ENG 101: Effective Writing I
Fall 2008

Assessment: Self-Assessment, Peer Response, and Grading

When I ask students, "How do you know whether a piece of writing you've done is good?" many of them tell me that they don't know until they receive a grade from the teacher. I hope that you don't feel that way.  I hope that you know, when you finish a piece of writing, whether it's good or not. But if you don't, I hope that by the time you finish Effective Writing I, you will feel much more confident about your ability to evaluate your own and other people's writing.

There are several components, besides grading, involved in assessment in this course. You will do a lot of self-assessment throughout the semester, beginning with some reflection and a couple of "pre-tests" (tests that you take before you've learned about a subject, to find out how much you already know), along with some personal goal-setting for the course. Throughout the semester, every couple of weeks you will write a short reflection over the weekend about what you've learned about writing in the preceding couple of weeks. You'll also take a quiz every couple of weeks, a quiz that I will score, on the same topics.

Of course, what really matters is how your writing improves.  Any number of As on multiple-choice quizzes will not really say anything about your writing--unless you are applying what you are learning by incorporating it in your essays.  At the beginning of the semester, you write an in-class essay (that all students taking ENG 101 write), and then you write another in-class essay at the end of the semester.  It is scored according to a rubric shared by all the ENG 101 professors.  One of the factors in your final grade for this class is your improvement in writing under these timed conditions.

Most of the focus of the course, however, is on writing essays outside of class, giving and receiving peer feedback on drafts, revising, and receiving feedback from me. The comments about your writing, especially on your improvement as you revise, will help you develop a stronger sense of what is good in your writing and what still needs improvement. To help you keep thinking about this, I will ask you to complete a self-assessment nearly every time you turn in an essay.

I hope that all of these components of assessment--not just my grade--will help you become a more self-aware, self-critical writer.

Return to ENG 101 Welcome Page.

Updated by Dr. Trupe Sept. 3, 2008