Evaluating Writing

General Resources | Grading Methods and Criteria | Alternatives to Grading

This section provides resources for evaluating the quality of student writing--i.e., methods and approaches for assessment and grading. See the Responding to Writing section for resources related to commenting and responding to student writing.

Writing Assessment: A Position Statement
Conference on College Composition and Communication

Resolution on Grading Student Writers
NCTE Position Statement

Peter Elbow, "Grading Student Writing: Making it Simpler, Faster, Clearer"
New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 69 (Spring 1997)

Responding and Evaluating
Univ. of Kansas Writing Center

Responding & Grading
Univ. of Minnesota Center for Writing

Provides various resources on "Approaches to Response" and "Approaches to Grading," as well as samples of responding activities and handouts, and samples of grading activities and tools.

Some Tuesdays: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Student Writing
Western Washington Univ., C. Werder

Suggestions for "ways to grade writing with less anguish, pain, and time."

HTML version of an MS Word document available via download on this webpage.

"Pruning Too Early: The Thorny Issue of Grading Student Writing"
Stephanie Wilder, National Writing Project (NWP), The Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 4, Fall 1997

Link to download the PDF of the article on this webpage.

Grading Student Writing
UCLA Office of Instructional Development, Teach 2 Write: A Guide for Teaching Writing

Tchudi, Stephen, ed. Alternatives to Grading Student Writing. NCTE

"This collection of essays offers several innovative options for introducing grading alternatives in classrooms, schools, and districts."

Sample chapter and Table of Contents available as PDFs on this webpage.