What is the WPE?
There are four courses in the General Education program that form a pathway to help you prepare for the WPE: English 101; English 102; the First Year Seminar; and the Intermediate Seminar. It is important that First Year students and new transfer students be sure to make Gen. Ed. courses a priority as you devise your course schedule; these courses are required and prepare you for the kind of independent reading, writing, and thinking that is assessed by WPE.
Every student in an undergraduate degree program in CNHS, CLA, and CSM must pass the WPE after you complete both 60 credits and your Intermediate Seminar. However, if by the time you complete 75 credits you have not completed your Intermediate Seminar, the CLA and CSM policy, effective Fall 2002, states that you must satisfy the WPR by the time you have reached 75 credits. Therefore, whether or not you have completed the Intermediate Seminar, if you have 75 credits you must take the WPE. While students may take the WPE until they pass it, if you do not complete this requirement by the time that you have 75 credits you will be required to enter into a Learning Contract. Learning contracts will affect your progress toward your degree because most often they will restrict you to twelve credits, three of which will be a required writing course. If you have 75 credits, you will be allowed two 12 credit learning contracts, up to 99 credits.
Students with over 100 credits who have not successfully completed the WPE will be limited to 2 classes, one must be a writing class, until the Writing Proficiency Requirement is completed.
NOTE: The Writing Proficiency Examination is not the same assessment as the Writing Placement Test, which all students take when they enter CNHS, CLA, or CSM. The Writing Placement Test determines your placement in the English composition course sequence. Although both are a part of the General Education Program, the English Placement Test places students in the appropriate Freshman Writing courses (English 101 or 101E, and English 102 and 102E). As a result of the placement test, you may be required to complete English 099 or an ESL 100 course before English 101/101E; or, if you have transferred credits to UMB for English 101/102, you may be required to take CRW 221 after English 102/102E. The Writing Placement Test is important because taking the appropriate level English composition class is a key to your success as a new student at UMB and equally important, it is the start of the General Education course pathway and your preparation for the WPE.
The two introductory English courses, English 101 and 102, and two General Education courses, G100 and G200, are designed with a purpose: to be a pathway to the WPE.
2 Test Options:
You have two options for how we evaluate your writing proficiency: both are called the WPE; and both are performance assessments. In other words, you have to write an essay independently and without assistance. Both of the options require that you carefully study a set of readings on a particular topic. After you have read and thought about the issue or problem that is developed in the reading set, you will write an analytical essay based on a question that is provided to you.
The first option is a timed (three-hour) essay examination. The timed-essay examination is offered twice a year: in January and June. The timed-essay examination is submitted for evaluation at the end of the test period. Note: Students with disabilities, who would prefer the timed essay examination option, may arrange to take the test with appropriate accommodations by contacting the Ross Center for Students with Disabilities at least one week, but preferably two weeks, in advance of the examination.)
The second option is a portfolio evaluation that is offered four times a year: in October, January, March, and June. If you choose the portfolio option, you submit a 5 page essay, along with three analytical, graded essays that you have written for courses at UMB and that have been certified by the instructors. The new essay is written over a period time that is often up to six weeks. The Portfolio Certification Form and the Portfolio Submission Form are both available as downloadable forms or at the Writing Proficiency Office. If you have tried the timed essay examination before and have been asked to retake it, you should consider the portfolio option.
The Portfolio may demand a little more of your time than the time- essay examination, but in many ways it is a better alternative for everyone because it offers you more time to read, organize and draft your essay. Additionally, it provides the faculty readers with a more accurate picture of your abilities as a writer. The portfolio is a more authentic demonstration of your capabilities because you control the writing conditions; it should lessen the normal stress or anxiety which often comes with timed examinations. Although a more polished essay is expected in a portfolio, the portfolio option gives you up to six weeks to draft, revise, and edit your essay. If you have experienced difficulty writing under time limits in the past, or if you have a disability that complicates writing an essay in examination conditions, then we strongly urge you to choose the portfolio option.