Classroom Applications of Automated Writing Evaluation

The majority of United States students demonstrate only partial mastery of the knowledge and skills necessary for proficient writing. Researchers have called for increased classroom-based formative writing assessment to provide students with regular feedback about their writing performance and to support the development of writing skills. Automated writing evaluation (AWE) is a type of assessment for learning (AfL) that combines automated essay scoring (AES) and automated feedback with the goal of supporting improvements in students' writing performance. The current chapter first describes AES, AWE, and automated feedback. Next, results of an original study that examined students' and teachers' perceptions of automated feedback are presented and discussed. The chapter concludes with recommendations and directions for future research.