Education culture

1. Practicing Evaluating Students Writing
Using Parameters:
Productivity, Correctness, Complexity,
Text Organization and Literary Richness
V.Sudhakar
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2. Evaluating students’ writing
Different types of writing require different skills,
you’ll need to carefully consider your evaluation
criteria. Once you’ve decided on your approach, put it
into action and provide some constructive feedback
that the writer can use to improve their skills.
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3. Evaluating students’ writing
 Assess the writer’s background.
 Target your evaluation to the writer’s experience
level.
 Keep your assignments relevant to the writer’s
needs or the skills you're improving
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4. Determine your assessment criteria
There are many different types of writing skills, so you will need to select
a few to focus on. Decide exactly which skills you want to evaluate, since
this will determine the nature of the assignment and how you evaluate
it. For example, you might focus on:
 The use of proper writing conventions, such as good spelling,
grammar, syntax, capitalization, and punctuation.
 The writer’s mastery of written vocabulary.
 The clarity and fluency with which the writer presents their
arguments.
 The use of clear and logical structure within the text.
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5. Create a scoring rubric
A rubric is a way of quantifying whatever it is you are trying to evaluate.
This might involve assigning a letter grade based on your overall
impression of the work (a holistic rubric) or giving points based on the
degree to which the work meets specific criteria (an analytic rubric).
Rubrics allow you to score students with different needs and backgrounds
using a different scale. Consider the writer's background and current skill
level when creating your rubric so you can differentiate your evaluation
process. For example, an ESL student will have a different rubric than a
native speaker who is also an honor student.
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6. Create Rubric
 If you’re not sure where to start, do an online search for
example writing rubrics. This site offers a variety of rubric
templates:
 A holistic rubric might assign a letter grade based on the
overall clarity, organization, and technical proficiency of the
writing. For example, you might say, “An ‘A’ paper will
present the main argument clearly and support it with specific
facts. It will also be free of grammatical and spelling errors.”
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7. Analytic Rubric
 In an analytic rubric, you will need to develop a numerical
scoring system for the different criteria you will be looking at.
For example, you might subtract 1 point for every grammatical
error, or assign a range of points (0-10) for organization,
fluency, or the degree to which the writing addresses the
assignment topic.
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8. LANGUAGE PRODUCTION
WHAT IS PSYCHOLINGUISTICS?
Psycholinguistics investigates the mental mechanisms underlying
language processing. (Cognitive) How to perceive words and
store them in the mind, how to understand a sentence, how to
learn to read, how language and writing systems influence mental
organizations.
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9. Psycholinguistics
two Aspects:
Language Comprehension –how we understand the
meaning of words and sentences (receptive process)
Language Production –how we speak and use language
(productive process)
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10. LANGUAGE PRODUCTION
Language production is a process from idea generation
to language expression.
It is a mental process that is heavily influenced by
language users’ culture.
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11. Language production
First, we must conceptualize what we wish to communicate;
Second, we formulate this thought into a linguistic plan;
Third, we execute the plan through the muscles in the speech system;
Finally, we monitor ore speech, assessing whether it is what we intended
to say and whether we said it the way we intended to.
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12. Language Production
Language production is the production of spoken or
written language. It describes all of the stages
between having a concept, and translating that
concept into linguistic form.
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13. Stages of Language Production
1. Conceptualization
2. Formulation
3. Articulation
4. Self Monitoring
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14. Conceptualization
According to David McNeil, conceptualized is the
very beginning of spoken utterance. There are 2
concurrent and parallel modes of thought:
1. Syntactic thinking
2. Imagistic thinking
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15. Formulation
Grammatical encoding
Morphological encoding
Phonetic encoding
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16. Articulation
Articulation is the term used for all actions of the
organs of the vocal tract that effect modifications of
the signal generated by the voice source.
According to Laver (1994:131-152), there are three
general aspects of articulaion:
• Confirmational • Topographical • Transitional
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17. Articulation……
Articulation of speech sounds is the third and a very important stage of
production. Once we have organized our thoughts into a linguistic plan,
this information must be sent from the brain to the muscles in the speech
system so that they can then execute the required movements and
produce the desired sounds.
We depend on vocal organs to produce speech sounds so as to express
ourselves. In the production of speech sounds, the lungs, larynx and lips
may work at the same time and thus form co-articulation.
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18. Articulation….
The process of speech production is so complicated
that it is still a mystery in psycholinguistics though
psycholinguists have done some research with high-
tech instruments and have known much about speech
articulation.
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19. Self Monitoring
Production process sometime goes awry and speaker will verbally
misstep, especially with irregular or more unusual form.
Example:
(1) The last i knowed about it (i mean knew about it), he had left
Vancouver.
(2) She was so drank (i mean drunk), that we decided to drive her
home.
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20. S.Pit Corder, a pioneer in the field of Second Language
Acquisition (SLA) classified these slips of the tongue and
the pen as mistakes.
Mistake are production problems, they are troubles you
have with your linguistic printer, not with the original
software.
Errors are committed only by non-native speakers (NNSs)
according to Corder.
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21. Speech Errors
Speech errors are made by speakers unintentionally.
They are very common and occur in everyday speaking.
In formulation speech, we are often influenced by the sound system of
language. For example, big and fat--- pig fat; fill the pool---fool the pill.
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22. slips of the tongue or tongue-slips
The scientific study of speech errors, commonly called
slips of the tongue or tongue-slips, can provide useful
clues to the processes of language production: they can
tell us where a speaker stops to think.
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23. An outstanding hypothesis concerning the
basis for such errors
An outstanding hypothesis concerning the basis for such
errors has been Freud’s view that errors occur because
we have more than a single plan for production and that
one such plan competes with and dominates the other
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24. The most common interpretation
The most common interpretation is that we produce speech
through a series of separate stages, each devoted to a single
level of linguistic analysis.
Errors typically occur at one level, but not others, during the
production processes. This is the so-called spoonerisms,
named after Dr. Spooner, who was known to have made a
good many such errors.
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There are three insights into the production process:
1. It demonstrates that speakers are constantly self-editing.
2. It suggests that speakers are intuitively sensitive to what stage of
production process went awry, if indeed a mistake was made.
3. There is a distinction between performance and competence.

26. The attested presence of a self-monitoring stage
presumes that
- people don’t just communicate with others,
- they communicate with themselves,
- they don’t just listen to others,
- they listen to themselves.
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27. Self-Regulation
Self-regulation is the last stage o f speech production. To err
is human. No matter who he is, he would make mistakes in
conversation or in writing. So each person would do some
self-correction over and over again while conversing
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28. Deep understanding of the production
process
Errors are committed only by non-native speakers, but
not by native speakers. Native speakers often make
“mistakes” and correct themselves immediately, which
gives us deep understanding of the production process.
Firstly, the production is not one-way transmission of
messages. Speakers or writers self-regulate constantly
so as to ensure each previous stage is accurate.
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29. Deep understanding of the production
process
Secondly, speakers or writers are sensitive to mistakes they make.
So at the sight of mistakes they are capable of readjusting
messages at the stages of conceptualization, formulation, or
articulation quickly.
Lastly, the fact that native speakers can monitor and correct
mistakes immediately in production proves Chomsky’s idea that
there are some differences between performance and competence.
Competence monitors performance to ensure the production is
accurate.
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30. Native speakers often use different ways to
edit their linguistic peformance
Firstly, at the very beginning or the conceptualization stage of the
speech, when they find their speech inappropriate, they would
start the utterance all over again.
Secondly, at the formulation stage or articulation stage, speakers
would not like to start afresh, but renew the sentence in part from
the point.
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31. Evaluating the use of conventions
Student writing can be evaluated on five product factors: fluency,
content, conventions, syntax, and vocabulary. Writing samples also
should be assessed across a variety of purposes for writing to give a
complete picture of a student's writing performance across different text
structures and genres.
These simple classroom parameters would help in identifying strengths
and weaknesses, planning instruction, evaluating instructional activities,
giving feedback, monitoring performance, and reporting progress.
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32. Check the writer’s spelling
Writing conventions are the basic technical skills that
make writing coherent and understandable. Good
spelling is a key element of clear and professional
writing.
When assessing spelling, keep in mind such issues as:
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33. Spelling
- The overall number of spelling errors (e.g., what percentage
of words are spelled correctly vs. incorrectly?).
- The writer’s understanding of basic spelling rules and
patterns (e.g., the use of silent letters, the softening of certain
consonants before certain vowels, etc.).
- The prevalence of common spelling errors in the writer’s
work (such as mixing up commonly confused words, like
“stationary” and “stationery”).
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34. writer’s punctuation
Proper punctuation is also essential for clarity of writing. Check
the writer’s work to make sure that they
Use appropriate punctuation when indicating the use of direct
quotations.
Use proper punctuation to mark the ends of sentences (e.g.,
periods, question marks, and exclamation points) and clauses
(e.g., commas, colons, and semicolons).
Indicate contractions and possessives with the correct use of
apostrophes.
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35. Examine Capitalization
A skilled writer should know the conventions of capitalization.
Look over their writing and make sure that they follow such
conventions as
- Capitalizing the first words of sentences.
- Capitalizing proper nouns and adjectives, including
personal names, place names, and titles before proper
nouns (e.g., Governor Johnson).
Using correct capitalization when writing titles of works, such as
books or articles
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36. Evaluate Grammar
Using correct grammar is one of the most complex elements of
writing. When looking over the writer’s work, you might look
select a handful of grammatical issues to focus on based on
factors such as their age or experience level.
For example, you might check that the writer is able to
 Use correct verbal forms (e.g., proper tense, mood,
voice, person, and number).
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37. Examining Grammar
Understand grammatical cases and use appropriate
forms (e.g., distinguish between subjective, objective,
and possessive forms of pronouns).
Show agreement between grammatical forms (e.g.,
nouns and pronouns match in number and gender).
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38. Assess their use of syntax
 Syntax refers to the ways sentences are put together. For a sentence
to be syntactically correct, both individual words and entire clauses
must be arranged in an order that makes sense. In English, word
order is especially important for establishing clear meaning and
correct syntax. Look for:
 Clear and correct word order.
 The use of conjunctions to link coordinating clauses within a
sentence.
 Use of a variety of sentence structures (e.g., simple declarative
sentences, interrogative sentences, and compound sentences).
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39. The Biological Foundations of Language
Evidently, our linguistic ability does not depend primarily on the
structure of our vocal cords, for other mammals also have vocal cords.
Human linguistic ability largely depends, instead, on the structure and
dynamics of the human brain.
Human beings are the only organisms in which one particular part of the
left half of the brain is larger than the corresponding part of the right half.
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40. Correctness
Correctness in writing involves spelling, punctuation,
grammar , style, appropriateness, linguistics, etc. while
evaluating writing practices, correctness is not among
1st few criteria but to achieve higher standard this
cannot be ignored
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41. The Notion of Correctness
Whether a piece of language is "right" or "wrong" is
frequently a misleading idea. In practice, language may
better be described as "appropriate" or "acceptable"
to a given register or context.
What is acceptable when spoken by a teenager may not
be acceptable when written in a report by an adult.
Context is all.
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42. Language Rules
The so-called "rules" of English are usually in fact pieces of advice laid
down by grammarians who refer back to classical models, even though the
structure of Latin and Greek are very different from English. They are
sometimes referred to as "nineteenth century neo-classical grammarians."
Some of these "rules" may be good advice for a speaker looking for a
model of clarity, and reassuring, but others are now widely seen as
artificial constraints on a living language.
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43. Old Rules
Old rules such as "don't finish a sentence with a preposition",
"don't start a sentence with 'and'" and "don't split an infinitive" are
examples of rules which are still held to by some language users
but deliberately flouted by others
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44. Grammatical Rules
Note that grammatical rules are generally more advisory than the
rules governing the meaning of words. Although words do change
their meaning, have ambiguity and frequently have several meanings
at once, a dictionary definition is, by and large, an agreed meaning of
a word. Lists of commonly confused words can be helpful in
distinguishing between "whet" and "wet" or "complement" and
"compliment"
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45. There are two main principles at work
creating grammatical rules:
Prescriptive describes the attitude that there are rules and you
should obey them.
Descriptive describes the attitude of many modern linguists
which is that what is said by natural speakers of the language is
normal and that this "real" language should be described by
students of linguistics to create a model of language.
.
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46. In other words prescriptive grammarians impose their views
based on prescribed or laid down rules while descriptive
grammarians describe the language first then offer this as a
framework within which users can work
Underpinning all this are basic rules which are generally agreed,
fundamental rules which make a language unique, yet these are so
embedded that the rules are rarely raised as issues by speakers. (
the theory of universal grammar as proposed by Noam Chomsky.)
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47. CORRECTNESS
Correctness is the proper use of grammar, punctuations
and spelling
A message may be perfect grammatically and
mechanically having correctness
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48. CHARACTERISTICS
Using right level of language
Checking accuracy of figures, facts, and words level of
language
Maintaining acceptable writing mechanics
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49. Evaluating the use of conventions
Student writing can be evaluated on five product factors: fluency,
content, conventions, syntax, and vocabulary. Writing samples also
should be assessed across a variety of purposes for writing to give a
complete picture of a student's writing performance across different text
structures and genres.
These simple classroom parameters would help in identifying strengths
and weaknesses, planning instruction, evaluating instructional activities,
giving feedback, monitoring performance, and reporting progress.
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50. Language Complexity
The measure for text complexity is based on range of
factors such as
- structure,
- language lucidity,
- conventionality and clarity etc.
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51. Language complexity
is a topic in linguistics which can be divided into several sub-topics such
as phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic complexity. The
subject also carries importance for language evolution.
Language complexity has been studied less than many other traditional
fields of linguistics. While the consensus is turning towards recognizing that
complexity is a suitable research area, a central focus has been
on methodological choices
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52. How is language complexity measured?
You can, of course, take different parameters: count the number of
sounds, the number of cases, the number of verb tenses and so on,
and try to find some single weighted measure that would take all
this into account and measure what languages ​​are the simplest
and which languages ​​are the most complex
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53. Assessing Organization
Look for a clear beginning, middle, and end. A well-
organized piece of writing should have a clearly-defined structure.
While the nature of that structure will vary depending on the type of
writing, most written works should have:
- An introduction that briefly summarizes the topic or
introduces the theme of the piece in some way.
- A body, in which the major points of the text are laid out.
- A conclusion, which wraps up the text and ties up any loose
ends.
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54. Assess their use of paragraphing
Paragraphing refers to the arrangement of sentences into coherent groups.
Each paragraph should focus on a single theme or idea, and should be
visually separated from the previous paragraph with an indentation or an
extra line space. A strong paragraph should include:
 A topic sentence, clearly expressing the main idea of the paragraph.
 A few sentences supporting, explaining, or elaborating on the main
theme.
 Some type of transition that links the current paragraph to the theme
of the next paragraph.
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55. Logical Organization
Make sure their ideas are ordered in a logical way. A good
piece of writing should present its points in an order that makes
sense. While there is no single right way to order a piece of
writing, the writer should at least have some kind of clear
organizational scheme in place. For example:
 In a narrative, the writer might present events in chronological
order from earliest to latest.
 For an argumentative essay, the writer might start by
presenting their strongest evidence and end with their weakest.
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56. Check for clear transitions between ideas or
sections
In order for a piece of writing to be coherent, there must be a logical
flow of ideas from one clause, sentence, paragraph, or section to the
next. Transitions are used to clarify variety of links between ideas,
such as causative relationships, temporal relationships, or similarities
and differences.
Transitions can also be used to link a topic to supporting examples or
evidence. Look for the effective use of transitional words and phrases, such
as:
“Therefore” ;“On the other hand”; “However”; “Furthermore”
“Likewise”; “For example” ;“In conclusion”
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57. Evaluate word choice and vocabulary
The words that a writer chooses can have a major impact on the tone,
clarity, and quality of their writing. When looking at the writer’s work,
consider factors such as:
 Whether the words they use clearly express the desired meaning.
 Whether the words they use are appropriate for the tone of the article
(e.g., do then need to be more formal or casual?).
 Whether the vocabulary is varied enough to keep the reader’s interest.
 Whether words are being used correctly and at a level appropriate to
the writer’s age, developmental level, or experience level.
 Whether the word choice is appropriate for the intended audience of
the piece.
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58. Look for originality and a clear voice
A writer’s “voice” is what makes their work distinctive and
interesting. Try to get a sense of whether the writer’s work
conveys a tone that reflects their personal style or unique
viewpoint. This might include factors such as:
 The use of distinctive words, phrases, and metaphors instead of
clichés and stock phrases.
 A unifying and consistent mood or tone.
 Confident “ownership” of opinions and viewpoints.
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59. Determine if the style is appropriate for the
type of writing
The tone and style of a written work should fit the format and
context of the piece. When you are evaluating a writer’s work,
keep the purpose of the piece in mind. For example:
- If the work is intended for a general audience, a chatty and
informal tone might be appropriate.
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60. Style…
- For an academic essay, the tone and word choice should
be formal and technical. The passive voice is also more
appropriate in academic writing than in other types of
writing.
- While good advertising copy might appeal to the reader’s
emotions, an informative essay on a technical topic should
be written in a more objective and impartial tone.
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61. Watch for concise, straightforward language
Asses the writer’s ability to express ideas clearly
without excessive padding or wordiness. In addition to
individual sentences, look at the overall structure of the
piece.
 Are there unnecessary tangents and redundant sentences or
paragraphs? Does the piece contain unnecessary background
information (i.e., information that is already obvious to the
reader)?
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62. Assess the format and presentation of the
writing
If the writer needs to be able to use a particular house style or
citation format, take this into account when evaluating their
writing. Make sure that they follow any guidelines regarding
things like:
 Page length or word count.
 Fonts and special characters.
 Formatting for sources and citations.
 Line spacing, margin sizes, and headers.
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63. Creative Writing/Literary Writing
Suspense and conflict, figures of speech and points of view,
rhyme and rhythm, setting and scene,
form and structure, diction and dialog,
exposition and narration,
plot and theme,
assonance and consonance,
induction and deduction, line breaks and stanzas
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64. Literary Writing
1. Sensitivity to problems, or the ability to recognize problems.
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65. Literary Writing
2. Fluency, which encompasses
-a. Ideational fluency, or the ability rapidly to produce a
variety of ideas that fulfil stated requirements.
-b. Associational fluency, or the ability to generate a list of
words, each of which is associated with a given word.
-c. Expressional fluency, or the ability to organize words into
larger units, such as phrases, sentences, and paragraphs.
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66. Literary Writing
3. Flexibility, which encompasses
-a. Spontaneous flexibility, or the ability to
demonstrate flexibility.
-b. Adaptive flexibility, or the ability to produce
responses that are novel and high in quality
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67. Keep re-evaluating throughout the writing
process
Building writing skills is a process, and so is evaluating those skills. You
will get a better idea of the writer’s abilities if you check in and provide
feedback at multiple points during the writing process and assess how
their writing improves and develops over time.
For example, you might offer to provide feedback on drafts, and then
look at how well they incorporate your suggestions into the final product.
If you can, offer multiple assignments over a period of time, and provide
feedback that encourages improvement and development.
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Thanks!