ABSTRACT
Scores on essays, as is the case with other types of assessments, reflect a set of numbers assigned to individuals on the basis of performance, in which higher numbers reflect better performance (Peterson, Kolen, & Hoover, 1989). Depending on how the scores are derived, the numbers may reflect assignments given at the ordinal, interval, or ratio scale. With ordinally-scaled numbers, the higher the number, the more of the underlying trait or characteristic one possesses. However, the distances between the numbers on the scale are not assumed to be equal. For example, if one uses a writing rubric on a 5-point scale, it likely that the trait discrepancies in performance between a “1” and a “2” are different than between a “2” and a “3,” although the numeric result in both cases reflects 1 point The exception to this definition comes in the form of “rank-ordered numbers,” in which the lower the number, the more of the trait or characteristic one possesses. So, for instance, being ranked first in your high school is better than being ranked 16th.
