Olinghouse Writing Assessment Resource Handouts

Score = 2 Responses in this range demonstrate marginal skill in responding to the writing task.Elements are sometimes controlled but provide weak support for the writer’s purpose, audience,and form.• The response provides a little explanation of the subject.• A balance between broad assertions and general and specific examples may not be evident. Ifdetails and examples are present, they are brief, general, or inadequately developed, and they maynot be clearly relevant to the explanation. There may be minimal evidence of relevant approachesto the development of ideas.• Some ideas may not be clearly focused on the topic. The response shows an attempt to organizethoughts by grouping ideas, and there may be minimal evidence of approaches to organization.However, relationships among ideas are often illogical or unclear.• Sentence structure is sometimes correct, but there is little, if any, sentence variety. Word choice israrely specific and does little to support the clarity of the explanation. Voice and tone show littleunderstanding of what is appropriate for the writer’s purpose and audience.• Grammar, usage, and mechanics are usually correct but with many distracting errors that impedeunderstanding.Score = 1 Responses in this range demonstrate little or no skill in responding to the writing task.Elements are seldom controlled and provide almost no support for the writer’s purpose, audience,and form.• The response may provide little or no explanation of the subject.• If any details or examples are present, they are brief, general, undeveloped, or not relevant to theexplanation.• The response shows an attempt to organize thoughts by grouping ideas, but groupings areillogical and there is little or no evidence of relevant approaches to organization. Relationshipsamong ideas are mostly unclear.• Sentence structure is often incorrect; word choice is often unclear and inappropriate; and there islittle or no control of appropriate voice and tone.• Grammar, usage, and mechanics are sometimes correct but with frequent distracting errors thatoften impede understanding.• The response may be too brief to support a sound judgment about the development of ideas,organization, or language facility and conventions.Score = 0 Unscorable: Response is too brief to score; not written in English; off topic; orillegible.