Proficiency Test Example

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English 111 and Proficiency Examination

Planning:
Your essay should have only four paragraphs: an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Use the "keyhole" standard academic organization you have been taught. Your thesis will have only two reasons. Spend about fifteen minutes brainstorming, writing a thesis, and making a scratch outline. You will submit the notes and outline with your essay, but they will NOT be graded. Hint: Students who spend time making an outline generally receive better grades on the structure of their essays than those with poor or no plans.

General Information:

1. Place only your Id # in the upper right corner of every page. No names please. If you are a transfer student taking the test only as proficiency, write "Transfer" on the front and your name on the back. If you attended the review session, write "Review Session" by your name.
2. It is not appropriate in formal writing to speak directly to your reader (you) or to use you in the conversational sense of "everybody in general." You may use first person (I) only when you are giving a specific personal example.
3. If you write with a pencil, use every other line so that you can add words as needed. Make your handwriting legible. We will not grade your essay if we cannot easily read it. Double space if typing.
4. When you finish, write your teacher's name on the back of the last page. Transfers-remember to write your name on the back.

Writing:
On the back of this sheet is a satire poking fun at the size of American cars now available. After reading Dave Barry's column to give you a chuckle and start you thinking about automobiles, choose one of the following.

Option 1: Is Barry right in saying that our vehicles are getting entirely too large? Or do large vehicles have definite advantages over small to mid-sized ones? Take a stand on either side and develop an essay with two good reasons supported by specific details and examples. Your audience is people who purchase cars.

Option 2: Barry says that people in big vehicles are "always talking on cellular phones." He can't imagine "who they're talking to." How necessary are cell phones for drivers in today's American culture? Should most people invest in a cell phone to use especially in their cars? Another consideration is whether a driver should talk on a phone while the car is in motion. Like "drinking while driving," should talking while driving be illegal as some states have ruled? Choose a "cell phone" topic and convince the reader-anyone who drives-that you are right. Don't forget to include specific examples.

Option 3: Barry's column ridicules some car commercials which show Sport Utility Vehicles "splashing through rivers, charging up rocky mountainsides . . . all the daredevil things that cars do in . . . [the] commercial world where nobody ever drives on an actual road." Think of various vehicle commercials on television. Consider what they stress or imply about the kinds of people who drive the cars, what others think of these people, what the cars can do as well as their quality, and how commercials show the cars in action. Are they at all deceitful? Misleading? Do they contribute to unsafe roadways? Take a stand using one or more of those adjectives and shape an essay with two good reasons and specific examples as support. Your audience is companies who pay for automobile commercials and people who watch them.

Option 4: When a teen gets a driver's license, the parents have some decisions to make: whether or not to provide a personal vehicle and what type to buy. While many teens prefer a newer, smaller, more sporty car, some parents are deciding on a large, older one. Write an essay taking a stand on which cars parents should select, backing your advice with solid reasons and specific examples. Or you may assert that teens should not be given cars of their own during the first year or two that they drive. Your audience is parents.