B.A. / B.L.A. Upper-Division Writing Assessment:
A Guide for Students, 2007-2008

Table of Contents
Welcome to the BA / BLA Upper-Division Writing Assessment!
Deadlines: 2007-2008
What should be included in the impromptu critical analysis essay?
What benefits does the portfolio review provide to students?
What should be included in the English 311 writing portfolio?
What should be included in the portfolio cover letter?
What criteria will the faculty panel use to evaluate portfolios?
Procedure
Evaluative Criteria
Feedback
Sample Portfolio
How should the portfolio be formatted?
General Guidelines
Anonymity
Questions or concerns?
Appendix A: Special Instructions for BLA or BA Distance Students
Appendix B: Junior Portfolio Checklist
Appendix C: Tips for Revision
Appendix D: Portfolio Evaluation Rubric
Appendix E: Paper Format

Welcome to the BA / BLA Upper-Division Writing Assessment!
One of the requirements for completion of the BLA program and the English B.A. program is to pass a writiing assessment administered by the UAS Learning and Testing Center.  This assessment should  be completed by the first two weeks of a student's enrollment in English 311.  If you receive a "conditional pass", you are then required to submit an English 311 writing portfolio at the end of that semester.  This writing portfolio will be reviewed by a cross-disciplinary panel of UAS faculty. This review is designed to help you demonstrate competency in writing that will provide the foundation for your upper-division course work and future professional life. By participating in the portfolio review process, you will learn valuable skills and will develop greater confidence in your abilities as a writer.

Deadlines: Fall Semester 2007

• The impromptu writing will be offered in the UAS Learning and Testing Center untill Friday, September 14, 2007.
• Contact the UAS Learning and Testing Center at (907) 796-6348 to register for the impromptu essay writing and to ascertain the UAS Auke Bay location for the impromptu writing, or to coordinate a local proctor for distance students.

Deadlines: Spring Semester 2008

• The impromptu writing will be offered in the UAS Learning and Testing Center until Friday, January 25, 2008.
• Contact the UAS Learning and Testing Center at (907) 796-6348 to register for the impromptu essay writing and to ascertain the UAS Auke Bay location for the impromptu writing.

 For your upper-division writing assessment, you will be required to write an impromptu critical analysis essay in the UAS Learning and Testing Center. After you have completed this essay, the UAS Learning  and Testing Center staff will forward it to the faculty review panel. If you are a distance student, your local proctor should fax your completed essay to the Humanities Adminstrative Assistant at 796-6406 (fax).

What should be included in the Impromptu Critical Analysis Essay?
You will write a proctored impromptu essay that is 2 to 3 pages long. The purpose of the essay is to demonstrate your ability to read critically and to produce readable, reasonably polished prose by yourself without the editorial help of others. When you arrive at the UAS Learning and Testing Center, you will be given a short essay to read and respond to in writing. You will have 1.5 hours to write this essay. You will be expected to write a brief summary of the essay in your introductory paragraph and take a position that responds to the author's argument. Your subsequent essay should primarily evaluate how the author constructed his or her argument. You may respond to the essay by agreeing or disagreeing with various points of the essay and supporting that stand with your own reasoning and experience. You may illustrate one of your points with personal experience or you might include examples that support or refute the argument of the essay prompt. (Distance students should contact The UAS Learning and Testing Center (907-796-6348) to make arrangements for a local proctor to oversee their essay writing.)

Readers expect your impromptu critical analysis essay to have a clear thesis and organization. It is also important that your essay demonstrate effective proofreading and editing skills. Make sure you reserve time for revising your writing during the designated time period. You may bring a dictionary and a writing handbook to the UAS Learning and Testing Center on the day of your impromptu critical analysis essay, but you may not bring any other resources (such as drafts or notes) with you. If you would like to use a computer to write your essay, please contact the Learning Center in advance for a reservation.

If your writing assessment receives a conditional pass, you, as a B.L.A. student, can only be conditionally admitted to the program. As a B.A. student, you will be placed on probation. As part of this conditional or probationary status, you will be required to submit your English 311 writing portfolio at the end of your semester enrollment.  You will also be required to work closely with your academic advisor in order to make sure that you develop and demonstrate writing competency during your junior and senior year. If you are a distance student, see below.

What benefits does the portfolio review provide to students?
UAS students who have completed English 311 portfolios find that the portfolio review process enhances their learning process. They feel more invested in their writing when they know that it will be read by a distinguished panel of readers. Students also find that preparing a portfolio enables them to reflect on their own growth in writing. This allows them to feel pride in their accomplishments and to have a clear sense of what writing issues they need to work on in the next stage of their academic career. Finally, the portfolio review certifies that students have achieved competency in writing that will enable them to be successful in upper-division college courses and their professional careers.

What should be included in the English 311 writing portfolio?
Incomplete or improperly formatted portfolios will not be read by the portfolio review panel. At the time of submission, your portfolio must include (in this order):

• A 2- to 3-page cover letter that introduces the contents of the portfolio.
• 20 to 25 pages of writing. The portfolio must include a variety of types of academic writing (analytical, persuasive, technical, etc.) and it must include a minimum of 3 papers, but not more than 5. Papers must be prose, not poetry or drama.
• One of the essays submitted must be a research paper that is at least 6 pages long and makes reference to at least 5 research sources. None of the papers may be collaborative projects written with someone else. Note: The 20 to 25 page minimum does not include the cover letter.

When your portfolio is read by the faculty review panel, it should include the 2- to 3-page impromptu critical analysis essay you wrote. The UAS Learning and Testing Center staff will make sure that your essay is forwarded to your English 311 instructor.

What should be included in the portfolio cover letter?
You will write a 2- to 3-page cover letter that introduces the contents of your portfolio. The quality of the cover letter is important. The portfolio review panel will read it first, and first impressions are lasting. Like any essay, your cover letter needs to have an identifiable thesis as well as a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.

The thesis of your cover letter should make an overall point about your progress as a writer in your first two years of college. Body paragraphs should give details about the kinds of assignments that produced each essay. Explain the purpose of each of the essays that you include. These paragraphs should also make points about what specific issues you have been working on in these papers and in your writing in general during English 311. This might include a brief history of your experience as a writer or a discussion of which paper in the portfolio you think is best and why.

What criteria will the faculty panel use to evaluate your English 311 portfolios?

Procedure: Each portfolio will be read by at least two faculty readers.

Evaluative Criteria: The most important quality to strive for in your writing is “readability.” The portfolio review panel expects all of the writing in your portfolio to be clear and understandable the first time without significant confusion or distraction. See the evaluation rubric below.

Feedback: As they evaluate your writing, readers will make notes about what writing issues you need to work on in future courses. The Director of Assessment will type these comments and send them to you upon your completion of English 311.

Samples: A sample portfolio is available on reserve at the Egan Library under Sample BLA Junior Portfolio. Ask for call number BLA.R10.

CAUTION: As you assemble your portfolio, it is wise to get feedback from your advisor on the papers you have selected. Select your strongest papers and give those papers another careful revision. See below for more suggestions.

How should the portfolio be formatted?

General Guidelines : Put all of your papers in a manila folder with your Student ID# on it. All papers should be typed and double-spaced with one-inch margins. Staple each paper together separately. Final drafts of papers submitted should be clean copies with no instructor or student markings on them. Please put the date of the most recent draft on the final draft of each paper. An example of correct paper format is included below.

Anonymity : The portfolio must be submitted anonymously in order to ensure an objective evaluation process. Make sure you replace your name with your Student ID# (or student identification number) on all papers included in your portfolio.

Questions or concerns?
We hope that you find the junior portfolio evaluation process beneficial! We welcome your feedback. Contact the Director of Composition:

Jo Devine Acres
(907) 796-6411
221 Soboleff
jfjd@uas.alaska.edu

Special Instructions for B.L.A. or B.A. Distance Students

• Contact the UAS Learning and Testing Center (907-796-6348) early in the semester in which you are enrolled in English 311.
• Distance students will need to find a proctor for the impromptu critical analysis essay, for example, a librarian, teachers, principal, or public official. Once you have identified a proctor, call or write the UAS Learning and Testing Center Coordinator, John Bilderbeck, with the name, title, mailing address, fax number, and telephone number of this person.
• Assistance with portfolio preparation is available to distance students via the UAS Learning and Testing Center web page.
• If you fax your portfolio, make certain that your name is not on the fax heading. This way your portfolio remains anonymous.

English 311 Portfolio Checklist
Make sure you . . .

• Include a 2- to 3-page cover letter.
• Include a 2- to 3-page proctored, impromptu critical analysis essay
• Include 20 to 25 pages of college-level academic writing f(not counting the cover letter or impromptu critical analysis essay) with a minimum of 3 papers, but not more than 5. None of the papers should be collaborative projects.
• As part of this 20 to 25 pages, include a research paper of at least 6 pages that makes reference to at least 5 sources and includes a list of references.
• Use a standard documentation scheme correctly and consistently in your research paper ( e.g. MLA, APA).
• Revise and polish your essays extensively.
• Place your essays in the correct order in the manila folder: cover letter and then academic essays.
• Replace your name with your Student ID# on all papers.
• Put the course title, assignment type, and date of the most recent revision on all papers.
• Put page numbers on all papers.
• Staple each paper separately.
• Put your Student ID# on the manila folder (but not your name).
• Review a complete draft of the portfolio with your advisor or a UAS Learning and Testing Center tutor.

Tips for Revision

• Don't ignore that your essay audience has changed, and you should revise your essays to reflect their new generic audience.
• It’s best not to wait until the last minute to revise the papers for your portfolio. Try to work on them well in advance of the portfolio deadline with the help of your instructor and UAS Learning and Testing Center tutors.
• As you revise your papers, check very carefully for coherency. Can your reader follow your line of thinking? Is your focus clear? Academic papers require a thesis statement that establishes this focus. In this statement, you introduce your topic and define the parameters of your discussion about the topic. Every section of your paper should help to develop those parameters. Be certain to include language that points out how each section relates to your thesis.
• Re-read the first sentence of every body paragraph. Does this topic sentence make a point in support of the thesis? Does the rest of the paragraph provide examples or other support for the topic sentence?
• When revising, pay special attention to paragraph length. A series of very short (one to three sentence) paragraphs might make readers think that your essay is under-developed. Likewise, a series of page-long paragraphs might make readers think that your essay lacks focus.
• When referring to sources, be sure to integrate quoted material smoothly. It’s best to keep quotes out of topic sentences. Introduce quoted material with a signal phrase: According to John Smith, “people need to be able to write in order to succeed professionally (23)."
• Editing skills are very important. It’s best to set up a series of appointments with Learning Center tutors to work on editing each paper. Be sure to ask the tutor to focus on one editing issue at a time so that you can learn to edit your writing independently. Make your papers the very best that they can be.
• Proofread papers carefully. Spell check will not catch all spelling errors! One proofreading technique you might try is to read one sentence at a time by covering the rest of the page with a plain sheet of paper.
• It’s best to review a complete draft of your portfolio with your advisor or a Learning Center tutor before submitting a final version to the portfolio review panel.

Portfolio Evaluation Rubric

Effective English 311 portfolios are competent or better in overall quality. In most of the papers in the portfolio,

• Thesis statements and organizational schemes are clear and focused.
• Topic sentences and transitions are used effectively to introduce and link body paragraphs.
• Examples, quotes, data, or other specific details are used effectively as support for thesis statements and topic sentences.
• Language is precise and appropriate.
• Sentence structure is for the most part clear, economical, and varied
• There may be some errors in proofreading, grammar, punctuation, and syntax. However, these errors do not obscure the writer’s meaning.

Avoid the following:

• Thesis statements are unclear.
• Organizational schemes are hard to follow.
• Topic sentences are inadequate and transitions between paragraphs are absent.
• Examples, quotes, data, or other specific details are not used to support thesis statements and topic sentences.
• Paragraphs are choppy and underdeveloped.
• Secondary sources are not cited correctly or are not cited at all.
• Language is wordy, vague, and repetitive.
• Sentence structure is repetitive and hard to follow.
• There are errors in proofreading, grammar, punctuation, and syntax. These errors distract the reader to such an extent that the writer’s meaning is obscured.

Paper Format

123-45-6789

November 16, 2005

English 305, Research Paper

Title Goes Here

Notice that on the first line of the heading above the student’s name has been

replaced with a Student ID#.  The second line gives the date of the most recent

revision of the essay. Finally, the third line identifies thecourse and type of essay.

The title of the essay should be capitalized and centered. Don’t underline or

boldface the title. Also avoid fancy and large fonts. Notice that the entire

heading, including the title, is double- spaced and is written in 12

pt. font. Be sure not to put extra spaces before or after the title.

The body of the essay should be double-spaced. Be sure not to put

extra spaces between body paragraphs. Each page after the first one

should be numbered. Put the page number in the upper-right-hand

corner. Margins should be one-inch widethroughout the paper.