Assessing student written communications skills: a gateway writing proficiency test for aspiring journalism majors

College Student Journal, Sept, 2005 by Mary K. Brocato, Paula F. Furr, Martha V. Henderson, Steven G. Horton

Faculty at this rural open-admissions university became increasingly concerned each semester about the inability of many journalism majors to write competently. This poor writing was evident in correctness, content, and coherence. Determined to take positive steps to improve students' writing skills, the journalism faculty in 2001 developed a Language Skills Diagnostic Test (LSDT) as a prerequisite for admission to the gateway media writing course. In addition, a course focused on basic writing skills for journalists was designed for students who failed the diagnostic test and for any students with weak writing skills as assessed by English placement tests and the ACT Assessment. To date, 175 students have taken the LSDT, and 51 students have taken the writing skills course. This preliminary study tracks the effect of the LSDT and the writing course on improving writing skills of students as evidenced by their progress in the gateway media writing course. Despite limited initial data, findings suggest that students who failed the LSDT and took the basic writing skills course have, indeed, improved their writing skills and are successfully completing the gateway media writing course.

Introduction

Admission criteria for journalism and mass communications programs vary, ranging from a GPA requirement, to satisfactory completion of an introductory course, to use of language skills examinations. Concerns about admission requirements surfaced in the mid-1970s when enrollment growth began to exceed program resources and was accompanied by a decline in scores on national standardized college entrance tests, especially in verbal scores reflecting writing achievement.

Results of a 2003 ACT National Curriculum Survey of high school and college instructors found that while college instructors believe grammar and usage skills are important skills for entering college students, high school teachers ranked these skills as least important. However, writing for the National Review Online, Ridgley (2003) laid the blame for declining writing skills on universities that fail to teach writing basics and place a misdirected focus on "strange literary theories." Ridgley, a former executive director of the Collegiate Network, a national association of college newspapers, and a Duke University instructor, lamented that too many college students graduate "without the ability to express themselves with the written word" (para. 2).

For graduates of mass communications programs, such inability threatens the very core of a profession that depends upon communications skills. This concern about students' weak writing skills has been echoed by many, including Maxwell (2002), who in an article in the Alameda Times-Star wrote: "They [students] need to learn the craft and art of writing. Unfortunately, most writing-across-the-curriculum programs are too hit-and-miss to inculcate a love of writing or even an attitude of appreciating the importance of writing" (p. 2).

This paper examines one department of journalism's efforts to identify, address, and correct basic writing deficiencies for students seeking a journalism degree with a concentration in news-editorial, broadcast, or public relations. Northwestern State University's (NSU) Department of Journalism, located in a mid-sized, open-admissions university in the rural South, initiated a writing diagnostic test as a prerequisite for admission to the gateway media writing course required of all majors. To assist students failing the test, the department created a new elective course, "Literacy Skills for Journalists" (JOUR 1010). This preliminary report presents the findings and discussion based on initial data collection and instructor observations. These results provided a platform for discussing the efficacy of requiring diagnostic writing tests for admission into a journalism program and the most effective methods to remediate poor writing, to teach writing basics, to focus students' attention on the importance of good writing, and, ultimately, to develop writing skills acceptable for entry-level mass communications positions.

Literature Review

Bissell and Collins (2003) found in their research that writing deficiencies have not gone unnoticed at the college level. However, the issue remains: what are universities doing to correct students' writing deficiencies? For journalism programs, corrective action is critical because writing remains at the profession's core. Kunkel (2003), dean of the Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, stated succinctly, "Writing instructors are obligated to teach the fundamentals of media writing" (p.4). Calling journalism writing "part skill, part craft and part art" he said that students should have a solid foundation in reporting, writing, and editing.

John, Reminski and Hanks (1991), found "... considerable diversity among programs teaching journalism regarding testing, uses of tests, criteria, types of tests used, retake policies, and remedial help" (p. 48). They concluded that despite long-standing interest in formal assessment of language skills, agreed upon standards are non-existent. A survey conducted by Oukrop, Brown, & Parsons (1998) indicated that only 57 out of 183 responding programs required a language skills exam, an additional 7% had removed this requirement, and 113 programs had never required an exam.