Assessing and Improving Student Writing in College: A Guide for Institutions, General Education, Departments, and Classrooms

Step-by-step guidance for shaping better writers while keeping faculty workloads manageable

Effective communication is a critical skill for many academic disciplines and careers, and so colleges and universities and their faculty members are rightfully committed to improving student writing across the curriculum. Guiding and assessing student writing in classrooms, general education, and departments takes knowledge, planning, and persistence, but it can be done effectively and efficiently.

Written in the concise, accessible style that Barbara Walvoord is noted for, Assessing and Improving Student Writing in College includes concrete suggestions for articulating goals for student writing, measuring student writing, improving student writing, and documenting that improvement.

Step by step, the book explores four basic concepts: what we mean by writing, what we mean by “good” writing, how students learn to write, and the purposes of assessment. Walvoord also explains the various proven approaches and methods for assessing writing and suggests employing a combination of approaches and adapting them to an individual institution’s purpose and culture. The chapters will help a wide array of educational players to work together for the enhancement of student writing and, more broadly, for the empowerment of the writers in general.

This vital book will help readers create a cohesive, institution-wide system that keeps students, faculty, and administrators on the same page.