How to prepare for the (UD) WPA
When it is time
WPA Online Tutorial
Sample questions and introductions:
- Sample Essays
Retaking the UDWPA

How to Prepare for the (UD)WPA

The UDWPA--referred to as the WPA--assesses students’ ability to 1) read and think critically about the ideas presented in an assigned text and 2) craft a well-supported argument in response to the text.

By taking the test during sophomore or junior year, a student can assess his or her writing skills and take steps to improve them. With careful preparation, most students pass the WPA on their first try. However, a non-passing score offers a student the chance to renew his or her efforts to master a foundational skill that is highly valued in academic and professional life. This section is a guide to preparing for the exam for first-timers and those retaking the WPA.

The scoring criteria for the exam are available at Instructional Handouts under "UDWPA Scoring Criteria'.

Preliminaries

When it is time for you to take the WPA:

Register for the exam on Cyberbear. The WPA is the first listing in the list of classes. Sign up only if you plan to attend. After Cyberbear registration closes for the semester, you can register in person at the Registration Counter in GrizCentral. Registration for the WPA will remain open until three days before the exam. There are no drop/add fees if you drop or add the exam past the drop/add deadline. To see all the exam dates for a given calendar year, go to DATES. Seating is limited in all sections so early registration is recommended.
As you register, you are choosing to take the exam on a computer (sign up for a section of the exam in GBB or LA) or to write the exam by hand (sign up for the section in NULH).
Request a test accommodation from DSS if you require one (go to FAQS).
Download and print a copy of the assessment text (go to Assessment Text) two weeks before your test-date.

In addition, you should take one or more of the following steps:

Attend the WPA workshop offered by The Writing Center (go to WPA Workshops).
Schedule an appointment with a tutor at The Writing Center during the two-week period before the exam. Tutors can provide reading questions and practice questions that correspond with the assessment text.
Study the tutorials that follow to help you understand what is expected of you.

WPA Online Tutorials

The material below leads students through an online version of the WPA workshops offered by The Writing Center before each exam. Feel free to contact the Writing Center for help or feedback at any time. We encourage you to email a practice essay to The Writing Center for online feedback. However, we may not have time to review drafts received by email too close to the exam. Start early and get feedback from The Writing Center at least 4-5 days before the exam.

Tutorial I. How to Prepare for the

UDWPA

Before the exam, use the following preparation strategy:

READ + ASK + WRITE

STEP 1

READ: Because you will be asked to respond to the argument in the text you’ve been given, complete understanding of the author’s perspective and his/her main points is essential. It’s impossible to construct an effective argument without a thorough understanding of what you’re responding to. When you approach the WPA text for the first time, read it through once to determine its subject, the degree of difficulty it may pose, and, perhaps, its main point.

READ AGAIN: When you’re reading for non-academic purposes, you may skip over unfamiliar words and/or concepts, assuming that you’ll gather their meaning from the context. This is not an effective strategy for academic reading. When you encounter unfamiliar words or references to people, places, or things, mark your copy of the text and use a dictionary and/or the Internet to find a definition. Write down this definition so you don't forget it.

READ AGAIN: Defining terms and concepts on your copy of the text is only one way of annotating the text, or making notes on it. You should also begin looking for and underlining main points and/or confusing portions of the text. Use a highlighter, and use the margin to make notes. Pay attention to how paragraphs begin, since writers often provide a topic sentence that announces the paragraph's main point. When you find the author’s thesis (his/her main point), make special note of it.

READ AGAIN: Once you feel that you understand the text, test yourself. Can you paraphrase (put into your own words) the main point of each paragraph? As you attempt to paraphrase the author’s ideas, watch for spots where you struggle or rely heavily upon the author’s words. These are signs that you may need to READ AGAIN.

Step 2

ASK: When you have a complete understanding of the text and can state its main points in your own words, ask yourself some questions and/or discuss the text and its subject with friends who are also preparing for the test or who have an interest in the issue. Focus on the author’s main point (thesis). What are some of the author’s key assumptions? Does his/her argument seem valid? What evidence or examples does the author use to argue his/her main point? Do you agree with the author? Why or why not? What, from your own experience and observation, has helped you to form your opinion? What evidence or examples might you use to defend your position? You aren’t required to do research to prepare for the test, but if you feel that greater knowledge of the issue might help you to decide where you stand, look for more information. Whether or not you agree with the author, do you feel that he/she creates a persuasive argument? What does the author do to attempt to persuade the reader? What else could the author have done? Can you think of counterexamples to the author’s claims?

Step 3

WRITE: To make sure that your understanding of the text is accurate and complete, write a summary (a condensed version of the text). Begin by stating the author’s thesis, and then move through the essay from beginning to end, putting all of the main points into your own words and providing logical transitions. When you finish your summary, you may email it to The Writing Center at growl@mso.umt.edu to request feedback. A tutor will let you know if you have grasped the main ideas, if time allows. Alternatively, you might meet with a tutor at this point and discuss your summary.

WRITE: Contact The Writing Center for a sample question to use for a practice essay. Because the WPA questions always ask you to take a position on the issue raised by the text, a good practice essay will explain whether you agree or disagree with the author and present your reasons and/or evidence for your position. Whatever position you take, you are expected to defend your position with reasons, examples, evidence, or observations that show the reader WHY you take the position you do. It's a good idea to come up with these reasons, examples, etc. BEFORE the test so you are ready to use them in your essay at the exam.

In your practice essay,begin with a brief description of the author’s position. It is considered good form in college-level writing to acknowledge the point of view of others before elaborating on your own. You might begin: In his essay “Animals in Research: The Case for Experimentation,” Frederick King argues that…” Your thesis statement (main point in direct response to the question posed) should appear by the end of your first paragraph to let the reader know where your essay is headed. The body of your practice essay should develop and provide support for your position. Try to write at least two pages (double-spaced). When you finish your practice essay, you may email it to the Writing Center at growl@mso.umt.edu to receive feedback from a tutor.

Writing Expectations for the WPA

In any academic assignment, knowing what your instructor expects is essential. Luckily, you don’t have to guess what the expectations of the faculty are for this test. First, the criteria by which the exam is scored are available ('UDWPA Scoring Criteria' at Handouts & Links) and the readers of the exam are trained to apply the criteria faithfully and consistently. The following section explains the five main areas that your essay will be scored on:

Responsiveness: Responsiveness refers to the relationship between the WPA text and the student response, and between the question posed and the response given. To write a successful essay you must understand what you’ve read and make your understanding evident in your essay, and you must write a direct response to the question you choose to answer. You are not expected to summarize the entire text in your essay; in fact, the majority of your essay should come from your own reasoning, observation or experience. However, you must accurately understand the author’s position in order to write an effective response. Also, you must be aware that no matter how competent your writing is, if you don’t get around to answering the question you choose to answer, your essay will not be successful.

Closely related to responsiveness is relevance. The readers can’t give you credit for writing on whatever grabs your fancy--your essay must be relevant to materials given you for the exam. That’s why you need to read the text closely and pay attention to how the questions are phrased. Don’t hesitate to use key words from the question in your thesis statement. If you are asked, “Do you agree that many Americans fail to see the truth about winning?” you might formulate a very simple working thesis by saying, “I agree (or I disagree) that many Americans fail to see the truth about winning.” Your thesis statement may be more sophisticated and suggest the reasoning behind your stance, but by directly responding to the question in your thesis statement (and by supporting your thesis throughout your essay), you show the reader that you fully understand what you’re being asked to do.

Development: Development refers to the way that a writer identifies and argues a point. A developed essay moves logically from supported claim to supported claim carrying the reader along as it goes. In other words, a developed essay allows the reader to arrive at your conclusions. It persuades the reader that the writer’s position is valid, even if the reader is inclined towards a different position. And, because WPA readers are not scoring on the basis of whether they agree or disagree with your position, you get credit for developing your ideas logically and rationally regardless of the position you take.

There are two keys in the WPA to getting maximum credit for development. First, an essay has to develop from something: in this case, it’s your thesis statement. Readers are looking for this statement early in the essay so that they can see where you are headed with your answer to the question. The thesis statement has to be defensible. For example “The indiscriminate use of animals in laboratory experiments hinders rather than advances scientific progress” promises a worthwhile debate, while “I believe it is mean to hurt animals” seems less likely to result in a consequential discussion. Second, readers will judge whether you connect your thesis statement to the reasons, examples, evidence, or other support you provide in your essay. In academic writing, only supported claims are persuasive, and when you are defending your argument rationally (rather than purely emotionally), you tend to be more persuasive. Since most academic and professional writing aims to persuade someone of something, being able to develop a persuasive argument is an important skill.

Since you can’t develop an idea you haven’t quite formulated, an essay that lacks an arguable thesis statement and logical support for it suggests that the writer hasn’t done the critical thinking that is required in upper division work. This is why even a long essay can receive a non-passing score: lots of sentences, examples, and paragraphs can’t substitute for a controlling idea that is systematically defended, without major distractions. Writing an essay, including the WPA, is all about choosing. You can’t write down everything that comes to mind, especially in a timed test. You must consider the problem at hand, focus on your best ideas, and make them clear to the reader. That means a lot of your thoughts will not make it into your essay--only the ones that are suited to developing, your point.

Organization: Organization refers to the order and progression of the ideas and sentences in your essay. If you use your introduction to give the reader a brief preview of the points to come, and then address these points in the order you’ve listed them, you show the reader that you understand her need for order. Readers like to know what to expect. If the writer spills ideas onto the page in a stream-of-consciousness fashion, or jumps back and forth between ideas, or tosses in off-topic sentences, the reader has to make the connections that add up to the writer’s overall message. In academic and professional writing, it is the responsibility of the writer to reach the reader with his ideas. A disorganized essay is like a jigsaw puzzle the reader has to put together; an organized essay allows the reader to see the writer’s meaning without a struggle. This is why writers are said to compose their message, whether in a business letter or an essay.

Language: Language refers to the writer’s choice of words, sentence types, and voice (aka tone). Just as you dress differently for different occasions, you choose different language for different writing situations. If you look at the language you use as a choice, or a series of choices, that you make while writing, you begin to have more control over how you present your ideas to your reader. For the WPA, and for academic writing in general, you should choose a formal voice. No matter how passionate you feel about your subject, you’re more likely to be perceived as credible if you present yourself as calm and rational rather than overly emotional.

Appropriate language for the WPA is clear and grammatical. It does not aim to offend, browbeat or elude the reader. Poor control of written language is evident when a writer uses words incorrectly, writes fragments or run-ons that cannot be justified in terms of “style”, repeats himself, or is vague. Sometimes a writer’s language is awkward to the point of obscuring the meaning of a sentence or paragraph. The key to language use in the WPA is to keep it simple and clear so that the reader is not distracted from your message.

Mechanics: Mechanics refers to the conventions of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Because the WPA is a timed test, the scoring criteria recognize that you might make errors that you wouldn’t make in your normal writing process, and that you may not have time to revise and edit your essay. Therefore, only persistent errors that interfere with your meaning count against you. No one has failed the WPA strictly on the basis of mechanical errors because there is a lot more to writing well than good mechanics. On the other hand, most readers are distracted by errors in mechanics and will lose confidence in the writer who appears sloppy or inattentive.

Students who write the exam by hand might feel that they are at a disadvantage compared to students who can use the spell-check function on a computer. However, spelling and grammatical errors rarely overwhelm an essay, whether typed or hand-written. Also, students who do not use spell-check wisely can allow the computer to substitute inappropriate and/or confusing words for them. Proofreading your essay is the best step to make sure that mechanical errors don’t pile up in your essay.

You can score from 1-5 in any of these areas. Ask yourself which of these areas are hardest/easiest for you. Focus on addressing your weaknesses and get help from knowledgeable peers, faculty, or Writing Center tutors. Now let's go on to think about writing your essay in a timed environment.

Tutorial II. A Timed Writing Strategy

During the exam, use this writing strategy:

ANALYZE + PLAN + EXECUTE + SIZE UP = APES

We’ll call this the APES strategy. You can use the APES strategy for any timed essay exam.

Step 1

ANALYZE: Analyze the question. When you enter the test, a proctor will give you a clean copy of the text, some scratch paper, and a sheet of instructions for the test. (Students writing their response by hand will also receive a blue book.) On the instruction sheet, you will find two questions to choose from. Both ask you to respond to the text, but their focus may differ. Be sure to read both questions carefully and pick the one that you feel most prepared to answer. Once you’ve chosen the question that you want to answer, ignore the other one. Because timed writing causes many students to feel rushed, you may be tempted to start writing as quickly as you can. But before you start, you must consider the type of response the question demands. Make sure you can restate the question in your own words and that you haven’t overlooked any key words or useful pointers. Analyzing the question may take ten to fifteen minutes, but this time is well-spent if it allows you to move to the next step with a clear sense of what to do.

Step 2

PLAN: You’ll have the best luck with timed writing if you take the time to make an outline before you start. Without an outline, you may find yourself halfway through your essay and far off-track, with no clear sense of how you got there or how to get back to where you need to be. To prevent this, make a plan! Don’t worry about spending another twenty minutes or so in this stage. Again, if you have a clear sense of where you’re going and how to get there, you’ll save yourself time when you actually begin to write. Write a thesis statement that provides a direct one-sentence response to the question you’ve chosen. This is the most important sentence of your response, so consider it carefully. You’ll spend the body of your essay supporting the position you state in your thesis. Choose the main points you’ll make and the support you’ll use, and decide upon a logical order for this material. Consider how to best use paragraphs to signal the progression of your argument. You may even want to go ahead and write topic sentences for each of your paragraphs.

Step 3

EXECUTE: Using your outline, write a clear and concise introduction that lets the reader know where you’re headed. Remember to give a brief explanation of the argument you’re responding to, and follow this with your thesis statement. Try to use a forecasting statement at the end of your introduction to let the reader know what material you’ll cover in the body of your response. In the body, support your thesis with a logical argument, using detailed evidence, and be sure to provide links between ideas. Be as specific as possible, and give examples! If you find yourself departing from the plan you’ve made, ask yourself whether the material you wish to include strengthens your argument, or whether it takes you on a tangent. Choose your words carefully, but use only the vocabulary you’re comfortable with. Likewise, craft your sentences carefully, but remember that the easiest way to maintain control and clarity is to keep things simple. For a more in-depth discussion of how to write an effective WPA essay go to Tutorial III.

Step 4

SIZE UP: When you finish writing, you may be tempted to rush on to the next part of your day, but don’t leave quite yet. You should spend the last fifteen minutes or so of test-time checking over your essay. Before you do this, you may want to try to distance yourself from your writing so you can evaluate it from a more objective perspective. Close your eyes and think of something pleasant, or stretch your legs a moment or two. When you return to your essay, try to read it as you would if someone else had written it. Watch for missing words and problems with punctuation. Move slowly, one sentence at a time. Remember that the reader will only see what you’ve put on the page, not what you meant to write.

Tutorial III. Structuring a WPA Essay

WPA questions require that you do two things:

Show your understanding of an author’s position
Construct a well-developed argument in response to that position

Your essay should consist of a focused introduction, followed by body paragraphs which provide the rationale and support for your position. In the body of your essay, you will display your critical thinking skills by revealing, with reasoning and details, your response to the text and question. You’re encouraged to use your own experience and observation and to use first person (“I”), but remember to maintain an academic voice throughout. Though it’s wise to end your essay by reminding the reader of how the individual portions of your argument contribute to the whole, you will probably have neither the time nor the need for an elaborate conclusion.

Many students are accustomed to using a five-point (or five-paragraph) structure for their papers, but this structure is not always the most effective one. Deciding upon an arbitrary number of paragraphs before you begin your essay may limit the extent to which you can explore your ideas and may force you to pay more attention to structure than to content. After all, who says you always have three points? You may have two, or four, depending on how you intend to support your argument. Also, sometimes you may need more than one paragraph to fully develop a point, especially if you’re aware of the need for detailed support and examples. As you’re planning your essay, weigh content and structure equally as you decide how many main points you want to make and how many paragraphs you need to make each point.

One key to properly structuring an essay for the WPA is getting off to a good start that guides what you do and don’t do in the rest of the essay. An effective introduction contains the following elements:

Evidence that you understand the issue presented in the text;
Clear and concise movement toward an answer to the question as asked;
A thesis statement that responds to the question (in the example that follows, the thesis statement is underlined);
A brief suggestion or sketch of the main points to come in the body of your essay.

Although you may pride yourself on your ability to write elaborate, creative introductions that “hook” the reader, keep in mind that your WPA introduction doesn’t need to be fancy. In your introduction, you should simply show the reader that you understand the text and the question at hand, and present a thesis that expresses your position on the issue you’ve been asked to address.

Sample question and introduction:

The following sample introduction models an appropriate beginning to a WPA essay. The thesis statement is italicized.

Question: In his essay “Dehumanizing People and Euphemizing War,” Haig Bosmajian argues that the use of dehumanizing language in political speech is dangerous. Do you find Bosmajian’s argument convincing? Explain why or why not.

Answer (Introduction): Throughout history, groups of seemingly logical and peaceful people have managed to do unthinkable things to each other. Although almost all people find the thought of killing another human being wrong, it is amazing what people have done to each other when they are coerced to believe what they normally would not. This idea is addressed in the essay “Dehumanizing People and Euphemizing War” by Haig Bosmajian. Bosmajian argues that ugly and inaccurate language is used to dehumanize people and justify the causes for war. He makes his argument primarily by comparing the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews in WWII with Reagan’s treatment of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. These examples make it clear that language can be used as a tool for destruction, but I do not find Bosmajian’s argument entirely convincing because he fails to put the blame where it belongs, on the listener.

Notice how this introduction orients the reader to what the issue of the text and essay to come is, while presenting a central claim, original to the writer, that the writer is going to defend. An attentive reader will automatically make a prediction about the direction an essay is taking by the time he/she has finished reading your introduction. Therefore, make sure you know where you are headed before you write the introduction so that the rest of the essay follows from it. Once you have decided on your central claim and turned it into a thesis statement, stick to defending it in subsequent sections of your essay even if you change your mind as you write. You can only write one essay in the allotted time and it is best to make it coherent and focused.

For examples of entire WPA essays, with scorer commentary, go to Sample Essays.

Retaking the UDWPA

Students who must retake the WPA often feel frustrated and uncertain of the reasons why their essay did not pass. These feelings are understandable, but the best way to ease this frustration is to pick up your test from the Writing Center and discuss it with a tutor. If you view the test as an opportunity for you to learn more about writing and to improve your skills, your positive attitude will be your first step toward writing a passing essay.

As soon as scores are posted for each exam, the essays are delivered to The Writing Center. We encourage all students to pick up their essay, but it’s especially important for students who have received a non-passing score. If you don’t find out what was lacking in your essay (and what was effective) how will you know what to do differently the next time you take the test? The following checklist will help you to see some of the common errors students make.

Ask yourself whether you felt adequately prepared for the test. Students who don’t spend enough time reading and thinking about the text before the test often find that two hours is too little time to read the text, think critically about the material and the issue at hand, and formulate a logical and well-developed response. If lack of preparation was your primary downfall, make an appointment with a tutor at the Writing Center to prepare for the next test.
Ask yourself whether you truly answered the question you were given, or whether you merely summarized, or even quoted, large portions of the text without building an argument of your own. Remember that your essay should present an argument in response to the text, so it’s not enough to simply re-use the examples the text provides. The tutors at the Writing Center can help you with this shortcoming by asking you to think about material from your own observation, experience, or education that has led you to take a particular stance. If you generate this material before the test, you’ll be able to build a stronger argument for your position.
Ask yourself whether your essay is as clear and focused as it seemed to be when you were writing it. What is your main point? Is it easy for the reader to tell which sentence is your thesis? Does the rest of your essay support this thesis? Do all the parts seem logically connected, or is your argument difficult to follow? Do you contradict yourself? Check to see whether any of the material in your essay is off-topic or lacks adequate explanation. Tutors at the Writing Center can help you to determine the answers to these questions and teach you more effective strategies for writing.

The list above provides a brief summary of some of the reasons WPA essays receive non-passing scores, but it’s no substitute for working one-on-one with a tutor to diagnose and learn how to improve the weak aspects of your writing. Sometimes, especially if lack of preparation was the major factor, reaching passing level can be a fairly straightforward task. In other cases, students may wish to schedule tutoring sessions on a regular basis in order to address problem areas and improve both competence and confidence in their writing.

For students who want to earn academic credits while improving their writing, The Writing Center offers Critical Writing II (UNC 270), a two-credit w-course that helps students gain mastery of the skills essential to college-level writing. For more information about the course, consult the UM Catalog or call The Writing Center at 243-2266.