Writing Portfolio Eligibility Form

The asterisk indicates a required field. If you have questions about this form, or about the portfolio review process, please contact the College Writing Program Office at collegewriting@wustl.edu or 314-935-4899.

Students in the McKelvey School of Engineering should not complete this form. Engineering students should contact the McKelvey School of Engineering about the engineering English proficiency requirement.

Composition/writing courses are those in which writing is a central focus of classroom instruction. Note that this is not the same as a course for which you simply wrote papers (e.g., a writing intensive course).
Not Eligible

Thank you for checking your eligibility. Since you were exempt from your prior college/university's first-year writing course and/or did not take a composition/writing course at your prior college/university, you are not eligible to submit a portfolio. Therefore, you must take College Writing (L59 111-120) during your first year of study at Washington University.

We will communicate this information to your advisor. Questions about this placement decision should be directed to the College Writing Program Office at collegewriting@wustl.edu or (314) 935-4899.

Best of luck in your first year at Washington University!

Note: Your submission will not be received until you select "Submit" below. You may be included on reminder emails until your submission is received.

Submit a Writing Portfolio

Based on your initial answers, you are eligible to submit a writing portfolio for review.

I. Student Information
II.A Course Information for Equivalent Course

Please describe the course that you took at your prior college or university that you believe is equivalent to all or part of our College Writing course at WashU. Please include the title of the course and course number below.

Please provide a brief description of the course's overall goals (you may find this information on the syllabus).

II.B Course Information for Other Writing Courses

Please use the space below to describe any other courses that you took in college that you believe may help you fulfill the university-wide first-year writing requirement at WashU. Please include the title of the course, course number, and a brief description of the course's overall goals (you may find this information on the syllabus).

III. Equivalent Course Activities
What percentage of class time was devoted to the following activities in the course that you believe is most equivalent to College Writing?
IV. Course Topics in Equivalent Course
Please consider how frequently you engaged with the following topics in your previous college course that you believe is most equivalent to College Writing.
neverrarelyoccasionallyfrequently
Practicing in-class writing in various forms *
Treating writing and revision as an ongoing process *
Recognizing and making adjustments to writing given various rhetorical situations (genres, audiences, writing purposes) *
Developing original arguments based on close analysis of written texts *
Developing original arguments based on close analysis of visual / other kinds of texts *
Deploying summaries, paraphrases, and direct quotations ethically and effectively in writing *
Distinguishing between scholarly and non-scholarly sources *
Distinguishing between primary and secondary sources *
Using secondary sources to make an argument about a primary source *
Evaluating researched sources critically; showing where your views differ from theirs *
Learning about and practicing information literacy skills (e.g., evaluating the quality of a source, accessing appropriate sources) *
Using library resources, like online databases, to locate and select researched sources *
Learning the conventions of academic integrity and how to avoid plagiarism *
V. Other Information
Please reflect on your experiences as a writer and provide feedback on the following questions.
VI. Writing Portfolio

To complete your Writing Portfolio, please upload the following documents:

  1. Required: Syllabus from the course you took that you feel is most equivalent to College Writing.
  2. Required: Up to four writings samples from prior college coursework with at least one sample that demonstrates analysis skills and one that includes research. Note that at least one of these samples should be from the course you took that you feel is most equivalent to College Writing. Please do not submit any written work from high school.
  3. Optional: syllabi and/or writing samples from other courses that you mentioned above.

Directions for uploading:

  1. Drag and drop files into the blue box below or click "select files" to upload your documents.
  2. Please include your full name in the description and use your WashU email in the Email Address field.
  3. Click "submit." Note that your files are only submitted once you see "Success!" in the box below.

Expectations of Academic Integrity

All submitted writing must be your own and adhere to the College Writing and Washington University policies on Academic Integrity. The larger mission of the university—promoting research and learning—is undercut in a serious way when you submit work that is not your own. Though plagiarism can be a deliberate action, it can also happen unwittingly to undergraduate writers. Plagiarism can take many forms: buying a paper from a paper mill, submitting a ChatGPT-generated essay, failing to cite a paraphrase or summary, accidentally dropping a citation, too closely imitating another author’s structure, etc. These actions are forms of intellectual theft. The university takes plagiarism seriously and there are serious consequences for it.

Please check the box below to indicate that the writing samples that you are submitting are your own, and that you understand that if you are found to be submitting documents that in any way violate the university's academic integrity, there will be serious consequences.

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