assessing writing

ASSESSING WRITINGby

Bob SeptianAsrori MardianM. ZuhriHesti IstantiHernandika P.

Overview of Assessing Writing Genre of Written LanguageMicro & Macroskill of WritingTypes of Writing Performance

1. Academic writing- Papers and general subject report

- Essays, compositions

- Academically focused journals

- Short-answer test responses

- Technical reports (e.g. lab reports)

- Theses, disertations

Genre of Written Language

2. Job-related writing- Messages (e.g., phone messages)

- Letters/emails

- Memos (e.g., interoffice)

- Reports (e.g., job evaluations, project reports)

- Schedules, labels, signs

- Advertisement, announcements

- manuals

Genre of Written Language

3. Personal writing- letters, emails, greeting cards, invitations

- Messages, notes

- Calendar entries, shopping lists, reminders

- Financial documents (e.g., checks, tax forms, loan application)

- Forms, questionnaires, medical reports, immigration document, diaries, personal journals

- Fiction (e.g., short stories, poetry)

Genre of Written Language

Microskills1. Produce grapheme and orthographic

pattern

2. Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed

3. Produce an acceptable core of words

4. Use acceptable grammatical system

5. Express a particular meaning

6. Use cohesive device in written discourse

Micro & Macroskill of Writing

Macroskills1. Use rhetorical forms and conventions

2. Appropriately accomplish the communication functions of written text

3. Convey links and connection between events, and communicate relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification.

4. Distinguish between literal and implied meaning

Macroskills5. Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the written text

6. Develop and use a battery of writing strategies.

1. Imitative

2. Intensive

3. Responsive

4. extensive

Types of Writing Performance

Designing Assessment Tasks: Imitative Writing

A. Tasks in (Hand) Writing Letters, Words, and Punctuation

1. Copying

Brown, 2004, p. 222

A. Tasks in (Hand) Writing Letters, Words, and Punctuation

2. Listening Cloze Test

Brown, 2004, p. 222

A. Tasks in (Hand) Writing Letters, Words, and Punctuation

3. Picture Cued Tasks

Wardiman et al., 2008, p. 30

A. Tasks in (Hand) Writing Letters, Words, and Punctuation4. Form Completion Tasks

Wardiman et al., 2008, p. 13

A. Tasks in (Hand) Writing Letters, Words, and Punctuation5. Converting numbers to words

Brown, 2004, p. 223

B. Spelling Tasks and Detecting Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences1. Spelling Tests

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 word. Scoring emphasizes correct spelling.

B. Spelling Tasks and Detecting Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences2. Picture-cued Tasks

Pictures are displayed with the objective of focusing on familiar words whose spelling may be unpredictable.

B. Spelling Tasks and Detecting Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences3. Multiple-choice

Brown, 2004, p. 224

B. Spelling Tasks and Detecting Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences4. Matching Phonetic Symbol

Ardini, 2013, p. 5

Designing Assessment Tasks: Intensive Writing

1. Dictation and Dicto-Comp

Dictation is simply the rendition in writing of what one hears aurally, so it could be classified as an imitative type of writing, especially since a proportion of the test-taker’s performance centers on correct spelling.

1. Dictation and Dicto-Comp

Dicto-comp is a test in which a paragraph is read at normal speed, usually two or three times, then teacher asks students to rewrite the paragraph from the best of their recollection.

2. Grammatical Transformation Tasks

Azar, 1993, p. 242

3. Picture Cued Tasksa. Short sentence

Brown, 2002, p. 227

3. Picture Cued Tasksb. Picture Description

A somewhat more complex picture may be presented. Test-takers are asked to describe the picture using four of the following prepositions: on, over, under, next to, around.

3. Picture Cued Tasksb. Picture Description

Brown, 2002, p. 192

3. Picture Cued Tasksc. Picture sequence description

Gunawan et al., 2013, p. 37

Scoring Scale for Controlled Writing

2 Grammatically and Lexically Correct

1 Either Grammar or Vocabulary is correct, but not both

0 Both Grammar and Vocabulary are incorrect

4. Vocabulary Assessment Task

Read (2002) suggested several types of items for assessment of basic knowledge of the meaning of a word, collocational possibilities, and derived morphological forms.

4. Vocabulary Assessment Task

Kusumawardhani et al., 2012, p. 30

5. Ordering Task

Brown, 2004, p. 230

6. Short Answer and Sentence Completion Task

Brown, 2004, p. 231

Designing Assessment Tasks: Responsive and Extensive Writing

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.

1. Paraphrasing

…test administrator poses a series of questions that essentially serve as an outline of the emergent format written text (Brown:2004).

Example : In the writing of a narrative that the teacher has already covered in class discussion, the following kinds of questions might be posed to stimulate a sequence of sentence

2. Guided Question and Answer

Assessment of paragraph development takes on a number of different forms:

1. Topic sentence writing

2. Topic development within a paragraph.

3. Development of main and supporting ideas across paragraphs.

3. Paragraph Construction Task

TEST OF WRITING ENGLISH (TWE)

TWE is one of a number of internationally available standardized of writing ability. It was established in 1986. In 1998, a computer-delivered version of TWE was incorporated into the standard computer-based TOEFL and simply labelled as the “writing” section of the TOEFL.

Definition

The TWE is in the category of a timed impromptu test in that test-takers are under 30-minute time limit and are not able to prepare ahead of time for the topic that will appear.

Definition

Example

Brown, 2004, p. 237

SCORING METHODS FOR RESPONSIVE AND EXTENSIVE WRITING

Each point on a holistic scale is given systematic set of descriptors to arrive score.

Holistic Scoring

Weigle, 2002, p. 113

Primary trait scoring focuses on “how well students write within a narrowly defined range of discourse (e. g. persuasion or explanation) (Weigle, 2002, p. 110).

Primary Trait Scoring

Weigle, 2002, p. 111

In analytic scoring, scripts are rated on several aspects of writing or criteria rather than given a single score. Depending on the purpose of the assessment, scripts might be rated on such features as content, organization, cohesion, register, vocabulary, grammar, or mechanics.

Weigle, 2002, p. 114

Analytic Scoring

ExampleAnalytic Scoring

Weigle, 2002, p. 116

Ardini, Sukma Nur. 2013. English Phonetic. Semarang.

Azar, Betty Schrampfer. 1992. Understanding and Using English Grammar. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Brown, H. Douglas. 2004. Language Assessment: Principles and Language Practices. New York: Pearson Education, Inc.

Kusumawardhani, Ratna et al. 2012. A Handbook of Lexical Studies 1. Semarang: IKIP PGRI Semarang Press.

Weigle, Sara Cushing. 2002. Assessing Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bibliography