Diskussion von Dimensionen und Kriterie...

This contribution discusses dimensions and criteria of the format of school leaving examinations inAustria, especially concerning writing competences. The recently introduced new format of written examinationin Austria focusses on writing skills on the basis of standardized assignments and assessment criteria. Thestudents are to produce genre-specific texts with reference to input texts given in the task. After an overview ofthe format of the written school-leaving examination and the outline of a study carried out to evaluate thisformat, three major dimensions of assessing written texts are discussed: content (‘Inhalt’), text structure(‘Textstruktur’) and phrasing (‘Stil und Ausdruck’). The discussion illustrates expectable results of this taskformat and identifies considerable differences between text genres regarding the realization of linguistic featuresin these dimensions. The discussion concluds with a brief outline of didactic consequences, i.e. the applicationof criteria of assessment and requirements for basic and advanced teacher training.