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The Advisor's First-Year Composition Notebook
2013-2014
Updated May 2014
1. How to call for help
Contact English Department Assistant Chair and Assistant Composition Director
Suzanne Reisinger, 231-6513, sreising@vt.edu, Shanks 301.
Orientation Office Hours: 10 a.m. - noon, 1 - 3 p.m.
2. The Wait List
Wait list sections are just wait lists: students enrolled in them are not enrolled in ENGL
1105 or 1204H.
 For ENGL 1105, the waitlist course name is ENGL 1EWL. There is one section
for GE majors and one for all other majors.
 For ENGL 1204H, the course name is ENGL 1HWLH. There is one section for
GE majors and one for all other majors. Most ENGL 1204H is offered in Fall
semesters; we are planning only one section for Spring.
 Wait list sections show on student schedules for 3 hours, just like real ENGL
1105 sections, to help students budget their course loads.
 In the earliest stages of schedule creation, wait list sections are falsely listed to
begin on Fridays at 7:00 p.m.--that's to trick the batch scheduler into rolling
students into these sections when no daytime hour/space is available. Wait lists
should show as ARR by the time Orientation starts. They are not, however,
English classes in which the student can arrange the times with the instructor:
they are
 wait lists.
 Wait lists and their CRNs are in the timetable BELOW the last 1xxx English
course, not with the other ENGL 1105s and 1204Hs
 Students for whom the batch scheduler program cannot find open daytime
sections are rolled into the wait list. After the batch, advisors or students may
add the appropriate wait-list section if an open real section cannot be
found.
 At any time, advisors or students may drop a wait-list section to add an open real
section.  Before drop/add re-opens on the first Saturday in August, students still in the
wait-list sections will be contacted by the Assistant Composition Director and
directed/assisted to add open sections for themselves once drop/add starts.
 Throughout Orientation and again beginning the first Saturday in August, entering
students may drop/add Freshman English.  Enrollment in Freshman English, as with all Virginia Tech courses, is subject
to sufficient resources.
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3. Class offerings after orientation may change to meet demand.
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Therefore, as always, please remind students to check their schedules online
shortly before going to classes in August--their English class may be moved to a
new CRN, room, instructor, or even time, if necessary. The Assistant
Composition Director will email students whose schedules have to be changed,
but students don't always read their email.
4. If your student has no Freshman English scheduled, please do not assume that
the student needs ENGL 1105 or needs no English.
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Rather, please verify the student's placement…
via Hokie SPA Faculty Access
by calling for help—231-6513, sreising@vt.edu.
Then check for transfer, dual-enrollment, CLEP, AP, IB, or Cambridge Program
credit that may have caused the registrar to drop the student from a batched
English class.
Please add an ENGL class only if the student really needs it.
5. Please don't use Freshman English as a placeholder.
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If your student knows AP or other credit is coming, it is NOT necessary to
hold onto the batch-placed Freshman English class for safety! If for some
reason the credit does not eventually come through, we'll enroll the student later.
Please discourage students from enrolling in ENGL classes they have no
intention of taking just to fill up a schedule until something else comes through.
Although that may seem a reasonable tactic given the large number of sections we
offer, we have long waiting lists and every "ghost" in an English class is shutting
out another student who really needs it.
Similarly, please don't let a student use a wait-list section as a placeholder, if
the student will not be taking Freshman English. We need accurate wait lists to
determine the number of sections that may still be needed and to contact students
who will need our assistance in adding classes.
Thank you for your help in this matter!
6. Textbook
This year's updated edition of our custom textbook, Writing at Virginia Tech: Written,
Spoken and Visual Composition 2014-2015, will be in the bookstores for students at the
beginning of the Fall semester.
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Writing at Virginia Tech is used for the full year of composition studies: it is
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required in all sections of ENGL 1105, 1106, and 1204H.
The book will not be available during Orientation. Individual faculty may order supplementary texts in addition. Therefore, students should wait until they go to class and receive the syllabus
before buying textbooks for Freshman English. 7. The AP batch drop is planned for completion before Orientation.
Therefore, a student who has AP credit for Freshman English may already have been
dropped from the batch-enrolled section of ENGL 1105 or 1204H. However, some scores
arrive late, so please go ahead and drop English classes for which students have or expect
AP, IB, CLEP, TRANSFER, or DUAL-ENROLLMENT credit.
8. How students are placed in Freshman English: Scores
Entering students are placed in one of three Freshman English courses based on an
average of the following scores:
 SAT Critical Reading (Part of the SAT Reasoning Test)
 SAT Writing (Part of the SAT Reasoning Test)
o or the analogous ACT scores
 Standardized High School Class Rank.
—If scores are missing, we place on the basis of what we have.
—If a student offers no scores whatever, the default placement is English 1105.
—The placement program is set to take the highest scores from old or new tests.
Further information is available through the Registrar's website: www.registrar.vt.edu.
Under "Academic Records," take the link for "Transfer Credit (AP, IB & CLEP)."
9. How students are placed in Freshman English: ENGL 1105, 1106, 1204H
We have three placement categories. (There is no placement below ENGL 1105.)
 English 1105 + 1106—both offered Fall, Spring, Summer (must be taken in
sequence)
 Advanced Standing, English 1106-only—offered Fall, Spring, and Summer
 Advanced Standing, Honors English 1204H-only—offered Fall (with one or two
Spring sections)
Students may question their placements because they believe that someone in a previous
year was placed higher with similar scores. Please explain that tests change and scores
may be interpreted differently each year.
10. How to find a student's placement
The Faculty Access "New Student Orientation Menu" gives one of three placement
messages.
 1105: YOUR ENGLISH PLACEMENT IS 1105. ENGLISH 1105 WILL BE
AUTOMATICALLY ASSIGNED.
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1106: EXEMPT FROM 1105; ENROLL IN 1106 SPRING.
1204H: ENGLISH 1204H WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE ASSIGNED.
11. Changing placements
We are unable to change a student's placement, except on the basis of updated test scores.
We cannot read portfolios, administer placement essays, or read letters from high school
teachers. Please recommend that your students spend their summer days on campus
enjoying their new adventure rather than arguing over placement.
NOTE: Students may wonder why they come with AP, IB, or dual-enrollment (transfer)
credit but are still given a Freshman English placement and enrolled in a Freshman
English class. It's because the placement program and batch scheduler must be run before
AP scores and transcripts arrive. When students come for Orientation, they should
drop any English class for which they have, or expect to have, credit.
If placement info is not available, call the Assistant Composition Director, 1-6513, or
email her at sreising@vt.edu, for help.
12. Conditional Advanced Standing Credit
Students with Advanced Standing and placement in English 1106 or 1204H on the basis
of their scores are retroactively awarded 3 hours Advanced Standing pass/fail credit for
English 1105 when the following conditions have been met:
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The Advanced Standing student must earn a C- or higher in English 1106 or 1204H in
the first attempt.
Students with Advanced Standing may receive AS Credit for ENGL 1105 if they
transfer ENGL 1106 credit to VT (though not if they have failed or done a course
withdrawal from ENGL 1106 at VT, which would end eligibility for AS Credit).
Failing or using a Course Withdrawal from ENGL 1106 or 1204H constitutes a first
attempt and ends eligibility to receive AS credit for ENGL 1105.
Dropping the course by the last drop date at the end of the 6th week is not considered
a first attempt.
These AS pass/fail hours for ENGL 1105 do not affect the grade point average, but they
do fulfill half of the Area I Freshman English requirement and count toward the total
hours required for graduation.
What about AS students who fail ENGL 1106 or 1204H?
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Non-GE majors: Advanced Standing students are exempt from English 1105, and
they can fulfill their Area I requirement for Freshman English with one semester of
1106 or 1204H. If non-GE AS students fail or withdraw from ENGL 1106/1204H,
they cannot receive AS credit for ENGL 1105, but because they are exempt, they
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don't need it.
GE Majors: Engineering majors, however, do need ENGL 1105 credit, even if they
are exempted with Advanced Standing. If AS Engineering students fail or withdraw
from ENGL 1106 or 1204H, they must work out with their advisors how to fulfill the
ENGL 1105 requirement; usually, Engineering requires that they "go back" and take
ENGL 1105+1106.
How AS Credit Is Reported
The computer program that records the credit is run by the Registrar's Office several
weeks after the semester is over. The student should check for the credit in the Hokie Spa
under "Transfer Credits."
Who Is Eligible?
Only students who are awarded Advanced Standing on the basis of scores may skip
English 1105 and receive pass/fail credit for it.
Please make it clear that students may not exempt themselves from English 1105.
Students who skip 1105 without officially being awarded Advanced Standing DO NOT
receive credit for 1105, no matter how well they do in 1106 or 1204H, even if they say
their advisors told them they could (which they would most likely have misremembered)—this is a matter of university policy, not English Department policy.
13. TRANSFER
If a transfer student's English or Writing courses from another school are not listed
in the Transfer Equivalency Database
< https://banweb.banner.vt.edu/ssb/prod/hzsktgid.P_DispTranGuide>
and/or are not counted by the Registrar's office as Freshman English (some courses with
names that don't clearly relate to ENGLISH are evaluated as 1xxx elective credit), and if
you think the courses might qualify as Freshman English, please contact Suzanne
Reisinger at sreising@vt.edu, and please provide a catalog description of the course(s) in
question. A syllabus or information on writing assignments may also be needed, but start
with the catalog info.
If a transfer student above the sophomore level has credit for English 1106 but still
needs credit for ENGL 1105, there may be options besides having the student take
English 1105. Please consult with Suzanne Reisinger.
14. CLEP
CLEP changed its exam suite in summer 2010.
OLD EXAMS taken before July 1 2010: For Freshman English credit at Virginia Tech,
we accept only the Educational Testing Service (ETS) CLEP "Examination in English
Composition WITH ESSAY."
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NEW EXAMS taken after July 1 2010: We can give credit for only the new exam called
"COLLEGE COMPOSITION."
WARNING: CLEP offers a similarly-named exam that is NOT accepted: "College
Composition MODULAR." Students must NOT take the MODULAR exam, and they
should carefully check the title of the exam they are given--some have been given the
modular version by the examiner's mistake, and they did not get credit, to our regret.
For a minimum score of 50, credit for ENGL 1105 and 1106 is awarded.
We do not administer CLEP exams. Students who wish to take a CLEP exam must make
their own arrangements to do so and to have the scores sent to Virginia Tech. CLEP
Website: http://www.collegeboard.org
15. AP CREDIT
Before Orientation, students are dropped from all classes for which they have AP
credit, based on data received by that date.
• Students with a score of 3 receive credit for 1105 and are dropped from it.
• Students with a score of 4 or 5 receive credit for 1105 + 1106 and are dropped
from 1105, 1106, or 1204H.
If students' AP scores arrive after the main release in early July, then the students
themselves will need to drop the appropriate composition courses.
Which AP exams do we accept?
We accept scores from either examination:
• English Language and Literature
• English Language and Composition
Neither exam corresponds precisely to one of our courses. If a student has scores for
more than one exam, we consider only the highest score because we are concerned with
the level of writing ability demonstrated, not the number of tests or courses taken.
16. DUAL-ENROLLMENT CREDIT
High school/college dual-enrollment credit is treated like any transfer credit. For a
student to receive credit at Virginia Tech for a dual-enrollment course, the college must
send the transcript to Virginia Tech. The high school transcript is not sufficient, even if
it lists the course as dual-enrollment.
17. FORCE-ADD
Bottom line: We do no force-adds into Freshman English except for medical or
employment need.
NO-FORCE-ADDS: To make as many seats as possible available at all times, we will
leave all sections at the maximum capacity. Thus we will do no force-adds into
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Freshman English except at the advisor's request for medical or employment need.
• For example, a student with mobility constraints may need a class in a particular
building to reduce travel time, or a student on a strict medication schedule may
require afternoon classes.
• Students with work-hours or athletic-hours constraints should block the necessary
hours in their schedules by registering for free time, etc., and then enroll in the
appropriate wait-list section if no open seat fits the student's schedule. If there are
special hour constraints that will apply to a student in the wait list that cannot be
handled with free-time registration, then please call or email: 1-6513,
sreising@vt.edu. Please provide the student's last name, ID number, and the
restrictions you want applied. If the problem cannot be solved during Orientation,
the student should be able to solve it via drop/add in August.
What you see is what is available; there is no further step to take to find a seat for a
student. Your options as advisor are more limited under this policy, but also simpler:
• the student is to be enrolled in a regular section via regular drop/add
. . . or . . .
• the student is to be enrolled in the appropriate wait-list section via regular
drop/add
ENGL 1106: We will be adjusting ENGL 1106 capacities throughout Orientation to try to
leave a few seats for students regardless of when they come to Orientation, but ENGL
1106 is a Spring course, so our offerings in Fall are limited. Please advise 1106 students
that there will be many more sections in the Spring. Students can be force-added into
ENGL 1106 only at an advisor's request for medical need: 231-6513, sreising@vt.edu.
PLEASE NOTE--CLASS SIZE: We keep our classes small so that the students in these
intensive writing courses have access to enough of the instructor's time. We hope not to
allow class size to go above 20, even through force-add.
18. READING THE TIMETABLE
When you scan the timetable for seats in English, remember the counterintuitive way that
seats are indicated: a negative number means overenrollment--a negative number of seats
available.
• A gray background and a red 0/20 in the Seats column means 0 seats available for
a class size of 20.
• A gray background and a red -1/20 means 1 student over the capacity: 21 students
enrolled for a class of 20. Such a reading will mean one of two things: 1) A
student with medical need has been force-added into the section or 2) I know for
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sure of a student who will be dropping a section, and I have added one student
into that expected seat. The total enrollment will go down to the max of 20 when I
have completed the expected drop.
• A white background and a green reading like 1/20 in the Seats column, for
example, indicates that there is one seat available for a cap of 20, or 19 enrolled,
and the section is open for enrollment through regular drop/add.
Thank you for taking the time to read all this information.
Please contact Suzanne Reisinger if you have further questions or suggestions for
information that would make this page more helpful to you.
231-6513, sreising@vt.edu