COLLEGE-STUDENTS WRITING - AN ASSESSMENT OF COMPETENCE

The following 3 focuses were identified in this study: (a) analyzing t he characteristics of students' writing that most contributed to their passing or failing the Subject A Examination, an evaluation of studen t writing competence required by the University of California; (b) des igning instruction to help college-bound students develop their writin g with respect to criteria essential for competent writing; and (c) as sessing the effectiveness of the instruction in (b) above. First, 250 Subject A Examinations that had been scored holistically were evaluate d according to an analytic scoring guide with the following 5 componen ts: issue, position, support, macrolevel skills, and microlevel skills , Second, the instruction given to Grade 11 honors English students wa s designed to improve writing, particularly with regard to position an d support. The writing consisted of the following types: (a) examples of previously scored Subject A Examinations and introduction of the sc oring guide, (b) summary writing and summarization techniques, (c) syn thesis writing, and (d) argument writing. Third, the effects of instru ction were assessed. Results of the nonorthogonal repeated measures of analysis of variance indicated that instruction in summarization was effective for improvements to position, support, macrolevel skills, an d microlevel skills. The effect for issue approached Significance. The results for synthesis instruction were less impressive.