This link has been bookmarked by 3 people . It was first bookmarked on 22 Jun 2009, by Clay Burell.
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26 Jun 11
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22 Jun 09
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The ACT, which also has a new writing test,
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While some writing instructors have praised the College Board for adding writing, saying that the move sent a strong message, many think that the test encourages the worst kind of writing.
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Les Perelman, director of the Writing Across the Curriculum program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, thinks the writing test is so bad that he coaches students on how to write abysmal essays, while including words that the College Board likes ("plethora" is key) and to end up with great scores.
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The College Board favors the traditional "five paragraph essay" format taught to high school freshmen, and those who are going to succeed in college have generally mastered the format and picked up the various tricks that earn good scores on the essay. (One of Perelman's students, to show how the scoring favors quotations from famous people, accurate or not, took the test using various quotes that happened to be visible in the testing room, and attributed all of them to Lee Iacocca -- and she earned great scores.)
"The writing test is teaching students a lot of bad habits," said Perelman. "It's real predictive value, in terms of writing, is nil."
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18 Jun 08
Spencer SchaffnerPerelman said that it’s absolutely no surprise that students who do well on the SAT writing test do well in college. The College Board favors the traditional “five paragraph essay” format taught to high school freshmen, and those who are going to su
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