Questions for Advisors

If students enrolled at Tarleton before September 2007, they still have to take the Writing Proficiency Exam.

Tarleton is implementing a Writing Intensive Program, and, eventually, completing the Writing Intensive Program requirements will replace taking the Writing Proficiency Exam. But for all students enrolled prior to fall 2007, the WPE is still something that they will have to take and pass in order to graduate.

Tarleton’s Writing Intensive Requirement will be a condition for the baccalaureate degree for students entering TSU as new students beginning Fall 2007.

These students must complete Tarleton’s Writing Intensive Program requirements as a condition for the baccalaureate degree:

New students are those who enter Tarleton in fall 2007 as

• first-time freshmen
  (students with no college credits),
• entering students with 29 hours or less through earned credit
  (credit through AP, CLEP, IB, or dual credit courses), and
• transfer students with 29 hours or less transfer credit hours.

In the fall of 2008, the WI requirements will apply to the students listed above and to these new students:

• first-time freshmen
  (students with no college credits),
• entering students with 59 hours or less through earned credit
  (credit through AP, CLEP, IB, or dual credit courses), and
• transfer students with 59 hours or less transfer credit hours.

In the fall of 2009, the WI requirements will apply to the students listed above and to these new students:

• first-time freshmen
  (students with no college credits),
• entering students with 89 hours or less through earned credit
  (credit through AP, CLEP, IB, or dual credit courses), and
• transfer students with 89 hours or less transfer credit hours.

All other students will still be required to take the Writing Proficiency Exam.

The real answer is “almost never.”

These are the criteria for accepting a course for WI credit from another institution:

1. The school in question must also have a Writing Intensive Program.
2. The course in question must also be a Writing Intensive course at its institution.
3. The course must be a match for an existing WI course here at Tarleton.

If a course meets each of these requirements, then the student’s advisor can request WI transfer credit be allowed. To do so, the advisor needs to provide the WIP Committing with these two things:

1. course description from the granting institution’s catalog indicating the WI designation
2. course syllabus for the course in question displaying the WI designation
3. Indication of the match for a Tarleton WI course

Sometimes professors teach an as Writing Intensive as it is being developed or as it is going through the WI designation process. There are even some cases in which a course may display a “WI” in its catalog description. However. if a course does not appear on this list, it has not yet received its WI designation. Only courses on this list and for these dates can earn students WI credit.

Often students are enrolled in a course that is being developed and taught as a WI course while it is waiting for the WI designation to appear in the catalog. If a student needs WI credit for such a course, the advisor or department head needs to provide a brief request to the WIP Committee through the Director of the Writing Intensive Program. In this request, the advisor or department head needs to provide

• the dates the student was enrolled and
• the dates that the course in question received its WI designation with
• a brief description of the circumstances of the appeal.

Submitting only a course substitution form will not be sufficient as this does not give the WIP Committee all the information it needs in order to make an informed decision concerning the appeal.

Appeals for WI credit for a Tarleton course for all other reasons should be handled through the same process:

• written request from the advisor or department head describing the circumstances
• submit a request to the WIP Committee through the Director of the Writing Intensive Program.

Again, submitting only a course substitution form will not be sufficient only because this does not give the WIP Committee all the information it needs in order to make an informed decision concerning the appeal.