Diagnosing from the Written Product

Table 1 For Teacher and Peer Assessment

The Goals of the Writer
The questions try to find out if the writer is writing with a communicative purpose. Poor
performance in this part of the process is signalled by the lack of a cohesive purpose.
Does the piece of writing have a clear goal, such as presenting a
balanced picture of a situation, or convincing the reader of a point of
view, or providing a clear description of a situation?
Has the writer clearly stated the goal and is this statement a true
reflection of what the piece of writing does?
A Model of the Reader
These questions try to find out if the writer has a clear and consistent picture of who he or
she is writing for. Poor performance in this part of the process is signalled by inconsistent
style, lack of detail where the reader needs it and too much information where the reader
already knows it.
Is the degree of formality or informality consistent throughout the
piece of writing?
Is the amount of detail suited to the knowledge that the reader will
bring to the text?
If the writing is based on a set question, does the degree of formality in
the writing match the level of formality in the question?
Gathering Ideas
These questions try to find out if the writer has included enough ideas in the piece of
writing. Poor performance in this part of the process is the result of not having enough to
say.
Does the piece of writing contain plenty of relevant, interesting ideas?
Does the range of ideas provide a suitably complete coverage of the
parts of the topic?
Does the piece of writing draw on a range of sources of information,
for example personal opinion or experience, information gathered
from reading, or original data?
Organising Ideas
These questions try to find out if the piece of writing is well organised. Poor performance in
this part of the process results in a piece of writing that is difficult to follow, that does not
try to grab the reader’s attention, and that is annoyingly unpredictable.
Are there clear parts to the piece of writing?
Are these parts arranged in a way that is logical and interesting?
Are the parts clearly signalled through the use of sub-headings or
promises to the reader?
Would it be easy to add sensible, well-sequenced sub-headings to the
piece of writing?
Ideas to Text
These questions try to find out if the writer is able to express his or her ideas fluently and
clearly. Poor performance in this part of the process is signalled by a short piece of writing,
poorly expressed sentences, a large number of spelling, grammar and vocabulary errors,
and a poorly connected piece of writing.
How much was written in the time allowed?
Are the ideas well expressed and easy to follow?
Are the parts of the piece of writing clearly signalled?
Is the writing largely error free?
Reviewing
These questions try to find out if the text has gone through several drafts and if the writer
has looked critically at all parts of the text and writing process. Poor performance in this
part of the process is signalled by a poorly organised and poorly presented text.
If the teacher has seen previous drafts of the text, does the present
one represent an improvement over the previous drafts?
In what aspects are there improvements? In what aspects are there no
real improvements?
Is the text clear, well organised and well presented?
Editing
These questions try to find out if the writer can systematically make corrections and
improvements to the text. Poor performance in this part of the process is signalled by the
failure to respond to feedback, repeated errors, careless errors, references in the text not in
the list of references, and inconsistencies in the list of references.

Are there signs of self-correction?

Is the text free of spelling errors, including those that a spellchecker
would not find (e.g. form-from)?
Is the text well formatted and consistently formatted?