Testing Writing

 The best way to test people’s writing ability is to get

them to write.
 Indirect writing is not suggested, even by the
professional testing institutions.
 The first step is to state the testing problem.
1. Set writing tasks that are properly representative of the
population of tasks that we should expect the students
to be able to perform.
2. The tasks should elicit valid samples of writing (which
truly represent the students’ ability)
3. The sample of writing will be scored validly and
reliably.
 Testing Writing
 Based on the problem statement of writing test,
three areas should be given concentration:
1. Representative Tasks
2. Eliciting a Valid Sample of Writing Ability
3. Ensure Valid and Reliable Scoring
 Testing Writing
 Representative Tasks:
1. Specify all possible content – operations, types of
text, addressees of texts, topics, dialect and length
of texts.
2. Include a representative sample of the specified
content.
 Testing Writing

 Elicit a Valid Sample of Writing Ability:

1. Set as many separate tasks as is feasible
2. Test only writing ability, and nothing else
3. Restrict candidates
 Testing Writing
 Ensure Valid and Reliable Scoring:
1. Set tasks which can be reliably scored
2. Set as many tasks as possible
3. Restrict candidate
4. Give no choice of tasks
5. Ensure long enough samples
6. Create appropriate scales for scoring
7. Holistic scoring
8. Analytic scoring