Basic consideration in assessing writing

Writing as performance assessment

The term performance assessment is used to describe any assessment procedure that involves either the observation of behavior in the real world or a stimulation of a real life activity. Performance assessment thus differ from traditional paper and pencil tests in the degree to which they represent or stimulate behavior in the real world.In this sense,any writing test that involves actual writing , as opposed to completing multiple-choice items, for example, can be considered a performance test, since the written product represent a performance of writing.

In a performance test in the strong sense of the term, language ability, and more specifically, language knowledge, in Bachman and Palmer's terms, may be only partly responsible for a successful task completion, and extra-linguistic factor may compensate for weaknesses in language knowledge.

In the weak sense of performance assessment, on the other hand, the focus of the assessment is on the language used, not on the fulfillment of the task. Tasks used to elicit language may resemble real-world writing tasks, but the purpose is to display language proficiency, not the ability to persuade or apologize. In other words, the readers who score the writing are interested more in the linguistic aspects of the writing than in whether they feel persuaded or ready to forgive the writer.

Basic consideration in assessing writing

Language use and language test performance

Writing specific strategies that distinguish notice writers from expert writers ,given equivalent degrees of linguistic knowledge and general strategic competence. Bachman and Palmer point out that, in addition to language knowledge and strategic competence, actual language use in genuine communicative situations involves others considerations: specifically, topical knowledge, personality factors, and affect or emotional factors. As an example, we can return to the example of writing a letter to the editor. Accomplishing this task requires a number of factors other than language knowledge. To begin with, one would need knowledge of the subject under discussion (topical knowledge) and one would need to feel strongly enough about the topic to write about it(affect). In language test, we are primary interested in language ability, not the other components of language use that are involved in actual communication.

Basic consideration in assessing writing

There are many basic consideration in assessing writing test. First of foremost, is test purpose. In choosing or designing a writing test, the logical place to begin is by considering what we plan to use the test for. In other word, why are we interested in testing writing ability - what is our purpose? Bachman and Palmer (1996) discuss two main purposes for language tests, of which we considered writing test can be subset. The primary purpose is to make inferences about language ability, and the secondary purpose is to make decision based on those inferences. That is, since we cannot directly observe a person's language ability, we use his or her responses to test items as data from which we make inferences about the ability that underlies the test performance. These inferences are then used as data for making a variety of decisions at an individual, classroom, or program level.

For Example, let us consider three types of inferences that we can make on the basis of language test:proficiency, diagnosis, and achievement. Leaving aside for the moment a precise definition of language proficiency, we use inferences about general language proficiency to make decisions such as admission to academic programs, placement into different levels of language program,exemption from certain coursework, or selection for a particular job. Inferences about diagnosis- that is, the strengths and weaknesses of individual student - are use primarily by teachers to tailor their instruction to meet their student's needs. Inferences about achievement or the degree to which individuals or groups of students have met specific instructional goals- are use to make decisions about grading and promotion on the individual level, and about modification of instruction on the classroom level. Inferences about achievement are also used on a program-wide or even state or national levels to make decisions about curriculum and funding for programs.

GUIDED WRITING...

The objective of guided -writing test is to check students’ ability to handle controlled or directed writing tasks one way is to make certain kinds of changes in a story (text manipulation) an d to expand the outlines of an article.

Testing specialized skills

Specialized areas often evaluated in writing classes include mechanics and larger elements such as unity and organization. Mechanics covers such things as spelling, punctuation and capitalization.

An old but still acceptable way of checking spelling is to dictate problems words orally.

Changing a passage

Probably no kind of guided-writing test is used more often than that of changing a written passage. Here, it will guide the students in grammatical structures as well.

Another kind of article text is one that uses passive sentences.

Another guided-composition test begins with spoken English that need student to change this into a narrative, using direct quotations.

Building from a paragraph outline

One kind of paragraph outline used for testing writing controls the content and the grammar.

The next form guided essay test relaxes the grammar control the content of the writing but not necessarily the grammar.

We need to decide ahead of time what to evaluate such as the use of complete sentences, agreement of subject and verb, proper inflections (including tense), and basic mechanics. It is good to limit these to only a few criteria.

Alternate forms of guided-writing tests

1. The standard cloze test and the dictation are sometimes also used in a writing class

Advantages of guided writing tests:

1. Guided-writing tests are rather quick and easy to construct.
2. Because they require an active rather than a passive response guided testing techniques give the appearance of being an effective measure of writing.
3. Guided writing test provide appropriate control for those students who are not ready to write on their own.

Limitation of guided writing test:

1. Guided-writing tests do not measure ingredients such as organization found in extended writing.
2. Guided-writing of the paragraph –outline variety is often rather time consuming and difficult to grade.
3. Guided writing of the paragraph-outline variety is difficult to score with real consistency.

LIMITED RESPONSES...

Techniques for evaluating Pre-writing
There are only a few of the technique that can be employed at this stage. We can see it through the following example below that illustrates these five procedures.

1. Sentence combining, a common pre-writing task takes many forms. Combining two sentences using sentence connectors. We can also use subordinators. Combining sentences by having students make internal changes in the grammar and also requires considerable proficiency on the part of student.
2. Sentence expansion involves by simply adding words such as adjectives and adverbs or it can even require adding phrases and clauses.
3. Sentence reduction; often provides a cue word to show how to begin a new phrase.
4. Copying; make students more aware of extended discourses and also mechanics (especially punctuation and spelling). One type of copying task uses an early audio-lingual technique and also the substitution table.
5. Oral cloze; combines dictation with selected cloze using high frequency deletion. Difficult content words or grammar not covered yet can be left intact.

Techniques for evaluating Beginning writing:

There are a few procedures that can be used with beginning writes. Among the limited response techniques is the task of simply changing questions into statement, thus writing a paragraph.

Essay dictation passages can be given a material such as dialogs that students are already familiar with.

Besides that, pictures can also be used to cue the writing of short easy paragraphs for illustrations of these procedures.



Advantages of limited response items:

1. These are generally quite easy to construct.
2. These are suitable for students with limited ability in English.
3. Except for the opened-ended variety, these are rather objective for a writing-related task.
   

Limitations of limited response- items:

1. These do not measure actual writing skill.
2. These can be rather slow to correct-especially the open-ended variety.

HOW TO TEST WRITING...

There are 4 major techniques that can be used to test the writing skill:

1. LIMITED RESPONS
2. GUIDED WRITING
3. DICTATION
4. FREE WRITING

SPECIFICATION FOR WRITING TEST...

Content of specification on testing in writing


1) Operations

Expression of thanks

Requirement
Opinions
Comment
Attitude
Confirmation
Apology
Want/need
Information

Eliciting information

Directions
Service
And all areas above


Test types

Form

Letter
Postcard
Note
Forms

Type

Announcement
Description
Narration
Comment

Addressees unspecified as under topics (below)

Topics

Derived from the following as under topics:
-Shopping and using services
- visiting places of interest and entertainment
- traveling and arranging for travel
- using media for information and entertainment
- Medical attention and health

Obtaining samples that properly represent each candidate’s ability

We should set as many tasks as is feasible by recognizing that from point of view of
Validity the ideal test would be one which required candidates to perform all the relevant potential writing tasks. Besides that, we should offer candidates as many ‘fresh start’ as possible. It can help them to have fresh starts that generate their ideas. The test designers also need to give as many as different tasks as possible make the tests ideal and included the entire task. This has to be balanced against practicality; otherwise we would always include the entire potentials task. It must be remembered, that if we need to know something accurate and meaningful about person’s writing ability, then we have to prepare to pay for that information.

HOW TO WRITE WELL...

Why should I learn to write well?

Writing is important to many areas of your life. At school, you have to write reports, papers, and exams. You probably write letters to friends and relatives. At a job you may have to write memos and letters. You may buy something that does not work and want to write to the company that made it. Good writing skills can make these things easier. If you have good writing skills, readers are more likely to understand your ideas.

Can I learn to write well?

Good writing can be developed with practice, practice, and more practice. Don't give up if your writing isn't bestseller quality on the first try. You can improve your writing skills by following some simple rules for good writing, and by practicing. The more you write, the better your writing will be.

Basic Writing Skills

No matter what you are writing, you have one main concern. You want the reader to understand what you are trying to say. To do this use good grammar, correct punctuation, and neat presentation. If you need to review your grammar, your teacher can help you find a book to help you. Here are some simple rules that can make your writing clearer and easier to read.

Write complete sentences. A complete sentence is a sentence you can say to someone, and the person will understand it. You have included a subject and a verb; it is a complete thought.

Use correct punctuation. Punctuation doesn't have to be complicated. Use common sense as a guide. Sentences end with a period. Questions end with a question mark. Use exclamation points for exclamations and commands. Commas tell readers when to pause. They separate items in a list, or clauses in a sentence. If you are having trouble with punctuation, your sentence structure may be too complex. Start over and phrase what you want to say more simply.

Be clear and brief. Say exactly what you mean. Think about the words you use. Does each word add something to the sentence? Does each sentence add to your message? If not, take out the unneeded words. Stick to the point. Brief, clear writing lets you make your point faster and keep your reader interested. Brief, clear writing is usually interesting to read.

Write in a natural style. Writing, like conversation, should flow naturally. Don't try to impress your reader with long words or complex sentences. Write so that readers will understand your ideas.

Develop an ear for good writing style. Good writing is more than following rules about grammar and punctuation. To be a good writer, you need to be aware of style. You can develop this awareness for good writing style. How? Read a lot. Read about many different subjects. Read different kinds of writing _- novels and poetry, as well as nonfiction. Practice writing. The more you read and write, the better you will be at it.

Revise and rewrite. Don't expect your first draft to be perfect. Your writing can always be improved. When you write something, put it aside for at least a day. Later, when you read it again, you are likely to have a fresh point of view. You may see ways to improve it. Try to cut out extra words, make sentences shorter, and make your idea clearer. Have other people read what you have written and make suggestions. Revising should be a regular part of your writing process. Revise. Revise. Revise!

Neatness counts. Sloppy handwriting is hard to read. Your readers won't understand the point you want to make if they can't read the words. To make writing papers easier for you to do and easier for the reader to read, learn to use a word processor.

Use a word processor if you have one. It can be frustrating to carefully copy a paper over, using your neatest handwriting, only to discover you left out a word, or want to make a change. You then are left with two choices. You can copy the paper over again, or you can make the change and hand in a messy paper. The advantage of word processing is this: it is easy to make changes.

You can send a copy to the printer, read it over, then decide to make a change. It is easy to make the changes you want, then just send it to the printer again. This means that the papers you hand in can be better written. It also means you save a lot of time while you produce better work!

Writing A Paper

aper Organization and clear sentences are the most important parts of writing a good paper.

How do I start?

You can start by brainstorming. To brainstorm, simply think about your topic and write down all the ideas that come to your mind. Don't decide whether the ideas are good or bad yet. Just write them all down. Then, go through the list and think about each one. Decide which ones to include and which to leave out. Brainstorming is a good way to begin because it helps you be creative.

Organize your ideas...

Before you start to write, organize the ideas that you brainstormed. Which ideas should you keep? Which ideas should you ignore? You can help yourself organize your ideas if you write an outline. The outline can simply be some notes that tell you which ideas to write about first, second, third. It helps you decide how many paragraphs you will need to get your ideas across and what will go into each paragraph. An outline can help you put your ideas in an order that your reader will understand.

Then organize your paper

There is a simple formula you can follow which will make your writing more clear. It says that to get an idea across to your audience, you should "Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. And then tell them what you've told them." You can do this in a short essay that is three to five paragraphs long.

There are three basic parts to a paper:

1. The Introduction:

The first paragraph is called the introductory paragraph. This is where you introduce your topic. You use this first paragraph to tell your reader what the essay will be about to "tell them what you're going to tell them." Here, you should state clearly the points you are going to make in the essay. This is called the statement of purpose. It explains to the reader why you are writing the paper.

2. The Body:

The next paragraph or paragraphs give the reader the information about your topic. This is called the body of your essay. It is where you "Tell them." If you are giving the reader your opinion, you will use these paragraphs to give examples that support your argument. If you are describing something, here you will put in the details. If you are explaining a process, this is where you will give the steps to follow.

How do I organize each paragraph?

When you write a paragraph, the first sentence should inform the reader about the subject of the paragraph. The following sentences will include the details you want to include. The last sentence of the paragraph should lead the reader smoothly into the next paragraph. This is called a transition sentence.

Whether you need one paragraph, or three, or ten, depends on the topic you have chosen. It also depends on the amount of detail you want to give the reader. If your process has three steps, you may decide to use three paragraphs, one for each step. If you are describing a time period, such as a century, you may cover the century in one paragraph. Or, you might cover the first half of the century in one paragraph and the second half in another paragraph. Think about how to divide your topic before you begin to write.

3. The Conclusion

The final paragraph is your conclusion. Here you will sum up your idea. With a few short sentences. you will "tell them what you told them" in the body of your essay. Make sure that your introduction and conclusion agree. That is, make sure you have done what you said you would do in your statement of purpose. This is also the place to add any insights or final thoughts you have on the topic.

Good writing skills will help you throughout your life. It is worth spending time to develop these skills

CONTENT CATEGORIES...

The Writing Skills Placement Test helps institutions determine whether students are ready for entry-level writing courses or other courses with significant writing loads, or whether students require developmental writing instruction prior to entry into those courses.

- The test items include the following content categories:

Usage/Mechanics

a)Punctuation - the punctuation marks must be use appropriately with their function.
b)Basic grammar and usage - student should be aware of tenses and others grammatical usage.
c)Sentence structure - the sentence must be well structure.

Rhetorical Skills

a)Strategy - how the student generate the ideas using a various strategy.
b)Organization - the essay should be manageble.
c)Style - student should apply an apprropriate writing style or approaches that show their crediblity in writing the essay.

WHAT IS TESTING WRITING...

TESTING WRITING is when a writing test is used as a tool to measure the ability skills in writing. The test also as an instrument for language teacher to measure students ability to write in English. The purpose of writing test is also to discover students creativity, imaginative, or even intelligent, have wide general knowledge, or have good reasons for the opinions they happen to hold.

During the early stages of learning, written exercises will generally be used simply to reinforce the learning specific grammatical points or lexical item, only later will be treated as a medium that involves the abilities and creative way in expressing idea on written form.

Although the writing process has been analyzed in many different ways, most teachers would probably agree in recognizing at least the five general components. They are:

1. Content: the substance of writing; the idea expressed.
2. Form: the organization of the content.
3. Grammar: the employment of grammatical forms and syntactic pattern.
4. Style: the choice of structures and lexical items to give a particular tone or flavour to the writing
5. Mechanics: the use of the graphic conventions of the language.

To sum up, we can see the above characteristics show that the writing process, as commonly conceived is a highly sophisticated skill combining a number of diverse elements, only some of which are strictly linguistic.

WHAT IS MEANT BY WRITING...

5 DEFINITIONS OF WRITING

1. Writing is a process as well as a product. The final text is only the end result, and how you get there is just as important as where you end up. Good writers are good, not because they sit down and write effortlessly, turning out beautiful sentences without sweat. They are good because they believe that eventually, after lots of work and time and discarded drafts, they will come up with something worth a reader's attention.

2. Writing is discovery. You do not write because you know what you think; you write to find out what you think. And the more you write and re-write, the clearer and more interesting your thinking becomes.

3. Writing is social. You may feel that you have to be alone to write, and this may be physically true. But your writing is saturated with the presence of others: your society, your culture, and your readers. Writing is not complete until it has reached, physically and intellectually, the audience for whom it was intended. As Ezra Pound put it, writing means that "You not only get a thing off your own chest, but you get it into someone else's." Your enrollment in a composition course makes you an important contributing member of a supportive, committed writing community.

4. Writing is self-taught. You learn to write by doing it, not by listening to somebody tell you about it. In this way it is like learning to ride a bike: although it helps to have someone hold the handlebars the first few times, the best way to get good at it is to ride every day.

5. Writing is a series of choices. Most people who fear writing see it as a confusing maze of rules they are in danger of breaking: rules like "Never begin a sentence with 'And,'" "Don't use 'I' in formal writing," "Write complete sentences, not fragments." But if writing were only a set of rules, learning to write effectively would be as easy as mastering the multiplication tables. Effective writers don't just follow rules--they also make choices, after thinking long and hard about the consequences of those choices. And that is why good writing is always interesting.

AN OVERVIEW...

Hello every one! Thank you and welcome to this blog; testing writing . We welcome all the writing test makers, teachers, and every one whom involve in the world of test designing especially in writing test. This blog can give some information on the testing of writing skill in the Teaching of English as Second Language. We hope that it will assists those who are already involved and also to those who are interested in test designing especially writing test.

"the good test is an obedient servant since it follow and apes the teaching"

Davies (1968:5)

BLOG DESIGNERS:

1. AMAR SHAUFY B. ABDULLAH (A 112970)

2. NOOR HAZWANI BT. HASSAN (A 112005)