Placement Procedures
Before arriving on campus for orientation and advising, first-year students are asked to write an essay in response to a particular question or writing prompt. The department offers orientation placement for students who arrive for orientation and advising without having written their placement essays.
Placement essays are read by a committee of English department faculty members who assess then place students in appropriate sections of first-year English classes. While all students must take English 101, they will be placed in one of five kinds of First-Year English (ENL 101):
- Critical Reading and Writing I
- Supported sections of Critical Writing and Reading I — includes a Writing Center Component
- ESL for English Language Learners
- Basic English Review for the College Now program
- Honors, by invitation
All of these sections share the same philosophies and practices. Students are required to invent, draft, and revise their compositions, while learning how to analyze, critique, and write about various texts.
In "supported" sections of Critical Writing and Reading (ENL 101), students receive the extra helps they will need to succeed at college writing. They enroll in smaller sections of ENL 101. They also work in groups with a tutor from the Writing and Reading Center (WRC). In these ways, students in "supported" sections receive highly individualized instruction in first-year college writing.
Honors sections of English 101 are available to students who not only write highly proficient placement essays, but who also meet the particular criteria of the honors program, which includes a verbal SAT score of 600 or higher.
