Sentences within paragraphs are only loosely related, and transitions are missing. Sentences may be excessively wordy, vague, or even incorrect. Style and word choice are flat, inconsistent, or inappropriate to the audience. The paper displays major or repeated errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling, even in the final revised copy. Sentences within the paragraphs are unrelated to the main idea, and transitions are missing.
Sentences are faulty in structure, or vague, wordy, and irrelevant.
Word choice is inappropriate, incorrect, or inconsistent. The ENG 100 Proficiency Exam ensures that only students writing at a C level or better exit ENG 100 and proceed to undertake the remaining writing tasks at the college. It also ensures that students writing below C level receive additional instruction. In this first part of the exam, we provide a short, academic text, of the kind that students are used to reading in ENG 100, and ask students to read it critically and answer several pointed analytical questions. Students may be asked to identify the thesis, to identify hidden assumptions, to describe the strategies of argumentation, to evaluate the evidence, etc.