The English Department regularly participates in two kinds of program assessment: Writing Skills Assessment and Discipline-Specific Assessment
Writing Skills Assessment
The Writing Skills Assessment program consists of writing samples taken from students at the end of
ENGL 101 and/or ENGL 299. These writing samples may be used for assessing the effectiveness of the
composition sequence and/or the Writing-to-Learn Program. The writing samples are graded holistically
by departmental writing instructors.
For the grading scale used, see the section on Credit-by-Examination in this manual.
Discipline-Specific Assessment
Undergraduate Program.The Discipline-Specific Assessment program
for under-graduates consists of ENGL 699, Senior Seminar in English.
In this one-credit hour course, senior English majors with 85 credit hours or more compile a portfolio of
academic and assessment materials that is evaluated by three Department faculty who are not instructors of
the course.
Students must receive two passes on their portfolios before they are allowed to complete
ENGL 699 successfully.
Students must complete ENGL 699 in order to graduate.
Graduate Program.
The Discipline-Specific Assessment Program for
graduate students consists of a three-part comprehensive examination that is administered to all
students independent of their course work.
The director of the Department graduate program coordinates the comprehensive examination program.
Comprehensive examinations are graded anonymously by Department graduate faculty. Students must
receive passes from a majority of graders before they are allowed to complete the graduate program
successfully. For more information on graduate examinations, see
the Graduate Program section.
Record Keeping
Writing Skills Assessment. The director of composition and the Writing-to-Learn program director supervise the Writing Skills Assessment program and report all scores to the appropriate University agencies. The English Department secretary also maintains a record of all scores and communicates these scores to students as directed.
ENGL 699: Senior Seminar in English. The instructor of ENGL 699, Senior Seminar in English, coordinates the evaluation of student portfolios and reports the results of the evaluation to the Registrar and to the English Department office. The chair of the English Department is responsible for reporting the results to appropriate University agencies. The English Department secretary maintains a record of all evaluations of student portfolios in ENGL 699.
Graduate Comprehensive Exam. The director of the graduate program reports the results of the comprehensive examination to the:
- English Department office
- University Office of Graduate Studies
- appropriate students.
The Department and the director of the graduate program maintain records of comprehensive examination results.
