Conclusions and Key Points: The Impact of the SAT and ACT Timed Writing Tests

 

The kind of writing valued by the SAT reflects a set of assumptions about writing?and about ?good? writing?that we find problematic and which diverge from what the best current scholarship tells us about the nature of writing.

  • Although it is possible that the new SAT will promote more writing instruction, preparation for the test is likely to take precious time away from high quality writing instruction.
  • The kind of writing required for success on the timed essay component of the SAT is likely to encourage writing instruction that emphasizes formulaic writing with specific but limited textual features.
  • Research suggests that writing instruction focused on following patterns, writing one draft, and adhering to specific criteria for the text?just the kind of instruction likely to be used to prepare students for the new SAT?prepares students poorly for college-level writing tasks and for workplace writing tasks. —Conclusions and Key Points: ?The Impact of the SAT and ACT Timed Writing Tests? (National Council of Teachers of English)

Inside Higher Ed has a good piece on this.

Since SHU uses a timed essay (written during freshman orientation) to place students in developmental courses, the faculty voted to drop our own testing procedure (which was conducted hurriedly, by faculty volunteers) for the more formal, controlled test.

I do sympathize with the plight of high school graduates who don’t go on to college, but whose English teachers might now spend a lot of time teaching the formula for a college-entry essay.

While composition is not my specialty, I have taught a comp course every year since leaving grad school (in 1998). If more students come into my class knowing the basics of how to plan and execute this kind of timed essay, then my task as a comp instructor will probably be easier than it is right now.

But I’m already struggling with gen-ed students who are producing formulaic writing in my lit classes (either too much plot summary, character analysis, or a stand-alone research paper on an issue such as racism or women’s rights, with occasional references to how a particular character has an experience that validates — but does not prove — the student’s non-literary thesis).

2 thoughts on “Conclusions and Key Points: The Impact of the SAT and ACT Timed Writing Tests

  1. My brother, an A/B English student, recently took the SATs (he’s a junior at our district’s vocational-technical school studying computer information technology). He scored above average in the math section, as I assumed he would. However, this good English student practically failed the writing portion. The poor boy was devastated. But he wasn’t taught to write in that manner.

    I rememeber doing timed writing practices and exams in my senior AP English course, but that was to prepare us for the actual AP test which is, of course, timed. I never took the test, but I recall being very good at getting my point across in a five paragraph paper by the end of the semester.

    I was trained to do so, though. I feared that I was losing the ability to revise and rewrite, and I did. Freshman year I was terrified of revision because I felt that the first time around should be exactly what I needed to say; otherwise it just wasn’t worth it to begin with. Interestingly enough, the colleges that look at these test scores (and even the SHU entrance essay) are going to want writers that can write “in process.” However, high schools with limited time to teach a limited curriculum could be forced to pick up slack and teach to the test (once again), making students great “on the spot” writers but horrible “good,” processing writers.

    I tend to agree with Dr. A. Any type of writing is difficult to really put into a box and call “good” because it must be examined for what it is. Thank goodness I got away with my SAT score before they threw this writing exam into the mix. I’ll brag my 1490 anyday.

  2. Writing is an art that will always have difficulty being institutionalized, in any fashion. The counterpoint to the article you cite is that the “verbal” portion of the SAT doesn’t adequately test writing and thinking. Usually less is more, but in this case I think more is more. I’m glad the SAT is moving to this paradigm, though the impact that the NCTE asserts is probably true as well. The fact is, high school teaches formulaic writing ANYWAY.

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