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Teaching Tip: What is a Non-Scoreable Essay?

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Teaching Tip

Question: What is a Non-Scoreable Essay?

Answer: It has happened to all of our students at one time or another.  They wrote an essay, reread it to catch spelling errors, and submitted it to IntelliMetric™ for scoring.  Only instead of receiving a score, they received the message that the essay was “non-scoreable.”  Well, what exactly does that mean? 

IntelliMetric^TM is capable of applying several different non-scoreable “tags,” depending on the nature of the essay it has reviewed.  Following are the various tags that can be assigned to a non-scoreable essay:

• Too Short – This is, by far, the most common non-scoreable tag; an essay that consists of only a few words or sentences cannot be scored and will be marked as being “Too Short.”
• Off-Topic – This is another common non-scoreable tag; an essay that does not respond to the topic embodied in the writing prompt may be graded as “Off-Topic.”  Sometimes an essay that responds to the assigned topic in a unique or unusual manner might also be marked as “Off-Topic.”
• Repetitious – This tag may be applied to an essay that uses the same phrases over and over again or is composed of a paragraph that has been copied and pasted several times and submitted as a complete essay.  
• Insufficient – An essay identified as “Insufficient” is generally very short and, while it may represent a good beginning of an appropriate response, fails to demonstrate a complete response to the writing assignment.
• Too Many Unknown Words – An essay that is written in a foreign language or contains significant spelling mistakes that make comprehension difficult may be returned with this tag.
• Major Syntax Problems – An essay containing serious grammar or punctuation errors may be identified by this non-scoreable tag. 
•  Copied Prompt – An essay that copies directly from the writing prompt itself may be identified as a “Copy of the Prompt.”  Moreover, if the writing prompt is accompanied by a text, IntelliMetric™ will scan the submitted essay to determine if it contains too many words or phrases copied directly from the text.

How will I know an essay is non-scoreable?
If IntelliMetric^TM has identified an essay as non-scoreable, the essay will be marked as such in the student portfolio.  In the first place, students will find the image of a black clock in the “Status” column of the student portfolio. Clicking on this image will reveal its meaning: “The essay May Be Non-Scoreable - Try Revising.”  Furthermore, the holistic and trait scores will be withheld and replaced by “n/a.”

What should my student do with a non-scoreable essay?
As soon as a student sees that the essay has been marked non-scoreable, the student should immediately click on the “Report” column for that essay submission.  In place of scores, MY Access! will both indicate why the essay was marked as non-scoreable and provide feedback to the student to help him or her improve the next draft of the essay.  For example, if an essay is marked as a “Copy of the Prompt,” the student will be directed to “restate in your own words information from the prompt or passage.”  It is vital that students see a non-scoreable grade not as the end of the writing process (i.e., a failing grade), but rather as the beginning of the process of revision and improvement!  Students should endeavor to revise the essay and resubmit it for scoring.

What if the essay remains non-scoreable, even after my student has improved it?
A student may find that he or she has revised an essay several times and yet it continues to be marked as non-scoreable.  Writing Support & Scoring Services provides for a daily human review within 24 hours of all essays that are marked as non-scoreable by IntelliMetric®   The Scoring Center will confirm the essay as non-scoreable, or override the non-scoreable status and return holistic and trait scores.

Please contact the scoring@vantage.com for additional information.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under MY Access! eNews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.