Beyond Illiterate, What Can You Say?

Abstract

This article demonstrates how one might go beyond mechanical errors to describe, measure, and evaluate student writing as communication. Several evaluation procedures were applied to a brief writing protocol submitted by an adolescent learning disabled student. Application of T-unit analysis and primary-trait scoring procedures, and the identification of linguistic cues to intellectual processes all revealed that the student was reasonably mature in the communication of his ideas, although the writing sample was obviously deficient in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. It was suggested that knowledge of what students can do and adequately describing their competence are the first steps in planning a remedial writing program.