Assessing Writing
 
Genres of Writing
• Academic writing
Papers, essays, dissertations, theses, etc.
• Job-related writing
messages, formal letters, e-mails, advertisements, manuals, etc.
• Personal writing
informal letters, e-mails, greeting cards, shopping lists, etc.


Types of Writing Performance

• Imitative
• Intensive (controlled)
• Responsive
• Extensive

• Microskills of Writing – Imitative and Intensive

1. Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of English.
2. Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.
3. Produce an acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order patterns.

• Macroskills of Writing – Responsive and Extensive

1. Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse.
2. Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts according to form and purpose.
3. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing.

Imitative

This category includes the ability to spell correctly and to perceive phoneme-grapheme correspondences in the English spelling system. At this stage, form is the primary if not exclusive focus, while context and meaning are of secondary concern.

Designing Assessment Tasks
Imitative Writing

• Tasks in [Hand] Writing Letters, Words, and Punctuation

1. Copying

1. Listening cloze selection tasks

1. Picture-cued tasks