The Literature of Direct Writing Assessment: Major Concerns and Prevailing Trends

This article attempts to describe the condition of direct writing assessment literature. Instead of focusing on a particular assessment concept, issue or methodology, this review reflects the concerns evident within the bulk of work done on writing assessment since its adoption during the last fifteen years. The purpose of this work is to provide an overall sense of how assessment research defines the important issues and creates the trends that seek to inform efficient and accurate writing assessment procedures. Focusing on topic selection and task development, the relationship between textual features and quality ratings, and the influences upon raters’ judgments of writing quality, this essay presents direct writing assessment’s own preoccupations and concerns. The center of attention is not only on how direct evaluation has progressed but where it is heading. This large picture of direct writing assessment, available through an examination of its literature, is important to an understanding of direct writing assessment as the primary instrument in making decisions about the quality of student writing.