English Placement Criteria

Undergraduate English Evaluation Criteria

The Undergraduate English Placement test asks students to read a short article and respond in a short essay. The following guidelines will be used by the readers of the essay to place students in ENGL 10A, 10B, OR 1A:

• The ENGL 1A essay will respond directly, thoughtfully, and logically to the question or topic assigned. It will effectively summarize the reading. It will be well organized and well or adequately developed, using examples from the your experience and evidence from the reading to support your own ideas. It will show a clear command of language and will have very few errors in sentence structure, grammar, and mechanics.
• The ENGL 10B essay will respond directly to the topic, and will be adequately organized, although it may have limited development and problematic logic, and show an incomplete understanding of the reading. It may contain a few problems in sentence structure, grammar, or mechanics.
• The ENGL 10A essay may show little or no understanding of the topic and may lack coherence or adequate development. It will probably contain multiple errors in sentence structure, grammar, or mechanics.

Graduate English Evaluation Criteria

The Graduate English Placement test asks students to read a short article and respond in a short essay. The ENGL 301 requirement will be waived if your essay meets the following criteria:

• The essay will have few errors in sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• It will effectively summarize the reading, stating in a few sentences the author's main idea and supporting arguments.
• The essay will respond directly, thoughtfully, and logically to the question or topic assigned. An essay will be judged to be thoughtful and logical if it treats the topic seriously, identifies and develops a central theme, distinguishes among major and minor implications of the issue under discussion, backs up arguments with evidence from your own experience and relevant evidence from the reading, and clearly explains how conclusions are reached.
• The essay will be well organized. An essay will be judged to be well organized if it is focused on a central theme and if its subordinate ideas are clearly linked to that theme. To meet these conditions, a well-written essay will usually contain a thesis statement, topic sentences, and transitions, and will follow an introduction-body-conclusion pattern.
• The essay will be adequately developed. An essay will be judged to be well developed if its central theme responds directly to the question or topic assigned, and if its subordinate ideas are thoughtful, relevant, and convincing in their advancement of the central theme. To meet these conditions, a well-written essay will usually contain one or more of the following: vivid description, detailed analysis, and examples, all supporting the topic sentences.