The demand for valid and reliable methods of assessing second and foreign language writing has grown in significance in recent years. One such method is the timed writing test which has a central place in many testing contexts internationally. The reliability of this test method is heavily influenced by the scoring procedures, including the rating scale to be used and the success with which raters can apply the scale. Reliability is crucial because important decisions and inferences about test takers are often made on the basis of test scores. Determining the reliability of the scoring procedure frequently involves examining the consistency with which raters assign scores. This article presents an analysis of the rating of two sets of timed tests written by intermediate level learners of German as a foreign language (n = 47) by two independent raters who used a newly developed detailed scoring rubric containing several categories. The article discusses how the rubric was developed to reflect a particular construct of writing proficiency. Implications for the reliability of the scoring procedure are explored, and considerations for more extensive cross-language research are discussed. (Contains 7 tables and 3 figures.)