| Drawing on a classroom case study and interview studies, this dissertation examines the difference between assessment mechanisms in university writing classrooms and in professional workplaces. Upon this examination, the dissertation uses genre studies, Activity theory, and writing assessment theories to argue technical writing teachers need to learn from workplaces' best assessment practices and pedagogically integrate them with classroom practices. This integrated framework is what the dissertation refers to as authentic assessment: assessment that, above all, is contextualized, longitudinal, and collaborative.;The dissertation reports on a case study in which authentic assessment methods were implemented in an introductory technical writing classroom. These assessment methods included student-centered assessment instruments, professional assessment, peer assessment, student self-assessment, performance review, and group quizzes. Based on student survey findings and writing samples, this dissertation qualitatively analyzes the results of these assessment methods and finds they generated overall positive outcomes. As assessment methods, they increased the validity and reliability of classroom writing assessment. More importantly, they were integrated into students' genre-learning process so students could learn workplace writing in context within the classroom, as well as develop transferable genre knowledge and skills that facilitate their future learning in the workplace. The dissertation thus argues that authentic assessment methods such as those implemented in this case study are promising for the teaching of workplace writing, and recommends that technical writing teachers experiment with and further study the authentic assessment pedagogical framework.;Beyond classroom learning outcomes, authentic assessment, the dissertation argues, will have more global impacts if implemented across the technical writing program curriculum: it connects technical writing theory and practice, it creates a rhetorically defined workplace-readiness as one of the discipline's important learning objectives, it leads to value add education activities, and it can be integrated into outcome-based program reviews. Through these activities, programmatic authentic assessment creates the political force that facilitates technical writing's professionalization. |
