Record S2 · 1979
S2: Explanatory Description
Written spring 1979; published in the December 1980 NAEP report. Age 17 in school; individual grade unknown.
Original student excerpt
It is a huge Canyon in Arizona that is a hundred feet deep and in some places a mile wide. It was made by a river that runs through the bottom of it. It is considered one of the seven wonders of the world. Many tourists from different countries come to see this marvel of nature.
Four consecutive sentences from the handwritten response, line breaks collapsed; original spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar preserved.
Prompt and conditions
Exact prompt. Everybody knows of something that is worth talking about. Maybe you know about a famous building like the Empire State Building in New York City or something like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Or you might know a lot about the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City or the new sports stadium in Atlanta or St. Louis. Or you might be familiar with something from nature, like Niagara Falls, a gigantic wheat field, a grove of orange trees, or a part of a wide, muddy river like the Mississippi. There is probably something you can describe. Choose something you know about. It may be something from around where you live, or something you have seen while traveling, or something you have studied in school. Think about it for a while and then write a description of what it looks like so that it could be recognized by someone who has read your description. Name what you are describing and try to use your best writing.
- Source conditions
- Source Free; none beyond prompt.
- Time
- 26.1 minutes. Appendix records 1,566 seconds.
- Production / archive
- handwritten; anonymous facsimile in 1980 report.
- Drafting
- timed, effectively first draft; no feedback revision.
- Population and selection
- National probability sample of in-school U.S. 17-year-olds in public and private schools; individual grade and geography suppressed; out-of-school 17-year-olds excluded. NAEP stratified multistage probability task sample; displayed paper purposively selected as score-point exemplar.
Scorer and feedback role
Institutional Assessor. Not an authenticated classroom-teacher feedback pair.
- Original source classification
- 3 of 4 — clear individualized subject and organizing pattern. Whole-response holistic score with relatively minor mechanical problems expected; not a classroom grade.
- Form
- Score Only; response-specific.
- Revision after feedback
- None survives.
Read the evidence coding
Conceptual claimThe Grand Canyon is a large natural and tourist landmark.
Ideas and relationships4 coded units. Size, river origin, world status, and tourism are sequenced with one causal relation.
AbstractionEmerging
Causal reasoningSimple
Qualification / counterargumentNone
Evidence useRecalled Detail
OrganizationDefinition Dimensions Origin Status Visitors
Sentence controlControlled
Lexical precisionSpecific Mixed
Articulation limitClaims are unqualified and dimensions imprecise; recalled facts are not demonstrated.
These are descriptive codes, not scores. No composite or rank is calculated. Holistic score 3 represented 28.8% of rateable descriptions; competent interior band, but not proof of an average writer.