The Nature of Writing Skill

e. Writing Assessment

Evaluation is important aspect that should be done by teachers to know whether the students have had good ability in writing or not. To make the writing process communicative, the researcher is expected to understand many indicators of writing.

According to Jacob (1981:30) there are five indicators of writing to

be assessed: Content, Organization, Vocabulary, Language use and Mechanics. The scale of each as in following table:

Table 2.4

Indicators of Writing Based on Jacob’s Theory

Criteria of Each Item

Score

 Excellent to very good: Knowledgeable; substantive; 30-27 thorough development of thesis; relevant to assigned topic.

 Good to average: Some knowledge of subject; adequate 26-22

nt te

range; limited development of thesis; mostly relevant to topic, but lacks detail.

Con

 Fair to poor: limited knowledge of subject; little 21-17 substance; inadequate development of topic.

 Very poor: does not show knowledge of subject; non 16-13

substantive; not pertinent; or not enough to evaluate.

Criteria of Each Item

Score

 Excellent to very good: Fluent expression; ideas 20-18 clearly stated/supported; succinct; well organized; logical sequencing; cohesive.

 Good to average: somewhat choppy; loosely organized 17-14

ation

but main ideas stand out; limited support; logical but

iz

incomplete sequencing.

gan

Or  Fair to poor: non-fluent; ideas confused or 13-10 disconnected; lacks logical sequencing and

development.

 Very poor: does not communicate; no organization; or 9-7 not enough to evaluate.

Criteria of Each Item

Score

 Excellent to very good: sophisticated range; effective 20-18 word/idiom choice and usage; word form mastery;

lary

appropriate register.

Vocabu  Good to average: adequate range; occasional errors of 17-14

word / idiom form, choice, usage but meaning not

obscured.

 Fair to poor: limited range; frequent errors of

word/form choice, usage; meaning confused or 13-10 obscured.

 Very poor: essentially translation; title knowledge of

English vocabulary, idioms, word form, or not enough 9-7 to evaluate

Criteria of Each Item

Score

 Excellent to very good: effective complex 25-22 constructions; few errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions.

 Good to average: effective but simple construction;

minor problems in complex constructions; several 21-18 errors of agreement, tense, number, word

Use

order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions but meaning seldom obscured.

guage

 Fair to poor: major problems in simple / complex

Lan

constructions; frequent errors of negation, agreement, 17-11 tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions and/or fragments, run-ons, deletions; meaning confused or obscured.

 Very poor: virtually no mastery of sentence

constructions rules; dominated by errors; does not 10-5 communicate; or not enough to evaluate.

Criteria of Each Item

Score

 Excellent to very good: demonstrates mastery of 5 conventions few errors of spelling, punctuations, capitalizations, paragraphing.

 Good to average: occasional errors of spelling, 4

punctuation, and capitalization, paragraphing, but

ic

meaning not obscured.

 Fair to Poor: Frequent errors of spelling, punctuations, 3

Mechan

capitalizations, paragraphing; poor handwriting, meaning confused or obscured.

 Very poor: no mastery of conventions dominated by

errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, 2 paragraphing; handwriting illegible; or not enough to evaluate.

It can be concluded that assessing writing is very important for the teacher, because the teacher can monitor students’ writing development or their learning process assessment. It is necessary for the teacher to know the ability of students and the effectiveness of using technique or strategy that had been done. The teacher also needs to assess the students’ written work based on the writing components.