RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN DIFFERENT VARIABLES AND PERFORMANCE ON A JUNIOR-YEAR ENGLISH EXAMINATION
COLLEGES AND universities in the United States frequently require a written examination in English for upper-division students in order to assure that all graduates can express themselves satisfactorily in written communication. This evaluation, by its nature, is usually in the form ofatheme, often graded on a "pass-fail" basis. Such a test is often accepted at face value in the belief that it evaluates composition skills taught in freshman English. This study was designed to investigate one such examina tion, given at The University of Tennessee, and to review several related variables concerning it. The Faculty of The University of Tennessee re quires all students to pass, before graduation, "The Junior English Examination. " The Department of English, which administers the examination three times a year, allows a student two hours in which to organize and express his ideas in approximately 600 words on topics which hopefully have some relation ship to the college in which he is enrolled. An English instructor teaching freshman English marks each paper pass or fail. Instructors refer all papers which receive a failing grade to a profes sor for r??valuation. After the r??valuation, those students receiving failing grades are required to at tend "Writing Laboratory" where they are instruct ed in basic grammatical skills. A student must re main in Writing Laboratory until the instructors in charge believe the deficiency has been removed.