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About MTTC Writing
The Writing section of the MTTC assesses basic skills and concepts that are important in performing the job of an educator. The MTTC requires you to write an essay on a given topic.
Since there are a total of four and one-half hours to complete all sections of the MTTC Basic Skills Test, you should allocate approximately 60-80 mintues to complete the writing assignment. This is a guideline, however, and each writer should allocate his time accordingly depending on his strengths or weaknesses.
Each essay is evaluated immediately after each MTTC administration by at least two readers using a four-point score scale (see next page).
Graders will evaluate essays based on the following criteria:
| I. |
Appropriatness: the extent to which the writer addresses the topic and uses language and style appropriate to the given audience, purpose, and occasion |
| II. |
Unity and Focus : the clarity with which the writer states and maintains the main idea or point of view |
| III. |
Development: the amount, depth, and specificity of the supporting details |
| IV. |
Organization: the clarity of the writing and the logical sequence of the writer's ideas |
| V. |
Structure and Conventions: the effectiveness of the writer's sentence structure and the extent to which the writing is free of errors in sentence structure |
| VI. |
Usage: the extent to which the writing is free of errors in usage and shows care and precision in word choice |
| VII. |
Mechanical Conventions: the demonstrated ability to spell common words and to use the conventions of capitalization and punctuation |
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