Writing for the Here and Now: An Approach to Assessing Student Writing

Evaluating student compositions has presented a problem for teachers of English ever since writing became a regular part of high school English curricula in the nineteenth century. Too often, evaluation programs are "future-directed," aiming solely at the improvement of overt writing skills, rather than at helping students find satisfaction with their writing at the present time. A five-step program is sketched for assessing student writing. It is intended to improve writing skills and it also provides ample provisions for instruction in basic skill areas. Beginning with an assessment of the writer's "voice" in the paper, the procedure emphasizes providing a prompt, "humane" response to student writing, helping students find appropriate audiences for their work, adjusting corrections in mechanical errors to the specific audience which the student has in mind, and isolating routine proofreading skills from more sophisticated revision skills.