Two modes of assessment: the case of academicians' writing

This study attempted to investigate writing problems and the relationship between expert-assessment and self-assessment of writing problems. Participants were thirty four non-English faculty members of Tehran and Guilan universities. The instruments were writing an essay on the topic "What teaching strategies do you use in your classes?" in twenty five lines and filling the questionnaire of writing problems including fourteen items (word choice, verb form, missing subject, verb tense, preposition, word order, article, plural "s", spelling, subject-verb agreement, missing verb, passive voice, conditional sentences, and capitalization).The researcher investigated these fourteen areas both in their essays and their questionnaires of self-assessment. The data analysis showed there was no positive relationship between expert-assessment and self-assessment and the participants underestimated themselves in the questionnaire. Furthermore, the writing problems based on expert-assessment were: verb form, word choice, article, preposition, plural "s", capitalization, spelling, subject-verb agreement, word order, passive voice, verb tense, missing subject, missing verb, and conditional sentences. The findings revealed the main factors causing these problems are L1 interference, lack of grammar knowledge, vocabulary weakness, and poor spelling. The participants can write accurately if they learn basic grammar, increase vocabulary, ways of error correction, and awareness of L1 interference.