The Writing Proficiency Requirement
Continuous development as a writer is a central part of a liberal arts education. All first-year students and new transfer students are required to take a written placement examination during orientation. The majority of students are placed into and encouraged to enroll in English 101W, College Writing. Some students will be invited to enroll in English 102W, the honors section of College Writing. English 101W and 102W serve as prerequisites for all other English Department writing courses.
Those students who are placed into English 100W, Writing Essentials must complete the class during their first full semester at Albion. A student placed into English 100W may drop or withdraw from the course only if diagnostic testing done the first week of class alters the student’s placement. The class must be taken for a numerical grade.
Each year, a few students place out of first-year writing classes. During the sophomore year, these students may enroll in 200-level English Department writing classes.
In order to graduate from Albion, all students must demonstrate college writing proficiency by fulfilling one of the following requirements:
- receive a 5 on the Advanced Placement Test in English Language and Composition;
- receive a 5 or higher on one of the International Baccalaureate higher level English tests;
- complete English 101W, College Writing, or English 102W, College Writing Honors, at Albion College with a grade of 3.0 or above;
- transfer a writing course that counts as English 101W at Albion College with a grade of 3.0 or above;
- pass the Writing Portfolio Evaluation (see details below).
Students are encouraged to enroll in English 101 or 102W early in their college careers in order to practice and improve college writing as a means to support their learning across the liberal arts curriculum and to fulfill the college writing proficiency requirement.
No student may receive a degree from Albion College without fulfilling the writing proficiency requirement.
Writing Portfolio
Upon reaching junior status, or 16 to 24 units, any student who has not yet fulfilled the writing proficiency requirement as indicated above will be automatically registered for and required to pass the Writing Portfolio evaluation (WPE) during their junior year. Juniors who do not pass on their first attempt—and have not fulfilled the writing proficiency requirement otherwise—will be contacted by the Director of Writing Assessment to discuss feedback on their WPE attempt, as well as how they can revise their portfolio for the next available submission deadline. They will be required to submit revised materials for the Writing Portfolio evaluation no later than the following semester.
Upon a second WPE failure, students must contact the Director of Writing Assessment and schedule a meeting to review their writing. After this consultation, the Director of Writing Assessment will require students to participate in appropriate writing practice, which may include tutoring and/or mandatory enrollment in English 101W as part of the writing proficiency requirement. Students must complete the assigned writing practice prior to attempting the WPE again.
The WPE will be scheduled at least five times each academic year. No special arrangements will be made for seniors who have not passed by the last submission deadline.
The Writing Portfolio evaluation will ask students to prepare the following over a four-week period between their registration for an evaluation and the submission deadline itself:
- 1 English language writing assignment that the have completed within the past year at Albion College and that they are proud of.
- (Alternatively, the student may gain permission from the Director of Writing Assessment to submit a compilation of smaller assignments, such as short stories, poems, emails, formal letters, etc.)
- A 875 to 1,000-word detailed, critical reflective essay explaining the process the student underwent to complete this writing, including brainstorming, drafting, research, seeking and utilizing feedback, and revising, based on assignment guidelines and the audience for the assignment(s). The essay will include not only an in-depth description of the student’s writing process, but also detailed examples drawn directly from the assignment(s) in the portfolio, including quotations and/or screenshots of previous versions of the assignment, and/or detailed descriptions of changes they made over time.
Students will be highly encouraged to schedule a meeting with the Director of Writing Assessment, the Director of Writing Consulting, or to attend WPE workshops or other programming to help them compile their portfolios ahead of the submission deadline.