Impoving writing assessment

Improving The Writing Skills of Social Work Students by Catherine Alter and Carl Adkins explores how Social Work students are falling behind with writing performance, rhetorical skill in narrative writing and rhetorical skills in persuasive writing. The test subjects were graded based on the following: spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and omission.  While I can see the need to grade students based on these criteria, there are also more important criteria that are not being addressed, such as organization, thesis development and audience recognition. Perhaps if some of the Higher Order Concerns were addressed the root of the problem could be addressed more efficiently. While I can see the need to focus on spelling and punctuation I don’t think they are the most important element of writing and likewise they do not accurately depict one’s higher understanding of writing. I feel for the students who are labeled “not proficient” because of this test. Even if their skills were not up to the standard, rating them based on a standardized test is not the most fair or accurate way to assess their skills.