Like the 35 percent of respondents polled on The Wichitan website, I failed the Writing Proficiency Exam.

The purpose of the exam is for students to demonstrate “critical and creative thinking about a timely issue or debatable topic, knowledge of the conventions of a thesis-based essay and proficient use of Standard Written American English.”

Kristen Garrison, writing program administrator, said in real life, students would have to succumb to such pressures as the time-limit parameters of the exam, coherently gathering thoughts about topics of which students might not have previous knowledge.

The test also is an assessment of the English department and the quality of liberal arts instruction.

As an English major, and a student who has worked tirelessly to build my English major to a 3.857 GPA by my senior year, the English department has done a damn fine job teaching me to effectively write a plethora of essays—no matter what the format or time constraints.

The exam is a slap in the face to all English professors and any professor who have required written papers in the timed, “theme” format for which they have given students legitimate A’s—the argument that students haven not been previously assessed for such competencies within their liberal arts courses is completely ludicrous.

It assumes that whoever is assessing the proficiency of writers “knows better” than the way each preceding instructor has taught in the foundations of writing and grammar.

This after-the-fact attempt at remedying one’s ability to successfully convey thoughts onto paper in two hours is a “Band-Aid” remedy at best. It opens the door for a slippery-slope of similarly themed tests.

If the students really need a proficiency exam, they need one in math and all other core-level courses.

English instructors should find it odd that students whom they have previously instructed, having maintained an “A” average in most English courses— or worse—English majors who maintain the same GPA, often fail the Writing Proficiency Exam.

The exam’s existence presupposes a flaw in the method of instruction students receive from the first day they walk on this campus.

Like many of my colleagues, I feel the exam has included such nit-picky rules to ensure that the majority of students will fail, and in turn, generate revenue for the university by forcing adept students to take a remedial English course during their senior years.

One might argue that the exam itself could be faulty.

If there is truly a legitimate writing proficiency problem among students, it needs to be addressed at the classroom level. A student’s grade there should be the final determination of his or her ability.

Writing proficiency should be incorporated into all college courses for which students must write essays—not just within the English department.

The Writing Competencies course, which all students must take if they fail the exam, does in fact go into further detail concerning punctuation, parts of speech and other vital skills.

These skills should have been taught before the first two rhetoric courses, which are prerequisites for most sophomore-level English survey courses.

Students should have already learned this material in high school.

Instead of expecting students to display their writing proficiency skills within a timed exam, administrators should have a final writing competencies assessment in both rhetoric courses that students must pass before they can receive a passing grade in the course.

It would force students to have a greater appreciation and knowledge of the English language, in that, they will not be allowed to register for any sophomore-level English courses that list core rhetoric courses as prerequisites.

Using this strategy, students would become more confident in their writing skills, beginning at the freshman level, which would carry-over to all other courses for which they must write coherently.

As an English major, I believe, the ability to articulate oneself in writing is the cornerstone of an intelligent mind.

Learning to write proficiently and then being assessed for competency during the freshman year would cause students to have higher GPAs in all other courses.

Proficiency is not a problem within the English department alone, and subsequently, should not be treated as such.