Creating the writing assessment
Click the green + button and choose Writing Feedback in the Create menu, then Assign an essay. (You can also get here through Assessment → Describe & Create → Writing (Essay, etc.).)
If asked, confirm the Assessment Type as Writing (Essay, etc.).
Under What's the writing prompt for your students?, type the prompt. You can also Attach a reference file, Add reference passage or Add reference audio for students to work from, and use Improve this for me to expand your prompt.
Under Upload rubric, or define grading criteria, either attach your rubric or simply describe how you'll grade (for example, "Accuracy 40%, Explanation 40%, Writing 20%"). Kai turns your criteria into a rubric with 1–4 point levels for each criterion.
Set the Grade Level, the Feedback Language and, optionally, Align to Standards (up to 3).
Click Create.
Prefer to watch? See the quick tutorial Bulk Writing Feedback in the Knowt Teacher Community.
Checking the rubric
The assessment page shows the Writing Task and the generated Rubric. Expand any criterion to read the point levels, and click Edit to change them. Use Start Preview under Try out the assessment! to see exactly what students will see.
Assigning it
Click Assign. Quick Start lets students use the monitored AI assistant, grades out of 100, shows feedback after you review it and sets no word count. Custom Settings gives you:
Start – End Time — by default a writing assessment has no deadline.
Class — who receives it.
AI Access — whether students can use the monitored Thought Partner while writing.
Submissions — session attempts, allow late submissions, whether the rubric is visible to students, an optional word count, and whether log-in is required.
Feedback — Kai's feedback appears as inline comments plus a rubric breakdown (or a strengths-and-weaknesses summary for ungraded work). Toggle Additional in-line comments and Make assessment graded out of a score of 100.
Note: Students don't see any grade or comments until you review and publish them — see How to review and publish writing feedback.
If you have any more questions, please feel free to reach out to our team by clicking Help in the bottom-left corner of Knowt and choosing Contact Support.