Advances in Automated Scoring of Writing for Performance Assessment

Abstract

The ability to convey information through writing is a central component of real-world skills. However, assessing writing can be time consuming, limiting the timeliness of feedback. Automated scoring of writing has been shown to be effective across a number of applications. This chapter focuses on how automated scoring of writing has been extended to assessing and training of real-world skills in a range of content domains. It illustrates examples of how the technology is used and considerations for its implementation. The examples include 1) Formative feedback on writing quality, 2) scoring of content in student writing. 3) improving reading comprehension through summary writing, and 4) assessment of writing integrated in higher-level performance tasks in professional domains.