Ask a student at Sacramento State what the hardest class to get into is, and odds are the answer will be “English 20”.

“I finally got in after four semesters of sitting on the floor with 20 other students trying to add. I was going on my fourth year in college, and people in their second year were getting in before me. It was frustrating, to say the least,” said Alison Reed, 20, a Criminal Justice major currently enrolled in English 20.

At debate is whether or not students should have to take English 20 to fulfill their General Education requirement. English 20, or its equivalent is currently required for graduation from Sac State.

The Writing Proficiency Exam, also a graduation requirement, can be taken without first taking English 20. Some students argue that if students can pass the WPE without the help of English 20, they should be exempt from the English 20 requirement.

“If you know how to write a basic essay with an intro, body, and conclusion you should be able to pass the test. Students that can’t pass the WPE obviously need more practice in writing,” said Edie Johnson, 21, a senior majoring in English..

“I don’t see the point in taking English 20 if I can pass the test on my own. It’s just a waste of time and energy that I could be spending on something else like finishing college,” said Roisin Olsen, 21, a Communication Studies major.

However, there is some skepticism about how well students can write, even if they can pass a test.

“There’s English majors that can’t write very well, so what does that say about the rest of the school? What about the students who are in math or science and aren’t getting all that extra instruction in English?” Johnson asked.

English 20 professor Stephen Cook emphasized a need for increased writing instruction. He said that due to many cultural factors, this era is what scholars have been known to call a “post-literate age”. In order for students to be classified as literate, they should be able to “…read with discernment and also able to construct sentences …paragraphs and essays,” he said.

In a Spring 1999 survey of faculty run by the General Education Policy/Graduation Requirements Committee, 25 percent or one-fourth of faculty rated the writing abilities of their students as “poor”, and 46 percent rated them as “fair”.

Reed admits that though she would rather do without another class, she could use the help in getting her writing up to speed.

“Even though I’m in my second semester as a junior, I know that my writing isn’t up to where it could be,” she said. “This semester is going to help me a lot.”

Some suggestions gathered from students as to how to fix the situation include opening more sections of English 20 each semester, allowing second semester freshman to enroll in the class, and making sure that juniors and seniors who have not been able to get into the class are guaranteed a spot.

Currently, priority is given to sophomores followed by graduating senior, seniors, and then juniors.

Without adding more sections of the class, it will become increasingly difficult for students to get into required classes. Administrators are anticipating a rise in enrollment, or “Tidal Wave II”, over the next couple of years.

One disgruntled student offered his own solution to the problem.

“If all the students that passed the WPE before English 20 didn’t have to enroll in that class it would be a lot easier for the students that actually need the class to get in,” suggested junior Patrick Hake.

For more information on this topic, please visit

http://inst-srv1.adm.csus.edu