ONTARIO COLLEGE WRITING EXEMPLARS
Melissa Mackey
Fanshawe College
Mmackey@fanshawec.ca
Agenda
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Background of the project
Factors Affecting Ontario College Writing
Exemplars Development
Benefits and users of the Ontario College
Writing Exemplars
Explanation of the OCWE and the rating
system
BACKGROUND OF THE
PROJECT
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Submitted by Heads of Language for funding of
the School-College-Work Initiative (September
2001)
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Category One – … expand the linking of secondary and
college programs providing specific alignment of the new
grade 11/12 curriculum with college curriculum with
priority in … language skills
Intended to be a province-wide initiative
Hard-copy, CD, and User’s Guide have been
distributed to all secondary and DSB offices – Fall
2003.
BACKGROUND – cont’d
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Participating DSBs and Colleges:
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Niagara College/DSB of Niagara
Mohawk College/Hamilton Wentworth DSB
Sault College/Algoma DSB
Humber College/Toronto Catholic DSB
Fanshawe College/London Catholic DSB
Durham College/Durham DSB
Centennial College – lead college
FACTORS AFFECTING OCWE
DEVELOPMENT
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Nature and consequences of secondary school
reform
Role of English/Communications faculty or
departments in colleges
FACTORS – cont’d
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Collaborative identification of writing types
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Memos
Short Reports
Research essays
Formal technical reports (beyond first-year)
Resource documents
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Ministry of Education Secondary School English
Exemplars
Canadian Language Benchmarks
ONTARIO COLLEGE WRITING
EXEMPLARS
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Designed to assist secondary and college
teachers, students, parents, and counsellors to
understand college writing
Contains
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70 authentic student writing samples
Appendix of writing samples
Information about the context of college writing
OCWE Rating System
BENEFITS OF THE ONTARIO
COLLEGE WRITING EXEMPLARS
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Comprehensive
Provides greater understanding of college as a
destination
Provides greater understanding of the demands of
college writing
Provides increased appreciation that college
writing is applied writing and requires critical
thinking skills
WHO SHOULD USE OCWE?
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Designed for the secondary school system
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Teachers who require written assignments as part of their
curriculum
Counsellors
Students
Parents
They can compare current levels of student
writing with college requirements
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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OCWE
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www.gotocollege.ca
www.hol.on.ca
Ontario College System
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http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/postsec/co
llege.html
OCWE RATING SYSTEM
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Develops a common language to describe
different types of college writing
Provides a 4-point scale of descriptors
rather than an achievement chart
Uses familiar categories of description –
content, organization, style, and format
Memos (Page 31-66)
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Take a moment to flip through part of the
Memo section of OCWE.
In the actual document, there are 4
samples of each level of exemplar
The task that the student was assigned is
at the top of each exemplar.
Comments about each exemplar are down
the left margin of each page.
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These memos are authentic student
writing. Nothing has been changed or
added, except for removing the name of the
student and professor.
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Due to the holistic evaluation of each exemplar,
there is a range between the 4 exemplars in each
level.
You will notice that there are errors, even in the
level 4 writing. For example, page 35 is a Level 4
exemplar with comments such as “would benefit
by use of bullets”, “few grammatical errors” and
“Could have a clearer opening”
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The OCWE document illustrates the 4
different levels of writing that students have
displayed at 7 colleges across Ontario.
It highlights the 4 levels of the memo, the
short report, the research essay and the
technical report.
Level 4 may not be an A, as we see in the
memo samples.
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The Descriptors in OCWE are not
accompanied by a grade, as in the high
school Achievement Chart.
Level 4 writing is recognized as better than
Level 1 writing; however, different colleges,
programs and professors have different
expectations and minimum passing grades.
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One professor might fail the Level 1 writing.
Another may demand a rewrite. Another
may give it a low passing grade.
An individual professor or teacher might
use the OCWE rubrics and assign his/her
own grading scheme to them; however, the
OCWE document itself, does not determine
A, B, D or F.
Any Questions?
The Background
Factors Affecting OCWE
Possible Users
Layout of each section
The Rating System