Writing facts & stats

Question 1

On NAEP's 2011 writing test, what share of U.S. eighth-graders performed at or above the Basic level?

Accepted Answer

80%. It was NAEP's first computer-based writing assessment; 24,100 eighth-graders composed their responses on computer.

Question 2

What was the median income from books for all U.S. authors surveyed in 2022?

Accepted Answer

$2,000. Median total author-related income was $5,000; only 35% of respondents considered themselves full-time authors.

Question 3

What was the median annual pay for U.S. writers and authors in 2025?

Accepted Answer

$76,910. That works out to about $36.98 an hour; many writers and authors are self-employed.

Question 4

What was the median book income for full-time U.S. authors in 2022?

Accepted Answer

$10,000. Adding other author-related income brought their median total to $20,000.

Question 5

On NAEP's 2011 computer-based writing test, what share of 12th-graders used right-click spell-check at least once?

Accepted Answer

74%. Students could also use a thesaurus tool; those who used it more often scored higher on average.

Question 6

How many characters does the Unicode Standard (version 17.0) encode for the world's writing systems?

Accepted Answer

159,801. Version 17.0 added 4,803 characters, including four new scripts such as Sidetic and Tai Yo.

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