Best of the Best UDWPA Essays

Each semester, hundreds of essays are written for the Upper Division Writing Proficiency Assessment by UM students seeking to meet a general education requirement (What is the UDWPA?). These essays are scored by highly trained readers on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest score (Scoring Criteria). Less than one percent of the UDWPA essays receive a score of 5 at each exam. After some exams, The Writing Center recognizes the most outstanding of these essays with the "Best of the Best UDWPA Essay" award.

The authors of these essays have agreed to publish their work on this site. Keep in mind that each essay was written during a two- to two-and-a-half hour long examination in response to a question the author saw for the first time at the exam. Some authors typed their essays, the others wrote their essays by hand in a bluebook. The essays published here are unedited copies of the originals and contain occasional errors that are to be expected in timed writing. The great skill and thoughtfulness demonstrated by these writers is all the more impressive because of the limitations imposed by the exam format.

February 2007

Autumn 2006

Spring 2006

Autumn 2005

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