This study compared the performance of a holistic and an analytic scoring rubric to assess ESL writing for placement and diagnostic purposes in a community college basic skills program. The study used Rasch many-faceted measurement to investigate the performance of both rubrics in scoring second language (L2) writing samples from a departmental final examination. Rasch analyses were used to determine whether the rubrics successfully separated examinees along a continuum of L2 writing proficiency. The study also investigated whether each category in the two six-point rubrics were useful. Both scales appeared to be measuring a single latent trait of writing ability. Raters hardly used the lower category of the holistic rubric, suggesting that it might be collapsed to create a five-point scale. The six-point scale of the analytic rubric, on the other hand, separated examinees across a wide range of strata of L2 writing ability and might therefore be the better instrument in assessment for diagnostic and placement purposes.
Wiseman, C. (2012). A Comparison of the Performance of Analytic vs. Holistic Scoring Rubrics to Assess L2 Writing. International Journal of Language Testing, 2(1), 59-92.
MLA
Cynthia S. Wiseman. "A Comparison of the Performance of Analytic vs. Holistic Scoring Rubrics to Assess L2 Writing". International Journal of Language Testing, 2, 1, 2012, 59-92.
HARVARD
Wiseman, C. (2012). 'A Comparison of the Performance of Analytic vs. Holistic Scoring Rubrics to Assess L2 Writing', International Journal of Language Testing, 2(1), pp. 59-92.
VANCOUVER
Wiseman, C. A Comparison of the Performance of Analytic vs. Holistic Scoring Rubrics to Assess L2 Writing. International Journal of Language Testing, 2012; 2(1): 59-92.
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