CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Context of the Problem 1.2 Purpose of the Study 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Significance and Rationale of the Studv 1.5 Organization of the Writing 1.6 Definitions of Selected Terms CHAPTER TWO REVIEW oF REI ATED LITERATURE 2.1 Direct Writing Assessment and Issues of Grading 2.1.1 Historical View 2.1.2 Contrastive Views 2.1.3 Nature of Direct Writing Assessment 2.1.4 Classroom Assessment:Concerns and Issues 2.1.5 Common Methods of Direct Writing Assessment 2.2 Test Quality Control 2.2.1 Test Quality:Perspectives 2.2.2 Test Usefulness and Test Interactiveness 2.2.3 Writing Research Literature 2.2.4 Revisiting Holistic and Analytic Scoring CHAPTER THREE METHODOI OGY 3.1 Ethical Considerations 3.2 Research Design:An Overview 3.3 Variables 3.4 Subject Groups 3.4.1 Sampling 3.4.2 Power Analysis(priori) 3.5 Experienced Teachers’Judgment and Students’SeIf-assessments 3.6 Test Development and Instructional Design 3.6.1 Educational Context:College English Instruction and Assessment 3.6.2 Defining the Construct 3.7 Instruments 3.7.1 Grading Scales 3.7.2 Task Development and Prompt Selection 3.7.3 Affective Involvement 3.7.4 Strategic Competence in the Revision Process 3.8 Data Collection Procedures 3.8.1 Writing Performance 3.8.2 Scoring Writing 3.8.3 Responses to the Questionnaires 3.9 Data Analyses CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS 4.1 Findings 4.1.1 Results for Secondary Research Question 4.1.2 Results for Secondary Research Question 4.1.3 Results for Secondary Research Question 4.1.4 Results for Secondary Research Question 4.2 Validation of Instruments 4.2.1 Writing Assessments: Tasks and Scores 4.2.2 Questionnaires CHAPTER FIVE DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary and Discussions 5.1.1 Learning Gains in Products and Processes 5.1.2 Test Interactiveness of Holistic Scoring and Analytic Scoring 5.2 Implications 5.2.1 Implications for Assessment 5.2.2 Implications for Instruction= Strategy Instruction 5.3 Revisiting Assessment Criteria= Basic Functions 5.4 Limitations 5.5 Future Research 5.6 Concluding Remarks APPENDICES Appendix A Holistic rubric Appendix B Analytic rubrics Appendix C The Affective Involvement Questionnaire …… REFERENCES