Writing Placement Assessment
All WSU students needing to take a first-year writing course must participate in the Writing Placement Process.
The Writing Placement assessment at WSU guides students through a series of self-reflection activities and provides a prompt for a short essay that students will write and upload into the survey. The full response, including the short essay, will be read by trained readers who will make a placement determination.
The assessment will:
- ask students to consider their abilities as writers
- direct students to write a short essay and upload it into the survey
- guide students through several self-reflection questions
- be read and considered by trained readers who are also the teachers of first-year writing courses.
Once read and reviewed, individual placements will be posted in MyWSU and accessible to advisors as well. The fee is $50 and is non-refundable once you have taken the assessment and it has been evaluated. Fees are assigned to student accounts after the Writing Program evaluates and posts results in MyWSU.
Writing Placements
Based on your assessment, you will be placed into one of the following:
- English 100: placement in this course prepares students for the rigors of academic writing that will be found in English 101. Students must successfully complete both English 100 and English 101 to receive the [W] credit.
- English 101: places students into the course that provides an introduction to academic writing at the university.
- English 101 + 102: this placement means that students are mostly ready for the challenges of academic writing, but have demonstrated a need for additional assistance in at least two major areas of composition (focus, organization, support, style, mechanics, etc.). English 102 is a one-credit writing tutorial that helps students work on strategies to meet the requirements of English 101 courses. English 102 is taken concurrently with English 101.
- Exempt: this placement means that students demonstrate a sophisticated knowledge of the conventions of academic writing. Students who are exempted receive credit for taking English 101.
Exceptions to the Writing Placement Process requirement:
- Students who have earned scores of 4 or above on the AP test in English: Language and Composition will receive credit for English 101 and do not have to complete the Writing Placement Process.
- Students who earned scores of 5 on the AP test in English: Literature and Composition will receive credit for English 101 and do not have to complete the Writing Placement Process.
- Students who have earned scores of 4 or above on the Higher Level IB English A: Literature or the Higher Level English A: Language and Literature test will receive credit for English 101 and do not have to complete the Writing Placement Process.
- Students who are transferring in college-level English credit should send an official college transcript to Admissions for course evaluation. If considered equivalent to a WSU writing course, this college-level English credit will exempt you from the Writing Placement Process. Learn more about how your credit transfers into WSU.
University Writing Portfolio
The University Writing Portfolio is a mid-career diagnostic used to determine if students’ writing abilities have advanced in ways that can handle the writing demands of upper-division courses and courses in their major. This assessment is used to identify students who demonstrate a need for structured writing support with upper-division writing requirements, as well as recognize the standard of writing expected of all WSU graduates.
The University Writing Portfolio requires students to select two academic texts they’ve written that they are most proud of and to submit these documents to the Writing Program. Upon reaching 60 credits, students receive a registration hold as the final reminder that the University Writing Portfolio is due; students will have access to begin the submission process as soon as matriculation.
Completion of the University Writing Portfolio is a requirement for graduation at Washington State University.
Writing Assessment Office Staff
