WPE Testing Process
▸ When is the next WPE?
▸ The next portfolio is due October 17. Registration opens on
September 15. You should bookmark www.umb.edu/wpe as that
is where you can find the WPE schedule for the academic year.
▸ Are there make-up days for the WPE if I miss it?
▸ No. If you miss the WPE you have to wait until the next one.
▸ If I take a timed exam and don’t pass can I switch to portfolio
(or vice-versa)?
▸ Yes.
▸ Do I have to turn in a portfolio in person?
▸ If you can’t make it to campus, a friend, or a family member can
turn in your portfolio for you. If you are an online student who
lives at a distance, or if you are traveling at the time of the WPE,
contact us in advance by email (writing.proficiency@umb.edu)
and we will arrange for you to submit your portfolio electronically.
Testing Process Continued
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Can I submit a portfolio by mail, email or by fax?
No, you can’t. If for some reason you can’t submit your portfolio in person on the
due day, please contact the WPE office in advance, and they will arrange for you to
submit it electronically.
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Do I have to be an active student to do the WPE?
No, you don’t have to be active. However, if your student email address has been
suspended, a member of the staff will have to register you over the phone, after
which you should write to the WPE office so they can send the testing materials to
your current email address.
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How do I get the readings?
Immediately after you have registered, the system will send to your student email
address a confirmation that you are registered. In that message will be a link to the
reading set. If you did not receive that confirmation message, write to
(writing.proficiency@umb.edu) and a member of the WPE staff will send you the
reading.
Testing Process Continued
▸ How do I get the writing prompt/question?
▸ For portfolios, the writing prompt is on the first page of the
reading set. For timed exams, you will not get the writing
prompt until you show up to do the exam.
▸ How do I register for the WPE?
▸ Go to www.umb.edu/wpe during the registration period.
You cannot register outside of the registration period. (For
instance, you will not be able to register for the January
WPE until December 1.)
Portfolio Process
▸ Can I turn a portfolio in early or late?
▸ Portfolios must be submitted on the due date only. Sometimes
the WPE offiice will allow you to turn in a portfolio early with
written permission. You can get this permission by writing to the
department email address, writing.proficiency@umb.edu.
▸ Can I use two papers from one class?
▸ No, you can’t. You need to make an appointment with the director
to get this permission.
▸ How do I make a tutoring appointment?
▸ Appointments are scheduled by telephone only. Tutoring is
mostly available to students who have made at least two
unsuccessful attempts at the WPE, although spots may open up.
Portfolio Process Continued
▸ My professor didn’t respond when I asked for a certification.
▸ Unfortunately, the WPE office can’t help you directly with this
problem. Try visiting the professor in person during publicized
office hours. If the professor no longer works at UMB, you can
ask the department chair to sign the form (so long as you have
the original graded paper or grade comments that were sent to
you electronically).
▸ I’m a new transfer student who is doing a portfolio.
▸ If you have been at UMB for two semesters or less, you only
need 10 pages of course papers rather than 15 pages. “New
transfer student” means that this is your first semester at UMB.
Portfolio Process Continued
▸ What does the portfolio consist of?
▸ A new 5-page essay answering the WPE reading set question,
and at least 15 pages You must turn in at least 15 pages of
supporting course papers.
▸ What is the criteria for supporting papers?
1. You must submit a minimum of two papers from two
courses. (The only exceptions are NU 212, NU 360, and CRW
282/283--students may submit two papers from those courses.)
2. Each paper must be a typed, graded paper written for a course
taught at UMass Boston (for example, English 102, First Year
Seminar, or Intermediate Seminar).
3. At least one of the papers must come from a course at the
200-level or higher (for example, an Intermediate Seminar).
Portfolio Process Continued
4. All course papers must be analytical essays written in
English and must demonstrate the criteria outlined in The
Elements of Writing Proficiency.
5. Two or three of the supporting course papers must be
based on the analysis of two or more readings. Only one
paper may be based on the analysis of one reading or
on the analysis of information gathered through
observation, interview, or experimentation.
6. Each paper must come from a different course; however,
papers from different courses taught by the same
professor are allowed.
Portfolio Process Continued
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The supporting papers must total 15 full pages. No single
paper can be less than three full pages, and one paper must
be at least five full pages. (Papers must be double-spaced, 1"
margins, maximum of 12-point type, on 8 1/2" by 11" paper).
Each paper must be certified as the original graded
paper. You can download the Certification Form on the WPE
website, or pick up copies in the office of Undergraduate
Studies/WPE.
Each original graded paper must have attached to it a
completed certification form signed by the instructor who
graded it. If you do not have an original graded paper, but you
have an electronic copy of the original paper, you may print out
a copy of the paper and use it if and only if the professor to
whom the paper was submitted signs the certification form and
writes “I remember that this is the paper submitted for the
course” and writes the original grade.
Timed Exam Process
▸ How do I prepare for a timed exam?
▸ Read and annotate your copy of the reading set several times
(you can bring your copy into the exam with you). Attend the
workshop or view the video-recording of the workshop. Write
yourself a practice question and practice writing an essay about
the readings. Additional advice about preparing for a timed exam
can be found on the WPE website (umb.edu/wpe) and will be
given during the scheduled workshop.
▸ Can I get tutoring for a timed exam?
▸ No. Tutoring is only offered to students who are preparing a
portfolio.
WPE Grading Process
▸ English is not my first language/not my best subject. Will I
be graded on spelling and grammar?
▸ No, the WPE is not a spelling/grammar exam.
▸ What am I being graded on then?
▸ The Elements of Proficiency are the criteria that faculty readers
use to evaluate your proficiency in critical reading, thinking, and
writing. The Elements are directly related to particular aims of the
General Education program (Gen. Ed.). The Gen. Ed. program is
based on the premise that frequent consideration of complex
problems helps you to develop the specific capabilities most often
used in critical reading, writing, and thinking.
Elements of Writing Proficiency
▸ Am I expected to be an expert in all the Elements of
Proficiency?
▸ You are not expected to have mastered all of the capabilities
completely; rather, you are expected to “demonstrate
intermediate proficiency in writing.” This means that your writing
will not be graded as a “retake” merely because it contains a few
spelling or punctuation errors. However, it is unlikely that you will
pass the exam without demonstrating an intermediate mastery of
the higher order thinking criteria outlined in the Elements of
Writing Proficiency.
▸ Well, what are the elements?
▸ The elements are separated into three categories: 1) critical
thinking, 2) critical reading, and 3)effective writing. Each of these
categories is assigned a percentage weight in evaluating your
essay.
Critical Thinking, Effective Use of Your Own
Ideas: Evaluation Area 1 = 40% of grade
▸ Develop a sustained clear position, often by using a thesis,
central idea, or hypothesis about the issue under
consideration.
▸ The question will instruct you how to focus on the issue;
you should hold that focus throughout the whole paper.
Generally, your paper should go into depth and full detail
about a single topic. Deep focus allows you to inquire into
a particular issue.
▸ Full detail and depth might mean you do these types of
things: examine evidence closely; assess the source and
quality of evidence; distinguish between facts and
opinions; and/or, acknowledge, analyze, and evaluate
value judgments in the readings and in your own position.
Critical Thinking Continued
▸ Synthesize source materials to support your position.
▸ Develop your position with clear references to specific
arguments in the reading set.
▸ Quote, frame, and analyze passages with the clear
purpose of supporting your position.
▸ To create a context for your position, you need to
summarize and attribute any ideas that you use from the
readings. Give credit where it is due!
Critical Thinking Continued
▸ Organize your argument in a clear and appropriate sequence of
support for the thesis, central idea or hypothesis. Sustain your
position throughout the whole paper by ordering it with a clear
organizing principle.
▸ Each paragraph contains one idea, supported and developed
fully, that supports your thesis; paragraphs are “linked” in a chain
of reasoning that develops your argument persuasively.
▸ In other words, your role as a writer is to identify a connection like
these that run through the reading set. Then, use that connection
to organize your position by developing a thesis, hypothesis, or
central idea about the connection throughout your essay.
Critical Reading, Effective Use of Multiple
Sources: Evaluation Area 2 = 40% of grade
▸ Identify, Summarize, and Define key terms or categories of
classification in the reading set.
▸ Try to identify the key terms and definitions in the readings;
then, establish what the readings have in common, or
equally important, which definitions are contested.
▸ Summaries are generalizations that condense complex
ideas, sometimes by noting structures of classification,
stages in a process, or abstract connections that organize
an argument. You may identify a focus or possibly
supporting evidence for your thesis by identifying,
summarizing and defining the key terms in the readings.
Critical Reading Continued
▸ Analyze and Evaluate the problem/question at issue
(and/or the sources' arguments) in the reading set.
Summarizing and defining the ideas in the readings starts
the process of taking an idea apart so you can analyze and
evaluate it.
▸ Analysis often occurs in the act of summary when you
identify the key elements of an argument; however,
analysis goes further than just noting the key elements.
▸ Evaluation acknowledges various perspectives, and
explains your position with a reasoned presentation of your
evidence. Evaluation is the weighing of complex issues in
terms of the strengths and weakness of the various
perspectives.
Critical Thinking Continued
▸ Synthesize and assess the key assumptions, concepts,
themes, or ideas in the reading set. Your paper should pull
together the various assumptions, ideas and issues in the
readings and assesses them.
▸ Then, it should synthesize the ideas so that they are
connected to your position. The processes of synthesis
often occurs as the continuation of analysis and
evaluation; if analysis is the process of taking an idea apart
to see and understand its structure, synthesis is often the
process of putting an idea back in to a whole to establish
its connection to your position.
Elements of Writing, Effective Use of Writing
Skills: Evaluation Area 3 = 20% of grade
▸ Organize paragraphs, both globally and locally.
▸ Global: Each paragraph signals a new idea; and, it signals how
that new idea is clearly related to the paragraphs that come
before and after it. Check paragraph length, unity, and order.
▸ Local: Focus on one idea per paragraph; each sentence in the
paragraph connects clearly to the meaning of other sentences. •
▸ Sentences should express your meaning clearly. Avoid these
things: using clichés; using common place knowledge; using
sentences that are underdeveloped or overdeveloped. Organize
sentences to make your meaning clear and understandable to
the readers. Check for wordiness, spelling, word choice, and
mechanics.
Important WPE Contacts
▸ Harry Makrinos, Director of Writing Assessment. Email:
Harry.Makrinos@umb.edu
▸ Laurie Marks, Assistant Director of Writing Assessment. Email:
Laurie.Marks@umb.edu
▸ Department Email: Writing.Proficiency@umb.edu. Ms. Marks
checks this address regularly – it is often best to try this address
first before emailing people directly.
▸ Department location: CC 1st floor, Room 1300.
▸ Department phone: 617-287-6330.