Saturday, January 4, 2020

Assessing Writing

Grading a piece of writing isn’t an easy task for examiners. Graders usually follow a holistic approach when grading a composition. In other words, they read through the writing test with a careful eye on content, language, and form and then decide on the overall grade/mark. This approach is easy and economical in terms of time and effort, but it isn’t without its drawbacks. It’s not accurate and the grade might sometimes be affected by the teacher’s attitude towards their students and their performance over the course. 

To avoid being biased, teachers should exchange their students’ exam papers and use writing criteria, which include scales from exemplary to limited performance. Several writing books include a writing rubric to be used by teachers in the assessment stage. An efficient rubric shows examples of good and limited writing outcomes with marks for each part. The teacher/grader could follow the rubric as a guide when grading. 

My advice is to attach a copy of the rubric with each test with marks on both and give them to the examinees. When teachers return their students’ graded writing tests, they can explain the given mark according to the rubric. So students check what went well and wrong with their writing. Even better, students should use the rubric themselves when writing a composition during the course to familiarize themselves with the features of a successful piece of writing.
Here is the writing rubric used to assess the IELTS writing exam, task two.