As a formative assessment procedure, self-assessment aims to converge learners' and teachers' views in assessment. Hence, reducing the perceptual mismatches between the learners' and the teachers' assessments would positively affect the learning process. For this aim, the present study investigated to what extent the learners' assessment of their writing before and after being provided with a list of rating criteria, agrees with that of their teachers. Therefore, a body of six EFL writing teachers and 27 EFL learners participated in this study. The learners were asked to rate their writing before and after receiving the rating criteria developed by the researchers. The teachers also rated the students' writings following the same criteria. The obtained results showed a significant difference between the students' scores on the first and second assessment occasions. The teachers' and the students' assessments on the second time also were found to significantly correlate. Moreover, the analysis of the students' comments showed that while they rated their writing on some limited aspects of writing in the first rating occasion, they assessed their essays using more components in the second assessment phase. Overall, the findings revealed that providing the learners with rating criteria would not only reduce the perceptual mismatches between the students' and the teachers' assessment but promote a more democratic classroom assessment. The findings of the study reduce the complexity of self-assessment practice by narrowing the perceptual gap between the students and the teachers.