This report is designed for educators who are involved in teaching, developing, or evaluating curriculum in Florida's high schools. It describes the content and application of Florida's 10th grade writing test, and it offers suggestions that might be helpful in preparing students for the assessment. The 1990 Florida legislature mandated the assessment of student writing at grades 4, 8, and 10. Within each classroom, students are randomly assigned one of two writing prompts. Tenth graders respond to a prompt that asks them to explain something (expository writing) or persuade (persuasive writing). Students are asked to plan their responses and write them within 45 minutes. The report is divided into these sections: (1) "What Is Effective Writing?"; (2) "The Florida Writing Assessment Program"; (3) "Scoring Method and Rubric Used in 1999"; (4) "Expository Responses from the 1999 Assessment"; and (5) "Persuasive Responses from the 1999 Assessment." The expository and persuasive responses contain actual samples of student essays from the test. Eight appendixes contain supplemental information about the assessment and 43 recommended readings for educators. (SLD)