A Comparative Study on Rubrics Used by English Teachers and Online Writing Software

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the different usage of rubrics used by college English teachers and in writing software to evaluate students' writing competency and to what extent they benefit from it. The major research questions explored in the study were: 1) Do writing teachers apply a certain set of rubrics when grading students' writing assignments? 2) How is the writing software employed in English classes? 3) Which of the rubrics in writing software, compared to teachers' corrections, are more/less beneficial to English learners? Subjects in the study were English writing teachers at universities and colleges in Taiwan. The teachers completed figured surveys on the main traits assessing writings and answered five open-ended questions based on their own experiences. The students used the online writing software in and/or out of class, and the evaluation sheets drawn by the software are collected and analyzed. Results indicated that adequate usage of writing rubrics may provide teachers with a positive grading attitude towards students' works and further foster students' acknowledgement of writing essence, while the rubrics applied in writing software may not always reach the same effect that writing teaches may supply their students with. The present study also proposed practical suggestions for using writing software to teach writing at universities.