice or three times; then the teacher asks the
students to rewrite what they have been read by their teacher. b) Picture description
In this test, the teacher will show a picture to the students and then
2) Grammatical transformation tasks (practical, reliable) ask them to describe the picture. For example: based on the
Even though it is an old technique in assessing writing, but it has presented picture, the test-takers are asked to describe the picture
positive side; grammatical transformation tasks are easy to administer using four of the following presentations: on. over, under, next to,
and are therefore practical, quite high in score reliability, and arguably and around.

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 to assess vocabulary are defining and using a word in a sentence. Here
is the example:
Test-takers see the following pictures

Test-takers read:
1. Write good sentence using the following
words!
A. Communicate
…………………………………………

5) Ordering Tasks
Describe the picture using four of the following
presentations: on. over, under, next to, and
c) Picture sequence description
A sequence of three to six pictures depicting a story line can
provide a suitable stimulus for written production. The picture
must be simple and unambiguous because an open-ended task at
the selective level would give test takers too many options. For
example:
Test-takers see:
In this kind of test, the teacher gives scrambled sets of words to the
students and then asks the students to reorder the scrambled sets of the
words into a correct sentence. Here are the examples:
Test-takers read:
Put the words below into the correct order to make a
sentence:
1. beautiful / tonight / my / to / the / come / will /
home / girl /
2. goes / mother / My / everyday / market / the / to /
3. a / They / song / do / sing / to / not / want /
Test- takers write:
1. ………………………………………………………

6) Short-answer and Sentence Completion Tasks

In this case, the test-takers are asked to write short-answer and
complete sentences. For examples:

Test-takers see:
1. Sukirman : ………………………………………….?
Agus : I am studying English.
2. You are in the kitchen helping your roommate
4) Vocabulary Assessment Tasks cook. You need to ask questions about quantities.
Most vocabulary study is carried out through reading. A number of Ask a question using how much (2a) and a question
assessments of reading recognition of vocabulary are multiple-choice using how many (2b), using nouns like sugar,
technique, matching, picture-cued identification, cloze techniques, pounds, flour, onions eggs, and cups.
guessing the meaning of a word in context. The major techniques used 2a. :

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c. Responsive and Extensive Writing
1) Paraphrasing
The initial step in teaching paraphrasing is to ensure that learners
understand the importance of paraphrasing: to say something in one’s
own words, to avoid plagiarizing, to offer some variety in expression.
2) Guided Question and Answer
Another lower-order task in this type of writing is a guided question
and answer format in which the test administrator poses a series of
question that essentially serve as an outline of the emergent written test.
Here is the example of this kind of test:
Guided writing stimuli
1. Where did this story take place? (setting)
2. Who are the people in the story?
(characters)
3. What happened first? and then? and then?
4. Why did ………………… do
…………………….? (reasons, causes)
5. What did…………………do……………
3) Paragraph Construction Tasks
Assessment of paragraph development takes on a number of different
forms:
a) Topic sentence writing
This tasks thereof consists of:
- specifying the writing of a topic sentence
- scoring points for its presence or absence, and
- scoring and/or commenting on its effectiveness is stating the
topic.
b) Topic development within a paragraph
Four criteria are commonly applied to assess the quality of a
paragraph:
- the clarity of expression of ideas
- the logic of the sequence and connections
- the cohesiveness or unity of the paragraph
- the overall effectiveness or impact of the paragraph as a
whole.
c) Development of main and supporting ideas across paragraphs
The elements which can be considered in evaluating this kind of
task are:
- addressing the topic, main idea, or principal purpose
- organizing and developing supporting ideas
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- using appropriate details to undergrid supporting ideas
- showing facility and fluency in the use of language
- demonstrating syntactic variety,
4) Strategic Option
Developing main and supporting ideas is the goal of the writer
attempting to create an effective text. A number of strategies are
commonly taught to second language writer to accomplish their
purposes. Aside from strategies of free-writing, outlining, drafting, and
revising, writers need to be aware of the task that has been demanded
and to focus on the genre of writing and the expectations of the genre.
a) Attending to task
- In responsive writing, the context is seldom completely open-
ended: a task has been defined by the teacher or test
administrator, and the writer must fulfill the criterion of the
task. Even in extensive writing of longer texts, a set of
directives has been stated by the teacher or is implied by the
conventions of the genre.
- Four types of tasks are commonly addressed in academic
writing courses: 1) compare/contrast, 2) problem/solution, 3)
pros/cons, and 4) cause/effect. Depending on the genre of the
text, one or more of these task types will be needed to
achieve the writer’s purpose.
- Assessment of the fulfillment of such tasks could be
formative and informal, but the product might also be
assigned a holistic or analytic score.
b) Attending to genre
Assessment of the more common genres may include the following
criteria, along with chosen factors from the list in item of main and
supporting ideas.
- Reports
- Summaries of Readings/Lecture/Videos
- Responses to Readings/ Lecture/Videos
- Narration, Descriptive, Persuasion/Argument, and Exposition
- Interpreting Statistical, Graphic, or Tabular Data
- Library Research Report
5. Scoring Methods for Responsive and Extensive Writing
Writing can be assessed in different modes, for example analytic scoring,
holistic scoring, and primary trait scoring. If evaluating the same piece of
writing, each mode of scoring should result in similar "scores," but each focuses
on a different facet of L2 writing.
a. Holistic Scoring
Holistic scoring results in a more general description for categories, but
includes the different elements of writing implicitly or explicitly. The result
is usually a global grade, such as A, B, C, D, E (see appendix 1)
The advantages and disadvantages of holistic scoring
1) Advantages
- Fast evaluation
- Relatively high inter-rater reliability
- Applicability to writing across many different disciplines
- The fact that scores tend to emphasize the writer’s strengths
(Cohen, 1994: 315)
2) Disadvantages
- One score masks differences across the sub-skill within each score
- No diagnostic information is available (no washback potential)
- The scale may not apply equally well to all genres of writing
b. Primary Trait Scoring
Primary Trait Scoring is used when the teachers focus on a particular
component of the writing but may include a secondary trait which may
receive less weight. For example, students may be asked to demonstrate the
ability to use a variety of words to describe, they may be asked to show
mastery of subject-verb agreement, or they may be rated on their ability to
organize their thoughts. With this kind of scoring, only the identified
features are assessed. The other errors are ignored.
The advantage and disadvantage of primary trait scoring
1) Advantages
The main advantage of primary trait scoring is that it focuses the
students on one particular aspect of the oral or written task.
2) Disadvantages
The advantage cited above can also be a disadvantage in that it ignores
the other elements of speaking and writing that are important to the
speaking and composing processes. Primary trait rubrics may be
especially useful for early drafts or writing-to-learn activities.
c. Analytic Scoring
In this mode, students' writing is evaluated based on detailed grades for
elements of writing such as vocabulary, grammar, composition, or
mechanics. Results are based on multiple sub-grades (e.g., 4 out of 5 on
vocabulary, plus 3 out of 5 on grammar plus 4 out of 5 on content (see
appendix 2)
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The advantages and disadvantages of analytic scoring
1) Advantages
- The instructor can give different weights to different dimensions.
This allows the instructor to give more credit for dimensions that
are more important to the overall success of the communication
task. For example, in a writing rubric, the dimension of content
might have a total point range of 30, whereas the range for
mechanics might be only 10.
- They provide more information to students about the strengths and
weaknesses of various aspects of their language performance.
2) Disadvantages
- It takes more time than holistic scoring.
- Concentration on the different aspects may divert attention from
the overall effect of the piece of writing. Inasmuch as the whole is
often greater than the sum of its parts, a composite score may be
very reliable but not valid (Hughes 1989: 93-94)
REFERENCES
Brown, H. D. 2004. Language Assessment; Principles and Classroom Practices.
United States of America: Longman.
Cohen, Andrew D. 1994. Assessing Language Ability in the Classroom (2nd Edition).
Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
Hughes, Arthur. 1989. Testing for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Mertler, C.A. 2001. Using Performance Assessment in Your Classroom.
Unpublished Manuscript: Bowling Green State University.
Nitko, A.J. 2001. Educational Assessment of Students (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Merril.
Appendix 1. A Sample of Holistic Scoring Rubric
 Holistic Rubric for Essay Questions Analytical Rubric for logs and journal writing
Response Criteria Rating Area of Product Criteria Rating
Clarity of thought, Complete. Shows regular daily entries 4
entries 90% of the time 3
understanding of all processes, reasonable daily entries
entries 80% of the time 2
Exemplary hypothesis or thoughtful questions, conclusions 11 entries less than 80% of the time 1
supportable by data, shows creativity, some
consistent, accurate usage of terms 4
graphic representation of data or concepts.
use of scientific adequate usage of scientific terms 3
Clarity of thought, shows understanding of major language occasional use with few errors 2
processes, includes good hypothesis or questions, no terms or frequent errors in usage 1
Competent 10
draws acceptable inferences and conclusions, able to apply learning 4
may have graphic representations. application to the usually finds practical application 3
Completes the assignment, but explanations may real world occasionally relates to real life skills 2
no practical application 1
be slightly ambiguous or unclear, may contain
Minor Flaws some incompleteness, inappropriateness, or 8 shows understanding of key concepts 4
unclearness in representation, hypothesis, concept usually demonstrates understanding 3
understanding inadequately demonstrates understanding 2
understanding of processes, or conclusions. poor understanding of concepts 1
Begins successfully, but omits significant parts or well organized 4
fails to complete, may misuse scientific terms, adequate organization 3
Nearly clarity of thought
representations may be incorrect or omitted, 6 limited organization 2
Satisfactory
incorrect or incomplete in analysis, inferences poor organization 1
and conclusions. (Mertler, 2001: 50)
Assignment and explanation is unclear, or major
Fails to flaws in concept mastery, incorrect use of
4
complete scientific terms, inappropriate or omitted
hypothesis.
Product does not reflect the assignment, does not
Unable to
distinguish what information is needed, restates
begin 2
the question without making an attempt at a
effectively
solution.
No attempt Does not begin assignment. 0
(Nitko, 2001:34)

Appendix 2. A Sample of Analytic Scoring Rubric