ERIC Number: ED157079
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1978
Pages: 35
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Evaluators of Student Writing.
Freedman, Sarah
In a study of factors that influence evaluators' ratings of student papers, 32 student essays were rewritten to make them stronger or weaker in content, organization, sentence structure, or mechanics; the essays were then submitted to evaluators in both their original and rewritten forms to determine the way in which the changes influenced the ratings. This paper discusses the procedures used in selecting the essays to be rewritten, rewriting them, and having them evaluated; it then reports the results of the study, examines the relationship between the holistic ratings and the raters' perceptions of the papers' strengths or weaknesses in each of the rewritten categories, and discusses the results and their pedagogical significance. Among the major findings were that the most important influences on raters' scores were the content and then the organization of the essays and that sentence structure and mechanics proved to be far less significant influences on holistic judgments. Seven tables are included. (GW)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Research prepared at San Francisco State College