Mariah Jessen

ESL 6063
Assignment 7

Comparison of Analytic and Holistic Scoring

My analytic rating of the student writing seen in appendices C and D seemed to favor the

student writing a bit more than my holistic rating with a rating of 81% or B- and C+ respectively.

The analytic one provided more details about different skills and what is expected from each one

while the holistic one looked at the paper as a whole. It is because of this fact that I feel that they

differed in scoring. I had a more concrete idea of what the analytic rubric was looking for while

the holistic one was more open to interpretation. In addition, the holistic rubric was based off of

a 5 point scale (to better correlate with letter grades according to Ferris & Hedgcock (2014))

while each section of the analytic rubric had a range of points assigned to each section that was

related to a letter grade. The average of these is what determines the overall grade. In this way,

even if the student does poorly in one or two sections, the other sections can help raise their

grade. I believe this is also part of why my Analytic score was higher than the Holistic score. I

feel that the Analytic score is more fair for my students as it more specifically informs them of

their errors in each area on the rubric.

The comments given on the holistic rubric student writing was more detailed, but still

quite vague compared to what I gave on my analytic rubric student writing. On the Holistic

rating, I made some general comments about spelling, offered some advice for citation, asked for

more supporting details, and asked them to check their spelling. On the Analytic rubric I only

made two comments: 1) look up citation conventions for APA; and 2) come see me if you have

questions about your score. In hindsight, I took for granted how detailed the rubric was. While I

may understand what it is looking for, the student will most likely still need more help in

determining where those issues are present. I would like to point out that I am a big proponent of
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ESL 6063
Assignment 7

having conferences with my students about their writing and would provide more direct feedback

at that time; However, this is not a good reason to not leave more detailed feedback for the

student.

For this writing task, the analytic rubric would be more appropriate for a few reasons.

The first reason is that “when teachers use these options, complemented by text-specific

comments, component scores have meaning beyond mere numerical values or ranks…” (Ferris

& Hedgcock, 2014, p. 209). While my comments were admittedly too vague, if I had spent a

little more time identifying some key issues in the text that related to how I marked each skill in

the rubric, I would have been able to give my student positive feedback as to why they received

their grade and how to improve it next time. The second reason is that since this is for a college

level course, giving the students more concrete descriptors may help them better understand the

mistakes they made and what other professors in other classes may be looking for while reading

their writing. Lastly, an analytic rubric “separates textual features and predetermines their

weights; criteria are prioritized before scoring begins” (Ferris & Hedgcock, 2014, p. 209). The

advantage of this is it allows students to see in advance which skills will be more heavily

weighted and know what to spend more time focusing on. While all parts are important, the fact

that this was a timed writing means they needed to know which skills were going to be the most

important and have the greatest bearing on their grade.

As suggested by Ferris & Hedgcock (2014), I would be sure to modify the analytic rubric

so that the “descriptors must characterize distinct discursive and linguistic course objectives...and

coefficients… for textual components” and “analytic guides reflect priorities assigned to specific

aspects of written products and writing processes featured in the syllabus” (p. 209). This will
Mariah Jessen
ESL 6063
Assignment 7

ensure that the rubric is correctly aligned with the course goals and objectives and give the

students a clearer picture of what is expected.

Mariah Jessen
ESL 6063
Assignment 7

References

Ferris, R., D. & Hedgcock, S., J. (2014).Classroom Assessment of L2 Writing. ​Teaching ESL

composition: Purpose, process, and practice​ (3​rd​ ed, pp.196-236). Routledge.

Mariah Jessen
ESL 6063
Assignment 7

Appendix

Appendix A

Holistic Rubric
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Assignment 7

Appendix B

Holistic Graded Student Writing Sample

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ESL 6063
Assignment 7

Appendix C

Analytic Rubric
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ESL 6063
Assignment 7
Mariah Jessen
ESL 6063
Assignment 7

Appendix D

Analytic Graded Student Writing