Using Writing Checklist in Composing Descriptive Essays among EFL Learners at the Intermediate Level

This study investigated the impact of writing checklist on composing descriptive essays among EFL learners at the intermediate level. The research was conducted through pre and post-test experimental design at Islamic Azad Abadan University. Sixty participants were non-randomly selected among 90 students based on Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). Then they were assigned to experimental and control groups. Both groups were given a pre-test of writing a descriptive essay including 150 words. During ten sessions of treatment, both groups covered five chapters extracted from “Paragraph Writing” developed by Dorothy and Carlos (2005). The experimental group used checklist for learning in order to score the essays in peer teamwork while the control used teacher correcting technique in each session. Finally, the participants took the post-test of writing descriptive essays at the end of course. Data were analyzed to measure the effect of instruction on the post-tests through Paired and Independent Samples t-test. The results showed that students in the experimental group outperformed the control group who did not use the writing checklists. The implications suggest that using the writing checklists could be beneficial more for those students who use it rather than those students who follow traditional writing activates.