Assessment

SWC Assessment

Evaluation of student writing includes quantitative assessment (grades) and qualitative response (comments). Both are crucial in SWC courses, where each student must "receive a timely and detailed critique following each writing activity concerning the quality of the student's written expression and ways in which the paper can be improved."

Writing teachers often refrain from assigning quantitative grades until the final draft of a paper is turned in. This is because many students virtually ignore any qualitative comments on a draft that also has a grade on it. Quantitative grades on early drafts can inhibit the revision process and lower the quality of the finished work.

One excellent means of avoiding this problem is to use portfolio grading, an increasingly popular method that works especially well in the context of the writing classroom. The Learning Record model is especially popular at UT, and Dr. Peg Syverson's very informative Learning Record Online site provides virtually all the information instructors need to investigate and implement this evaluation method in the classroom.

In addition to evaluating student papers, you will want to use the seven-question Course Instructor Survey SWC form (PDF, 45K) to assess student response to the entire course. This new form, available from Measurement and Evaluation in the fall semester 2005, was developed by the College of Liberal Arts Writing Committee.