The Writing Continuum showcases student work at all levels, along with educator comments about the work. The continuum was created after hundreds of reviewers evaluated thousands of work samples and determined which writing was most effective.

Use the work samples to help individual students see how their work can improve. For example:

• Locate work samples similar to the student’s current competence and compare them to work that is more effective.
• View comments about work samples that are relevant to the student’s work.
• Using the work samples as a guideline, set specific improvement goals and identify strategies for attaining them.

Continuum samples are organized into 15 groups, with beginners’ work in Group 1 and the most advanced writing in Group 15. Within each group, there are multiple writing samples that you can view. The groups do not correspond to grade levels.

Writing samples are numbered from 1 to 601 so they are easy to identify. However, all writing samples in each group are considered to show the same level of competence. For example, samples #70 and #71 are both in Group 6, so their writing is equally effective.

Learn more about the research-based process used to create the continuum.