Floriza Barcellano

Janice Vallejo
Jingkie Orlanes
Jonalyn Manuel
Oda Aman
Kristine Adriano
Lanie Dannug
Debbie Jane Fafag
What is a test?
A test or examination is an assessment intended to measure a
test-taker’s knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness or
classification in many other topics.

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What is writing?
 the act or art of forming letters and characters on paper, wood, stone, or other
material, for the purpose of recording the ideas which characters and words
express, or of communicating them to others by visible signs.

 Writing is an important part of language learning, essentially being a

reflective activity that requires enough time to think about the specific topic
to analyze and to classify any background knowledge.
 -Chakraverty and Gauntum

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What is testing writing?
A test or an assessment intended to measure writing skill of
students.

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How to test People’s writing?
 Get them to Write
 Test the ability directly
->Tasks properly representative
-> Tasks that represent students ability
-> Scored validity and reliability

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Questions to assist us in giving test
 Do the Test items measure a representative sample of the
learning task?
 Are the test items appropriate for measuring the desired
outcomes of learning?
 Does the test fit the particular uses that will be made of the
results?
 Does the test improve learning?
 Is the test appropriate for the learners?

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 What to assess:
genres of writing
 Personal writing – letters, messages, diaries, fictions, etc.

 Job- related writing - announcements, advertisements, emails,

manuals, etc.

 Academic writing- reports, essays, journal articles, theses, etc.

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What to assess:
Writing skills
 Spelling  Coherence
 Vocabulary  Cohesion
 Grammar  Structure
 Accuracy  Organization
 Punctuation  Genre
 Originality  Style
 Clarity  Argument

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What to assess:
Writing skills
 Micro Skills
 Macro Skills

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Types of test that can be used
in
Testing Writing

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Multiple-choice items
 Multiple-choice items test an ability to recognize sentences
which are grammatically correct. This ability is not the same
as the ability to produce correct sentences.
 They are especially useful for finding out more about the
difficulties which students have with certain areas of grammar.
 A multiple-choice item must have only one correct answer and
all the options in a multiple-choice item should be at the same
level of difficulty.

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Example:
The car was full of __.
A. Petrol B. a petrol C. the petrol D. some petrol ·
 If you want to concentrate on a certain area of grammar, put the item into a short two-
line dialogue.
Ex: __ a pen and a piece of paper.
A. I like B. I’ll like C. I’d like D. I’m liking ·
• It is often necessary to write four options for your items in multiple-choice testing. ·
• Finally, remember that certain areas of grammar do not lend themselves to a multiple-
choice format. Thus, an ability to use articles and concord is much better tested in the
other ways.

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Error-recognition items
1. It was a terrible accident at an airshow held in West Germany yesterday.
A B C D
2. One of the aircraft was crashed into two other aircraft during display.
A B C D

 Another way of presenting this type of item is to simply give students incorrect sentences
and ask them to write out the correct version. It is helpful if you inform them that there is
only one mistake in each sentence.

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Re-arrangement
 This type of item is useful for testing an awareness of the order of adjectives, the
position of adverbs, inversion and several other areas of grammar.
1. She was wearing a New/ jacket/ leather/ red/ lovely
2. Susan...
The phone/ when/ already/ rang/ suddenly/ finished/ had
A. However, we decided to set out and try to climb the mountain.
B. This time we had better climbing equipment and were determined to succeed.
C. Several people in the group had tried this before but no one had managed to get to the
top.
D. There was a strong wind and it was raining very heavily

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Controlled
+
writing
Transformation

+ Items which involve re-writing sentences according to

certain patterns are more suitable for use in intermediate
and advanced tests than in tests at an elementary level.

1. No other living plant grows so tall and so fast as bamboo.

Bamboo______________________________________.

2. A stalk of Japan’s commonest bamboos has grown over a

metre in only twenty-four hours.

It has taken _________________________________.

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 It is also possible to get students to do similar task by giving
them a word in brackets instead of the beginning of the new
sentence. The use of the word given will automatically
involve rewriting sentence.
 
Ex: 1. It is not necessary to answer all the questions. (need)
2. his angry outburst was completely unexpected.(took)

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Broken sentences
 You can test a student’s ability to write sentences from a series of
words and phrases. Used in this way, the following type of
question can be very useful for testing controlled writing skills.

Ex:
Dear Cindy, Thanks/ lot/ your letter/ which/ arrive/ yesterday
Congratulations/ pass/ your entrance exams.
You/ work/ very hard/ past/ year/ but now/ it/ all/ be/ worthwhile.
 

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Sentence and paragraph completion
 Some items require students to complete sentences or
paragraphs. In this way, writing is integrated with reading
comprehension and becomes a more realistic task.
Ex:
Most of the students in my class were rather lazy and did not
enjoy the course. Some even stayed away from school quite
often. Pauline, however,
_______________________________________________.

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Notes and diaries
 One advantage of using notes as a basis for free
writing lies in the control provided. By controlling
what students write to some degree, you can ensure that
certain grammatical patterns and language functions
are tested.  
 Another advantage of using notes lies in the fact that
they ensure all students perform a similar writing task.
· 
 Diary entries are also useful for providing a stimulus
for free writing. Students use the information in the
diary to write a letter to a friend. In this way, students
can have a chance to show any creative writing ability
which they may have.

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Free writing
 The only satisfactory way to assess a student’s ability to write is
by means of a composition test. Setting composition exams is
reasonably straightforward provided that you remember a few
basic principles.

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Choosing subjects
 Choose subjects which are within the experience
of your students.  

 · Avoid very general, abstract topics. Clear and

precise titles help studentstofocus their thoughts
and direct their ideas.

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Realistic writing tasks
 Think about likely contexts in which your students will
write. ·

 Test your students’ ability to write letters, messages, and

notes. · 

 At the intermediate and advanced levels, students will

often find themselves in situations in which they are
required to write reports.

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Writing for a purpose
 Always try to give your students a purpose of writing, even in a
classroom test. This is important for motivating students and
encouraging them to produce good written work.

 Writing for an audience

 It is helpful if students know for whom they are writing.
Knowing who our readers are influences the way in which we
write.

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Specific instructions
The following is an example of an instruction which is very
specific and contains enough detail about people and the
situation to be used as a basis for the writing task.

 Your friend likes to get up early to do things each day. On

the other hand, you like to relax on holiday and get up late.
You like to sit on a beach and read a good book. You are
also keen on the photography.

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Using pictures for writing
 The control which pictures exert over the content of the
written work is also useful in another way. ·

 We can easily tell what students want to write and we can

thus measure their success in achieving this goal. · 

 If students fail to write about the contents of a picture, we

have good reason for suspecting that it is because they feel
unable to use the language necessary for this purpose.

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You may want to use pictures to do any of the following tasks
in your test:
1. To describe a scene, object, or person
2. To compare two scenes
3. To tell a story
4. To give instructions or directions
5. To describe a process.

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 Process of writing
Prewriting is the stage in which you explore possible topics, choose a
topic, and then gather details you can include in your writing.

Drafting involves putting ideas down on paper in a rough format.

Revising is the stage in which you rework your rough draft to improve
both its form and its content.

Editing and proofreading are the stages in which you polish your writing,
fixing errors in grammar, spelling, and mechanics.
Publishing and presenting are the sharing of your writing.

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 Process of writing
Prewriting

Publishing
And Drafting
Presenting

Editing
Revising
Proofreading

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Thank you
for
listening!!!

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