Placement at SUNY Stony Brook is more complicated because it attempts to compress the writing process into freshman orientation. Instead of merely completing the usual impromptu essay, students participate in free writing, discussion, draft writing, and peer response groups. Students also write about how they feel about this experience, thus reflecting on the writing process itself. The final draft is completed and used for placement in the appropriate course. At the other end of the college composition course the work must be evaluated.
Students are certainly familiar with a final essay exam.
And to some extent that is still happening at college. How a student wrote at the beginning of a semester can be compared with how well he or she writes after a course of study in writing. Improved scores between pre- and posttests are expected to show the value a course has had for the student. If a writing course has brought about gains, then those gains should be observable, appearing in behaviors that can be measured. At Chicago State University students take the English Qualifying Essay Exam, which follows a two-course sequence.