Wpa-comppile Research Bibliographies

Different readers read differently. This simple insight is the basis for all the work in distributive evaluation, a model that rejects “true score” and accepts individual variation in scores, rates, or other values placed on the same text. However, as this bibliography of research shows, writing faculty and WPAs who have researched and implemented distributive evaluation systems have moved in many different directions from this initial insight: Peter Elbow (2006, 1968) has argued for distributive evaluation practices that embrace the differences among individual readers; Fred Kemp (Kemp, 2005; Wasley, 2006) has designed ICON, a computerized system that distributes grading among multiple readers, but uses standardization (i.e., norming of readers) to produce consistent scoring; Asao Inoue (2005) and Carl Whithaus (2005) have argued for assessment practices where distributive evaluation is based on the community consensus in a particular classroom; and Scott Warnock (2009) and Paul Prior et al. (1997) have argued that distributive evaluation can incorporate the ways readers from different disciplines or professions read documents from their own perspectives.