Placement Overview

Since we are eager to make our placement decisions as accurate as possible, we offer all students who place into English 100: Supplemental Writing Workshop an opportunity to have their writing skills evaluated. Please note: This placement assessment is only for students who receive a placement of English 110 with English 100 required. With a few exceptions, all students take English 110 Writing: Argument and Inquiry (formerly known as College Writing). There is no option of placing out of English 110. 

If you received notification that you placed into English 110 with English 100 recommended, you will not be automatically registered for English 100 and you do not need to take the placement exam. However, you may choose to enroll in English 100 for the extra writing instruction the course provides. If you wish to enroll in English 100, please contact Paula Patch, College Writing Coordinator, by email at ppatch@elon.edu. Please see the course descriptions of English 100 and English 110 to help you make your decision.

The English Writing Placement consists of three parts:

• Part 1: An on-the-spot response essay. To complete Part 1 of the English Writing Placement, you will take approximately 60 minutes to compose an essay in response to one of three prompts. The prompts will not require any research; rather, each prompt asks for your opinion based on your own experiences. An effective response essay is controlled by a thesis or central idea that is developed with specific supporting details and examples. Extended evaluation criteria are included with the online prompts.
• Part 2: A revision plan. Part 2 will prompt you to reflect on the Part 1 assignment and to describe how you would revise and further develop your response essay if you were given additional time. A strong revision plan will contain specific strategies and explanations for those strategies.
• Part 3: An optional portfolio of written work you've composed for your high school classes. We recognize that a timed writing examination might not reflect the writing that students could produce if they had time to plan and revise. Therefore, we also encourage you to submit two recent examples of your writing; you will be able to submit this optional portfolio of writing samples with your on-the-spot response essay, so please ensure that you have electronic copies (Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat files) of the writing you wish to submit before you log in to the placement page. These examples should include essays written for any high school or academic class. If possible, please include the assignment guidelines for each of the three examples.

How the English Writing Placement Impacts Your Schedule

If you were placed in English 100 based on your high school GPA and your SAT scores, you will receive an email invitation to take the English Writing Placement. Please do not complete the assessment until you have received the email invitation.

• If you do not complete the online English Writing Placement, you will remain enrolled in both ENG 100 and ENG 110 during the Fall semester (8 credit hours total).
• If you complete the online English Writing Placement by the deadline noted in the email, your placement will be reassessed based on your writing samples, and you either will:
  • Remain enrolled in both ENG 100 and ENG 110 during the Fall semester (8 credit hours total), or
  • Be placed only in ENG 110 (Fall or Spring semester, 4 credit hours total).

Evaluation Criteria

Response essays and revision plans will be assessed on the basis of the writer's ability to develop and support a thesis. A successful response will be well-developed, well-organized, and contain few if any grammar or punctuation errors. Click here to access the English Writing Placement.