This book helps educators improve students' ability to write clear, coherent essays in response to on-demand writing prompts. While it focuses on students' abilities to succeed at on-demand writing, it also promotes the teaching of writing as an expression of art and self. For grades 4-12, it provides examples of responses to narrative and…

The phenomenon of overused adjectives by non-native speaking learners (NNS) has been pinpointed by recent research. This study designed five online units for increasing students' awareness of underused specific adjectives for EFL college writing. Five units were developed for five identified overused adjectives: "important", "beautiful", "hard",…

The amount of variability contributed to large-scale performance assessment scores by raters is a constant concern for those who wish to use results from these assessments for educational decisions. This study approaches the problem by examining the behaviors of essay scorers who demonstrate different levels of proficiency with a holistic scoring…

The summary information in this report provides teachers, school administrators, students, and the general public in Alberta, Canada with an overview of results from the January 1997 administration of the English 30 Diploma Examination. The information in the report is most helpful when used in conjunction with the detailed school and jurisdiction…

A study examined students' reactions to a writing placement test. Subjects, 98 fall 1992 freshmen at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, completed a questionnaire. Results indicated that: (1) only 24% liked the assigned writing topic; (2) 97% found the statement of the topic clear and understandable; (3) 77% were comfortable with the one hour…

Samples of student writing from the Alberta (Canada) 9th grade achievement test in writing (administered in June 1990) are presented with evaluative commentaries. They are intended to offer teachers, administrators, and students illustration of the criteria and approach used to score the exam. The exam is one part of a two-part standardized test…

GED "Scoreboost" materials target exactly the skills one needs to pass the General Educational Development (GED) tests. This book focuses on the multiple choice portion of the GED writing test. The workbook targets topics directly on the multiple-choice section of the GED Language Arts, Writing Test. These include sentence structure,…

This document contains released reading comprehension passages, test items, and writing prompts from the Colorado Student Assessment Program for 2001. The sample questions and prompts are included without answers or examples of student responses. Test materials are included for: (1) Grade 4 Reading and Writing; (2) Grade 4 Lectura y Escritura…

A study was conducted to investigate the stability of rater severity over an extended rating period. Multifaceted Rasch analysis was applied to ratings of writing performances of 8,285 primary school (elementary) students. Each performance was rated on two performance dimensions by two trained raters over a period of 7 rating days. Performances…

This report compares students' scores on the 2000 Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) writing assessment with the writing scores of their counterparts in 1998 and 1999. In addition, the results of a writing study are discussed briefly. Delaware students in grades 3, 5, 8, and 10 took the 2000 DSTP writing assessment, responding to a text-based…

This document includes a booklet and presentation guide. The booklet contains the anchor papers used to score the 2001 Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) in writing, grade 7. Anchor papers are concrete examples that illustrate the intent of the scoring guides. The papers in the booklet exemplify the full range of score points…

Beginning in 1999, an analytical writing measure was offered as an optional test in the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) program. This test will be incorporated into the GRE General Test in fall 2002. The essays in this test focus on critical reasoning and analytical writing skills. This study examined the performance of various examinee groups…

This paper describes the intentions of educators and policymakers who implemented a new assessment strategy in Kentucky in 1991, along with its associated shortcomings and one notable success. The principle behind the assessment system was that rather than having an on-demand assessment that would inefficiently replicate the information that was…

The essay on the writing section of the SAT will be scored using a holistic approach. In holistic scoring, a piece of writing is considered as a total piece of work--the whole of which is greater than the sum of its parts.

The drafts produced by 2 groups of college students, a total of 1,089, during an examination in cognitive psychology were analyzed. Results show that only a limited number of students used an efficient (organized) drafting strategy, even though this is generally associated with the highest examination scores. (SLD)