Assessing Written Production

Abstract

Assessing writing production is a fundamental part of language teaching and writing instruction. Approaches to performance assessment range from written feedback, rubric and scale use, measures of textual features, and automated scoring. Research has considered each of these in relation to writing ability and in their strength for consistently and accurately assessing writing. Deciding how to assess writing production should be guided by purposes as well as the usefulness and meaningfulness of the resulting information for students, teachers, and other stakeholders.