Editor’s note: Updated on May 22, to correct information on the WPJ process.

Students who have felt pressured by time constraints when taking the Writing Proficiency Exam will now have two options to fulfill the writing graduation requirement next fall.

Starting fall 2009, the WPE will no longer be used to meet the Graduation Writing Assessment requirement, according to the Graduation Writing Assessment Program. The WPE is a timed English writing exam.

In place of the WPE, students will have two choices: take an English 109 course or the Writing Placement for Juniors exam, a two-hour test in which students will write two essays.

Students were previously able to retake the WPE twice. Now students will take the WPJ placement test once and be placed into a course based on his or her test score.

Students who have completed 60 to 74 units and have passed English 20, a second-semester English composition course, can take the first step to receive a Graduation Writing Assessment Placement by either taking the WPJ or enrolling in English 109W or English 109M, a class for students whose first language is not English.

Fiona Glade, coordinator for the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement Program, said the English 109 course is a portfolio-based class that will allow students to have essay work evaluated by a professor, and receive feedback and a Graduation Writing Assessment Placement number at the end of the semester. The score will place the student in a course or courses that will fulfill the program’s requirements.

Students who take the WPJ will receive another score that will assess whether they can enroll in a writing intensive course or additional English classes.

According to the General Education Writing Requirement, students may be placed in a three-unit upper-division writing intensive course, take an upper-division writing course and an English 109X course in the same semester.

They can also obtain six units by taking an English 109 course, and then a writing intensive course the following semester.

For the English 109X class, Glade said the professors and other faculty members will get together and read student portfolios to give second opinions on where the student should be placed.

“(The students) are going to do research in ways that will mimic the writing intensive courses,” Glade said.

She said the Faculty Senate met up and discussed the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement with the Reading and Writing Committee and created a proposal to implement the change for the fall.

Glade said the passing percentage rate of the WPE stayed between 70 and 75 percent over the years.

“It felt more like a barrier to graduate. We thought it would be better to have a class students would want to be in,” Glade said.

Isabel Landin, senior Spanish major, said she wasn’t ready for her WPE and wasn’t able to pass it.

“Since English is my second language, it’s a little bit harder,” Landin said.

Beverly Reed, Writing Programs Administrative coordinator, said the program has done something new by sending students who had 60 units messages on his or her MySacState account to remind them to take the WPJ.

Reed said there may have been a slight increase in complaints about the exam’s level of difficulty, but there had always been complaints about the exam.

She said 80 percent of students who take an English 109W and a writing intensive course the following semester pass the writing intensive course.

Glade said during the pilot course, 85 percent of 36 students who took an English 109X class and a writing intensive course in the same semester, passed in the fall 2008 semester.

“Based on my research, I’d say that it’s because those students received help with their writing at just the right time; they worked in small, collaborative groups with trained tutors to become more aware of their own writing processes and to revise their writing based on feedback,” Glade said.

Glade said the program will lose money because students will choose to take the class and not pay the $25 fee for the WPJ that is used to hire faculty to grade the exam.

Jenna Seehafer, English 20 professor, said the English 109W or English 109M class is a better option for students who live in dread of writing under time pressure, or who do not feel comfortable writing or reading.

Seehafer said there have been changes to the English 20 curriculum, such as students investigating differences between the kinds of thinking, analysis, and arguments expected in various majors.

Seehafer said most students who pass English 20 with a good grade are now able to pass the WPJ.

Melissa Soto, junior criminal justice major, said English 20 helped her pass the WPE because she had timed writing assignments in class that focused on one topic, which was similar to the WPE.

“I do think the WPE is fair because they let teachers that understand multilingual students writing read their essays,” Soto said.

Glade said students may keep taking the timed exam because it only costs $25 and a class is more expensive and takes more time.

Catherine Robledo can be reached at [email protected].