The purpose of this paper is to compare the precision of direct and indirect measures of writing assessment using the test information functions from a graded response Item Response Theory (IRT) model. Subjects were 192 sophomore English students from a parochial high school in Wisconsin. Both direct and indirect measures of writing ability were used. Comparisons between the IRT information functions for the three analytic raters in five different writing skill areas are also examined. Comparisons are also made with results obtained using classical test theory methodology. Results show that the plots of the IRT information functions can be used to provide valuable information about essay raters. However, correlation coefficients between the examinee IRT ability estimates calibrated from the three sets of ratings and the standardized test separately, were found to be quite small. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. (Author/JAZ)