ABSTRACT
We have written this essay for an audience that includes the writing program administrator who said, “Assessment is just frightening, no matter who is at the other end doing the evaluation” (Mullin, 1997, 8). Assessment doesn’t have to be frightening, nor does it have to require a lot of time, energy, and money. When assessment occurs, the future of the writing program doesn’t have to be at stake. Furthermore, assessment need not represent a quantified, numerical point of abstraction far removed from human interaction. Moreover, it doesn’t have to be boring. Rather, assessment can be the very thing that reveals and enacts the reason why writing programs exist in the first place: to improve communication between writers and readers. In other words, assessing a program can be like tutoring a writer—addressing questions, through conversation, that help people see more clearly what they’ve been doing so they can then do more effectively what they need to achieve. Assessment activities can represent the best of what happens when writers interact and learn from one another.
