How to create a writing test

A writing test is an assessment tool used to evaluate a person’s ability to express ideas clearly and effectively in written form. It includes open-ended questions that require candidates to produce original responses such as essays and short answers. Writing exams are commonly used in educational settings, language proficiency evaluations, and recruitment processes.

Creating a writing test involves defining its purpose, designing the test structure and tasks, and selecting appropriate evaluation methods.

Key takeaways

• Writing tests evaluate candidates' ability to express ideas clearly, accurately, and originally in written form.

• Use short or long response questions to measure real writing skills.

• Set character limits to guide response length.

• Support multilingual candidates with a virtual keyboard in multiple languages.

• Use auto-save and manual save features to protect longer written responses.

• Choose an evaluation method that fits the task: quick scoring for short answers, rubrics, or AI for long responses.

• Maintain fairness and originality by disabling spell check, text selection, and translation tools.

What is a writing test?

A writing test is a type of assessment in which participants answer open-ended questions in a written format with their own sentences. The test consists of questions that require short answers, such as expressing a brief opinion or solving a problem, or long answers such as composing an essay.

A writing test evaluates a candidate’s ability to organize ideas, use correct language, and communicate effectively in a written form.

Steps to create a writing exam

You can start by structuring your writing exam into sections and pages that reflect the types of written tasks you want to assess. You might start with a short-response section focused on clarity or grammar, followed by a longer essay task that evaluates reasoning and organization.

With TestInvite’s exam builder, you can create a writing test that fits your specific goals. Whether you're evaluating language skills or business writing, you have full control over the overall test structure.

Create text-based questions

You can use short or long text question types based on your needs. You can add images, audio, video, file attachments, lists, and headings to your questions. Multimedia elements help you create rich, engaging questions with added context.

Set character limits for responses

You can adjust the character count in answers. This gives you control over the response length. Character limits in writing exams prevent answers from being too short or too long. It keeps answers within a reasonable length.

Add a virtual keyboard if needed

A virtual keyboard is available in multiple languages, including English, Turkish, Russian, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Hebrew. This feature supports multilingual exams and accommodates candidates with different keyboard layouts.

Save answers both automatically and manually

Since writing responses can take time, the platform saves them automatically every few minutes and gives candidates the option to save manually as well. This helps prevent data loss and gives candidates a peace of mind while working on longer answers.

Select an evaluation method: Quick, rubrics, or AI

Various evaluation methods are available for writing tests, including quick scoring, rubric-based assessment, and AI-supported evaluation. Each method offers flexibility depending on the length of the response and the level of writing skills you want to measure.

Quick evaluation

For short, open-ended responses, quick evaluation can be achieved using automated text rules. These rules enable instant and objective scoring by defining specific conditions under which an answer is considered correct.

In the automation section, you can set rules such as:

• Should match: The answer must contain the given text.

• Should not match: The answer must not contain the given text.

Rubrics

Rubrics provide a structured, consistent, and transparent method for evaluating long open-ended responses. In TestInvite, evaluators can use the rubric editor to customize scoring criteria and ensure fair assessment of subjective answers.

TestInvite supports multiple rubric formats:

• Percentage selection: Fixed scores per level, such as Excellent = 100%, Satisfactory = 75%.

• Percentage custom selection: Score intervals vary per level, like Satisfactory = 70–80%, Fair = 50–65%.

• Percentage input: Evaluators manually assign a specific percentage, such as 82%.

• Percentage interval input: Evaluators choose from ranges like High (85–100%), Moderate (60–84%), Low (0–59%).

Each rubric row defines a criterion. Each criterion is assigned a weight, determining how much it influences the total score.

AI-based evaluation

AI-based evaluation tool automates the assessment of open-ended answers using natural language processing. It can score essays, detect grammar issues, and even analyze content relevance or creativity.

Prevent copy and paste, Google Translate, and spell check 

• Prevent selection (text copy): Preventing text selection reduces the chance of candidates pasting prompts into AI tools or other unauthorized applications. This helps ensure that all written responses reflect the candidate’s own understanding and language ability.

• Prevent Google Translate: Google Translate can help candidates understand the text-based questions more easily. You can disable it to ensure they rely on their own language skills.

• Prevent spell check: Writing tests often aim to evaluate a candidate’s true language ability, including spelling accuracy. Disabling browser-based spell check ensures that candidates aren’t unfairly assisted by automatic corrections during the exam.

Enable time limits, browser lockdown, and monitoring

• Time limits: You can set a time limit for the entire test, as well as individual time limits for specific sections and pages.

• Lockdown browser: You can use a lockdown browser to secure the test environment by restricting access to other websites, applications, and system functions on the candidate’s device during the exam.

• Screen recording: You can enable screen recording to monitor the candidate’s screen activity. Screen recording captures the candidate's on-screen actions throughout the exam.

• Webcam recording: You can enable proctoring to monitor user activity. Proctoring uses webcams, microphones, and AI tools to observe and verify the candidate’s behavior in real time or via recorded sessions.

When to use open-ended questions?

You can use open-ended questions when you want to assess a person's ability to think critically, express ideas in their own words, use language effectively, and demonstrate depth of understanding, creativity, or reasoning.

What are the advantages of writing tests?

• Encourage critical thinking and deeper analysis.

• Allow participants to demonstrate originality and creativity.

• Provide insight into language use, writing style, and communication skills.

• Enable assessment of reasoning, argumentation, and organization.

• Reduce the chances of guessing compared to multiple-choice questions.

What are the limitations of writing tests?

• Time-consuming to evaluate.

• Scoring can be subjective without a clear rubric.

• Harder to standardize across large groups.

• Responses may vary widely, making comparison difficult.

How to design an effective writing test?

• Clarify what the writing exam is intended to measure.

• Use direct language and avoid vague terms.

• Define what a high-quality answer looks like.

• Ensure there’s enough time for planning, writing, and reviewing.

• Use rubric-based or AI-assisted grading if you expect high volume, and ensure human review for nuanced interpretation when necessary.

• Use random question sets, limit copy-paste, and consider browser lockdowns and proctoring.