In 1986, we reported to readers of this journal on our efforts to develop a content-fair essay prompt or topic for Florida's College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST), a test all students in the State's public colleges must take to attain junior standing. The topic format we developed is a brief noun phrase consisting of a class name and two qualifying attributes. Students are asked to choose as the subject of their essay an exemplar of the named and qualified class. Examinees are given two topics to choose between and are instructed simply that they have 50 minutes to write on one of the topics. Typical topics are of this sort:
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Hoetker et al. (1989) studied this question.
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