You can obtain a direct measure of students' writing ability with the COMPASS Writing Essay Test, e-Write, which can be used alone or in conjunction with the Writing Skills Test to place students in appropriate English courses.
The COMPASS e-Write test consists of one writing prompt that defines an issue or problem and describes two points of view on that issue. Students are asked to respond to a question about their position on the issue described in the prompt.
A powerful scoring engine via the Internet allows e-Write to provide an instantaneous evaluation of a student's writing skills using either a 2–8 or 2–12 score scale.
In addition to a holistic score, e-Write provides subscores in the areas of
- Focus—consistency and clarity in identifying and maintaining the main idea or point of view
- Content—extent to which the topic is addressed by the development of ideas and the specificity of details and examples
- Organization—unity and coherence achieved through logical sequence of ideas
- Style—how effectively the chosen language enhances the writer's purpose
- Conventions—control of mechanics in grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation.