The Writing portion of the Listening and Writing assessment measures a
person’s skill in writing work-related messages. Test takers act as
employees who write messages to relay information from customers,
co-workers, or suppliers to another person. After listening to an audio
message, they must write a summary based on the information they heard
and the notes they took during the message and its repetition. A
specified amount of time is given for writing before the next message in
the assessment is given.
A test taker’s skill level score is based on the writing mechanics (such
as sentence structure and grammar) and writing style used for the
written responses. It is not based on the accuracy or completeness of
the information, although the responses must be related to the provided
message and convey the information clearly. (See the scoring criteria.)
Skill levels range from 1 to 5 and each skill level incorporates the
skills assessed at the preceding levels.
The assessment contains six increasingly complex messages. The taped
messages reflect various workplace settings and are given by male and
female speakers of differing ages and various accents.
