Nasim Ghanbari

This study aimed to investigate the students’ perception of writing assessment criteria. To achieve this goal, the researcher introduced agreed upon criteria to find out if there were any significant improvement in learners’ performance in writing assessment. The study further aimed to explore whether the learners’ assessment are in agreement with the teachers’ assessment prior to and following the learners' being provided with the rating criteria. Hence, 3 teachers and 26 students participated in the study. The students were asked to write on a topic and rate their own work based on their own knowledge. Teachers, on the other hand, asked to make an agreed upon scoring scale to rate the student’s writing. After providing the students with the new scoring scale, they were asked to rate their own works using the scale for the second time. The results of analyzing the students’ comments on their works in the first time revealed that they were able to address some parts of writing components. The comparison between the students' scores on the first and second occasions did not differe significantly. However, by comparing the teachers’ and the students’ scores on the second time the study showed significant corelation. Results and implications of the findings for the rating practice of the Iranian EFL classroom are further discussed.