Technology-Mediated Writing Assessments: Principles and Processes

This paper explores developments in technology-mediated writing environments that may support new forms of formative assessment and the closer relation of formative to summative assessment. Not only might these provide more learner-responsive and effective assessment of writing, but they may also support the assessment of disciplinary knowledge embedded in written and multimodal texts. After an overview of current debates on contemporary assessment practice, the paper goes on to develop six principles for effective assessment of writing. On this basis, the paper identifies potentially promising aspects of emerging processes of technology-mediated writing assessment.