How Writer’s Workbench Can Help in Preparing
for the 8^th Grade ISAT

 This document illustrates how Writer’s Workbench helps guide students toward exceeding standards in preparing for the writing portion of the 8^th grade ISAT.  The text in black was extracted from the Illinois Board of Education’s website under ISAT Performance Definitions, last updated August 5, 2003
The text in blue shows those analyses and exercises that will guide the student toward exceeding Illinois state standards.

EXCEEDS STANDARDS

The writers at the exceeds standards level write well developed papers in which all features are present, well developed and balanced throughout the paper. The paper is purposeful, effective and supported with specificity and depth using multiple strategies. The lines of reasoning show strong coherence and cohesion throughout. These writers show mastery of conventions with few errors in proportion to the amount written and the writing conditions.

FOCUS

Persuasive/Expository

The writing clearly states a subject/position with an effective thematic introduction, specific preview or inductive strategy. Throughout the paper, the writing maintains logic and ends with an effective closing.

Narrative

The writing has a clear subject and unifying events that are maintained with effective reactions connected to the event. The purpose is clearly stated through the use of an effective introduction or a more sophisticated strategy with some success. An effective closing is used to unify the writing.

ORGANIZATION guides student writers to create an effective opening and closing while maintaining a continuum of ideas by framing paragraphs with appropriately chosen sentence content.
Development flags paragraphs that are under-developed, prompting the student writer to enrich those paragraphs with descriptive content.
Diversity calculates a ratio that indicates the diversity or variety of the vocabulary in the composition to encourage the student writer to evaluate the scope of the subject and the adequate use of key words.

SUPPORT/ELABORATION

Persuasive/Expository

The writing uses specific details to develop all major points with the same degree of specificity for all key points. Multiple strategies and word choice extends the development and enhances the specificity.

Narrative

The major episodes are evenly developed with specific details. Most episodes show significant depth and elaboration through the use of multiple strategies and word choices.

ORGANIZATION guides student writers to create an effective opening and closing while maintaining a continuum of ideas by framing paragraphs with appropriately chosen sentence content.
Development flags paragraphs that are under-developed, prompting the student writer to enrich those paragraphs with descriptive content.
Diversity calculates a ratio that indicates the diversity or variety of the vocabulary in the composition to encourage the student writer to evaluate the scope of the subject and the adequate use of key words.
Diction Alerts lists potentially problematic words and phrases that may lead to wordiness or may be clichés and lists suggestions that will help the writer edit his or her composition where necessary.
Words to Check lists commonly misused and troublesome word pairs that appear in the composition followed by verification alternatives that are frequently confused with the material that the writer has used.

ORGANIZATION

Persuasive/Expository

The writing structure is clear and appropriate for the purpose. The points are logically presented and interrelated using a variety of transitions, sentence structures, word choices or other devices to produce cohesion and coherence.

Narrative

The narrative structure is clear and effective with the sequence of events and reactions logically presented and interrelated. Coherence and cohesion are demonstrated through the use of appropriate paragraphs and varied devices such as transitions, parallel structure, varied sentence structure and word choice.

Organization guides student writers to create an effective opening and closing while maintaining a continuum of ideas by framing paragraphs with appropriately chosen sentence content.
Development flags paragraphs that are under-developed, prompting the student writer to enrich those paragraphs with descriptive content.
Diversity calculates a ratio that indicates the diversity or variety of the vocabulary in the composition to encourage the student writer to evaluate the scope of the subject and the adequate use of key words.
Style Statistics with Support provides, in tabular format, information about the document’s sentences (length and types), verbs (to be, passives, nominalizations) sentence beginnings (subject openers, non-subject openers), other information (number of words and reading level scores - Kincaid, Coleman-Liau, and Flesch).  It also provides evaluation statements on the document’s scores on sentences (length, types, and beginnings) and on verb choices (“to be” verbs, passives, and nominalizations).  Sentences of over 50 words are listed as are sentences that include passive verbs and sentences that include nominalizations.
Transitions identifies words, phrases, and adverbial clauses that serve as transitional devices to encourage the student writer to provide even more links for the reader.

WordUse provides a look-up reference so that the student writer may query this utility for correct use of commonly misused words and phrases (effect | affect).

CONVENTIONS

Persuasive/Expository/Narrative

Evaluation of conventions takes into consideration the draft status of the ISAT writing assessment. Writing demonstrates mastery of sentence construction with few run-on sentences, subject/verb disagreements, or fragments according to the amount of writing present. Most pronouns are used correctly. Writing shows a mastery of common grade- appropriate punctuation/capitalization with few minor or major errors in proportion to the amount of writing.

Possible Fragments and Long Sentences lists groups of words that may be sentence fragments or that may be run-on sentences or that may not be punctuated correctly.
            a.  Writers should read through these groups of words to determine if they are, in fact, sentences.
            b.  Possible punctuation errors resulting from the creation of long sentences are explained.
            c.  General revision suggestions are provided.
Helping Verbs prints sentences that include the following “helping verb” problems.
  <Helper?> flags “been, done, gone, seen" when the verb is not preceded by the "has, have, or had."
  <Delete helping verb> flags “went” when it is accompanied by a helping verb.
  <am?is?are?Helper?> flags “be” to alert the writer to change the verb or to use an appropriate helping verb.
  <of have> flags phrases in which “have” should replace the word “of.”
SELF PRONOUNS prints sentences that include “self” or “selves” pronouns.
They are flagged as SELF and SELVES so that the writer can check to see whether he or she can replace the "self" or "selves" pronoun with a personal pronoun (I, me, we, us, you, he, him, she, her, they, them).
SINGULAR INDEFINITE PRONOUNS prints those sentences that include singular indefinite pronouns.  This analysis prints the singular indefinite pronouns in BLUE boldface capitals.  It identifies indefinite pronouns (any, every, one, somebody, anybody, everybody, no one, someone, anyone, everyone, nobody, something, anything, everything, none, each, another, either, neither) to alert the writer that all verbs and pronouns that relate to these indefinite pronouns must be SINGULAR.
PLURAL PRONOUN REFERENCE prints sentences that include third person plural pronouns.  The SorP? precedes three plural personal pronouns (they, them, or their) so that the writer can check to see that these pronouns refer to plural nouns.
PARALLELISM prints sentences that include one or more of four coordinate conjunctions.  The <Parallel?>BOLD words identify four words that are always coordinate conjunctions: and, or, nor, but.  The writer is directed to verify that he or she has used words, phrases, or clauses with the same structure within the pair or series.
Punctuation - INTRODUCTORY ELEMENTS prints sentences that probably include an introductory element.  The analysis flags, in BOLD UPPERCASE letters, the first word in a sentence that begins with a word that is probably an introductory word or that could mark an introductory phrase or clause.  The writer is directed to ensure that the introductory material is followed by a comma.
Punctuation - PAIRS AND SERIES, like the PARALLELISM analysis, prints sentences that include the four words that are always coordinate conjunctions, and, or, nor, but, and flags them with <Pair or Series?>BOLD.  Instruction relevant to punctuation of pairs and series is provided.
Punctuation – COMMA, SEMICOLON, COLON prints sentences that include one or more commas, semicolons, or colons.  Each of those points of punctuation is flagged with [Rule?] to encourage the writer to justify the punctuation or to delete it and to consider other punctuation that may be needed in the sentence.
UNBALANCED OR MISPLACED PUNCTUATION looks for single quotes, double quotes, apostrophes, and left and right parentheses and prints the number of times each of those punctuation elements is used in the document.  It directs the writer to find any unbalanced or misplaced punctuation.
It, then, provides a list of sentences that do not begin with capital letters and/or sentences in which the punctuation is positioned incorrectly with quotation marks.  Each is followed by a revision suggestion.
CAPITALIZATION lists words that are capitalized inconsistently in the document.  It looks for words that have two or more consecutive capital letters and, then, looks for and prints out other words where those words are not capitalized consistently.  As in all analyses, the writer must decide whether or not to make revisions.

INTEGRATION

Persuasive/Expository

The writing is fully developed with a clear and purposeful focus, balanced support and logical lines of reasoning.

Narrative

The writing is fully developed with a clear and purposeful focus, it has depth and balanced elaboration. Episodes and reactions are coherently and cohesively presented.

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Last modified 09/15/06.