Introduction
The present paper concerns the book written by Sara Cushing Weigle “Assessing Writing”. This book was edited in 2002 and since then it won considerable fame and recognition among specialists in the discussed sphere. The book is aimed at finding a better, innovative approach to writing as a concept and its role in the whole process of education and assessment of the person’s education and development.
Body Paragraph I
The introduction of the book is devoted to the shift of understanding or writing as an attribute of chosen, limited layers of society, thus becoming a challenge for others to handle.
Writing, which was once considered the domain of the elite and well-educated, has become an essential tool for people of all walks of life in today’s global community (Weigle et al., 2002).
Body Paragraph II
The book includes much consideration about the role of writing in the contemporary world as a source of communication, in addition broadening the perception of writing beyond the borders of pure transfer of data”
it is now widely recognized that writing plays a vital role not only in conveying information, but also in transforming knowledge to create new knowledge. It is thus of central importance to students in academic and second language programs throughout the world (Weigle et al, 2002).
Body Paragraph III (Supplementary)
The book represents deep and profound research in the field of writing and everything connected with the process, the result and the accompanying elements. It has made a large step forward in the discussed sphere, which may be seen from the editor’s note devoted to the contents of the book and its meaning in the sphere of learning:
The book provides a coverage of writing assessment that is both broad and in-depth, discussing the relevant research and theory, and addressing practical considerations in the design, development and use of writing assessments (Weigle et al, 2002).
Conclusion
The first chapter of the book titled “The Nature of Writing Ability” discusses the writing skills at the basic level – their emergency, the way to develop them and to shape them into the form the person needs. The chapter also concerns factors influencing the success of learning to write and the process of the skills formation. The author argues that the writing skills are a complex phenomenon that includes not only intellectual abilities and mechanical skills but includes certain social, psychological and physiological implications that may affect the end result – obtaining language skills in this or that form.
The second chapter, “Basic Considerations in Assessing Writing” is connected with more practical aspects of writing skills assessment. First of all, the creators of the book use writing tests as a type of knowledge tests to the extent possible to be applied. They claim that the purpose of the tests they propose is to make inferences and make decisions. Together with this they discuss the language knowledge as a heterogeneous concept including grammatical, textual, functional and sociolinguistic knowledge. To make their point clearer the authors introduce the notion of performance assessment into the chapter, equaling it with the notion of writing (Weigle et al, 2002).
The third chapter is titled “Research in Large-Scale Writing Assessment” and is devoted to such elements of the concept as finding the theoretical basis for research in the sphere of writing. The authors have initially formed the theoretical basis for the conclusions formulated in the discussed book; consequently, they had to substantiate their opinion in a scientifically relevant way, making the literature review, assessing the peculiarities of theoretical interest to the issues of writing in the historical context as well as the evolution of theoretical thinking until the contemporary period of time.
The fourth and fifth parts, “Designing Writing Assessment Tasks” and “Scoring Procedures for Writing Assessment”, deal with the stages of the process of producing the writing assessment – the authors discuss the most efficient ways to check the knowledge and to evaluate it justly and adequately. The sixth chapter, “Illustrative Tests of Writing”, concludes this series, providing the practical result based on the theoretical considerations of the previous two chapters.
Chapter seven titled “Beyond the Timed Impromptu Test: Classroom Writing Assessment” is highly efficient in terms of arranging the continuing assessment process in education to track the progress of students, to be able to see the improvements and the black spots starting from the very beginning of writing work and finishing up with the ready products.
Chapter eight, “Portfolio Assessment”, is devoted to the writing experience assessment – finding out certain patterns and peculiarities in varied writings of a person. The last chapter, number nine, “The Future of Writing Assessment”, aims at grasping the potential of this sphere and the possible directions of its development.
The contribution of the book to the field of writing assessment is hard to overestimate as the way the authors approach the subject is substantial, multifaceted and, in the end, efficient. Writing is a dynamic skill that can be developed and improved, so the guidance for this was worked out in this book. Lebanese teachers may benefit from applying the findings of the authors represented in this book enormously, since the information covered in the book’s chapters includes both theory (that may improve the teachers’ understanding of the concept of writing in a broader sense) and practice (that may be taken as a ready product and applied in the classrooms for different purposes).