What Kind of Assessment is the WPE?
Tthe WPE is a performance assessment given in CNHS, CLA, and CSM. (Both CM and CPCS use different kinds of assessments, but each College evaluates each student's intermediate writing proficiency). You should take it between your sophomore and junior year (60 to 75 credits). WPE assess your ability to perform particular capabilities or habits of mind that the Faculty at UMB created as learning outcomes, which are central to the General Education Program. Carefully read and re-read the Elements of Writing Proficiency because it explains capabilities expected of you and exactly how your essay will be evaluated. Your abilities not only as a proficient writer, but also as a critical reader, and an analytical thinker are evaluated.
In order to best demonstrate your abilities as a writer, reader, and thinker, the faculty believe that you must have these abilities: to summarize complex issues; to define key terms used in the problem that the reading set presents; to evaluate the various arguments of the authors in the reading set; and to organize a position in which you, as a writer, demonstrate your thinking on an aspect of the complex issue presented in the reading set. To demonstrate these abilities you must read and prepare in advance a set of related articles on an academic topic; then, you write an essay that develops your position on the problem or issue in the readings. Because the WPE requires careful preparation of a set of readings, the timed-essay exam is not scheduled during the Fall or Spring semester when courses are in progress. The Portfolio option can be submitted at two additional periods during the academic year because you have up to six weeks to prepare your essay.