Hello, everyone.
I direct the Writing Centre at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and
I'm seeking information about first year composition courses and writing
placement tests at Canadian universities. Something that I've longed for
for seven years, and for seven years have thought would never happen,
has happened: I've been invited to our Arts Faculty's Academic Planning
Committee meeting to discuss the feasibility of offering some species of
mandatory, for-credit freshman writing course at Memorial. The committee
is also interested in some form of entrance test in writing proficiency
that would serve as a screening device; they know that we cannot
currently afford to offer the course to all incoming students, and see
such a test as a way of exempting some students and thus making the
venture more manageable. (I know full well how leery many of you are of
such testing, and I'm leery of it, myself - but I don't think that the
one thing will happen without the other, here.)
I've been collecting writing course syllabi from U.S. universities for
some time, now, but I know that our committee will be more interested in
programs being offered in Canada. I hadn't thought that there were very
many, but I've been informed that there are a number of them in pockets
here and there throughout the country. So if your university offers
first year writing courses and/or uses any writing placement tests,
could you please provide me with a brief description of them?
The meeting takes place this Thursday (April 29), so if you have time to
respond right away I'd appreciate it greatly. But even if you can't
respond that quickly, any such program descriptions would be helpful
after-the-fact; the more evidence and examples I have of writing
instruction in Canadian universities, the better the case I'll be able
to develop for implementing such instruction here.
I thank all of you in advance for your time,
Ginny Ryan
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