1. SDSU’s Writing Placement Assessment (WPA)
SDSU's Writing Proficiency Assessment and Its Impact on Our Students
SDSU’s Writing Placement Assessment (WPA)
August 13, 2007

2. What is the WPA? The WPA is primarily a placement tool.
It is a quick, simple way of placing students in the appropriate upper division writing class. In some CSU campuses there is no placement tool and students automatically take an upper division course. At SDSU we try to direct students to the most appropriate class.
It is part of the “GWAR” (“graduate writing assessment requirement”). This is a CSU-wide requirement.
The GWAR reflects input from many stakeholders – employers, scholars, teachers, etc.

3. The CSU requires campuses to show students are on track to write at the level appropriate for graduation. The WPA fulfills this at SDSU.
The CSU wants students to have the opportunity to participate in writing-intensive classes. These can be in the students’ major (when offered) or in a GE course. The WPA helps place students in such a class.
Reports such as Academically Adrift suggest writing and reading-intensive classes with opportunity for feedback, revision, discussion, etc., produce key benefits that help students in their professional, personal and civic lives.

4. In summary - students take the WPA to show they are “on track” to write at a level appropriate for graduation AND ready to take an upper division writing course.
Roughly 80-85% of students who take the WPA are found to be on track (score 8). Some are ahead (score 10), and some need extra support (score 6).
If you get “8” on the WPA this does NOT mean you are “behind” in some way. It means you are on track to write at the high level we expect of SDSU students. You are where you should be.

5. The WPA emphasizes the ability to analyze and evaluate arguments
Who takes the WPA? When?

6. Who takes the WPA and when?
SDSU students take the WPA the semester they have achieved junior status (60 units). (Transfer students can take the WPA once they have received an offer of admissions.)
Students place into one of three categories based on test results.

7. Take WPA Score 10: GWAR satisfied Student ahead of
graduation expectations
Score of 8:
Take 300+ Writing
class (can be in your
major, or from many GE courses)
Score 6 or lower
Take RWS 280 or Ling 281
Pass with C or
higher - take writing class (can be in major, or from GE courses)
Pass with C or higher – GWAR satisfied
higher: GWAR satisfied

8. Note: the ~85% of students who score “8” are meeting expectations and are on track to write at the high level expected at graduation.
They are ready to take a writing-intensive upper division course (in a major or GE course)
They have not “failed” the test.
The 5-8% of students who score 10 are already at the level expected at graduation. They are ahead of expectations.

9. More on the WPA What is the format for the WPA? Who scores the WPA?
How are the essays scored?

10. SDSU's Writing Proficiency Assessment and Its Impact on Our Students
Identify and provide a brief explanation of the author’s argument;
Identify two persuasive strategies that the author uses to support his or her argument and analyze how those strategies might persuade the reader to support the claim;
Discuss the assumption(s) on which the argument is based;
Evaluate the extent to which the reader would find the argument convincing.
The WPA prompt
August 13, 2007

11. What are students being asked to do?
SDSU's Writing Proficiency Assessment and Its Impact on Our Students
What are students being asked to do?
Analyze and evaluate
Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of these components.
Explain
Explain the underlying assumptions of the author’s argument.
Explain how the author is using rhetorical strategies to persuade an audience.
Explain the point of the author’s argument.
August 13, 2007

12. What is the reading like?
The reading (typically 1-2 pages) is usually an editorial selected from newspapers and magazines like the Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, etc.
(So one way of practicing is to read op-eds in these publications and analyze them).
What is the reading like?

13. Faculty from across the campus are WPA readers
Faculty from across the campus are WPA readers. Most are from the department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies.
Two independent readers score each exam.
Scores are from 2-5 each.
Who reads the WPA?

14. Evaluators score essays on the writer's ability to analyze a written argument; to develop and organize ideas; to support these ideas with evidence or specific examples; to understand the essay's intended audience; to employ language skillfully; and to demonstrate appropriate paragraphing, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
How are essays scored?

15. How does the WPA relate to SDSU’s student learning goals?
The WPA maps onto the RWS 100 and 200 student learning outcomes.
The WPA also reflects and helps students fulfill SDSU’s general education goals in Communication and Critical thinking.

16. RWS 100 Student Learning Outcomes
Analyze a variety of texts to demonstrate rhetorical knowledge of an argument’s project, claim, audience, genre, rhetorical appeals, rhetorical strategies (including evidence), and assumptions.
Evaluate arguments and their evidence through a process of critical inquiry.
Locate, evaluate, and incorporate material from sources into their writing projects.
RWS 100 Student Learning Outcomes

17. RWS 200 Student Learning Outcomes
Analyze texts to articulate relationships between an argument’s elements and the contexts within which the argument was created.
Evaluate arguments through a process of critical inquiry, examining the arguments in their original contexts and in the context of other arguments in order to discover relationships between texts.
Locate, evaluate, and synthesize material from sources related to a public discussion in order to generate and support arguments.
Contribute an informed argument to an ongoing public discussion by identifying and assessing the rhetorical context for an issue.
RWS 200 Student Learning Outcomes

18. SDSU Communication and Critical Thinking Goals (G.E. Program)
Goal 1: Craft well-reasoned arguments for specific audiences.
Goal 2: Analyze a variety of texts commonly encountered in the academic setting.
Goal 3: Situate discourse within social, generic, cultural, and historic contexts.
Goal 4: Assess the relative strengths of arguments and supporting evidence.
SDSU Communication and Critical Thinking Goals (G.E. Program)

19. Where can I find out more about the WPA?
WPA Web Page
On this page there are videos, sample exams, criteria, sample scored student exams, definition of terms, etc.