The Writing Sample Placement Essay:

Tips To Help You Do Your Best

The writing sample we ask you to produce will determine your placement in one of our two writing courses for first-year students or transfer students who still need to meet the general education writing requirement. Should you not pass the writing placement test, you will be asked to work on your writing by taking a remedial writing course at a community college. So, the first thing students need to know is that the writing sample is important! As a new student, please take the test seriously, and strive to show us your very best writing skills. In order to help you understand what constitutes a good writing sample, the College's Writing Center offers these pointers:

Your writing sample should be appropriate. This means addressing the topic of the posed question. Guard against wandering off and writing about a related (or even unrelated) topic. This is a common error among entering student writers. Also, use language and tone that is appropriate for your audience (English Department faculty); that is, don't use slang and don't be too informal or flip in your answer.

Your response should be focused and clear. State your controlling idea (thesis) in an introductory paragraph and stay on track as you develop your essay. Your reader should not have to wonder what your position is, or feel that you are contradicting yourself.

Develop and organize your essay. Don't state your controlling idea and merely restate it in different ways throughout the body of your essay. Give the reasons why you feel as you do in distinct, well-developed paragraphs that begin with topic sentences and include appropriate, accurate details and examples.

Use acceptable and effective sentence structure. If you have had problems with sentence structure in the past (run-ons, fragments), review these issues by using a handbook for writers. Since your writing course instructor will ask you to buy a writer's handbook, we don't want to suggest a particular title now. However, you might already have a good handbook from a course you took at your high school or previous college, and most libraries carry a collection of these books. Review any areas (for example: thesis, paragraph development, punctuation,) that you have had trouble with in the past, and practice writing short, argumentative essays before placement testing. You might also consider  visiting one of the on-line resources for writers recommended by the Framingham State College Writing Center.

Guard against too many errors in usage and mechanics. No one expects you to write a grammatically perfect placement essay (although we would be happy if you do so), but too many poorly chosen words, grammar errors, and punctuation problems risks earning a low score. Again, use care while writing the essay, and use the resources listed below prior to orientation if you tend to have difficulty in these areas.

Back to the Placement Testing page.