Between the two major types of scoring in ESL writing, Holistic and Analytic, I prefer the Analytic scoring, because in my experience as a student our writings were assessed using Holistic approach, where usually students were unable to find out the specific areas of their weaknesses and usually the students got impression that they have some problem with the linguistic features such as grammar, structure and vocabulary.
If Analytic scoring approach is used the learners and the teachers both get a pattern where they can analyze all the features involved in writing, e.g content, idea, format and grammar, which will also make clear that writing is not only about grammar but there are many elements involved, like the audience it is written for, how are the ideas presented, clarity, cohesion, and argument.
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I agree with Zubair in that as a student I prefer receiving an analytic score. Sometimes with holistic scoring, it is unclear as to why I did not receive full credit on something. Although the more we talk about things we like or dislike as a student, I realize that my opinion might be more influenced by the teacher or professor who ineffectively used the method than the actual tool itself. (Maybe some of you can relate.)
ReplyDeleteHowever, as an instructor, I just recently graded some essays by my students. I found that a few of my students who wrote excellent essays were missing a few components, which I had to grade them down for. But, their essays were much better than some students who satisfied the minimal requirements. As I was grading, I felt that if I had used a holistic scoring method, I might be able to award them more points for the outstanding analysis and description than I was able to using my analytical scoring rubric.