Requirement

IMPORTANT UPDATE:  Effective immediately, the Effective Writing Requirement has been lifted. Students are no longer required to complete Effective Writing as part of their degree program. Effective Writing will be removed from your hold and/or to do list as soon as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All undergraduate University of Calgary students, full- or part-time, must meet the Effective Writing Requirement.

Students who have not satisfied this requirement will not be allowed to register for any session that begins 12 or more months after they start classes as regular registered (i.e. not Open Studies) students. For example, students who begin studies in the Fall session will not be allowed to register for the subsequent Fall session until they have completed the Effective Writing Requirement. In practice, this means students must complete the requirement by May of their first year in order to avoid delays in their second-year registration.

Students transferring to the University of Calgary who have only five full-course equivalents remaining to complete their degree requirements must satisfy the Effective Writing Requirement within a year, as outlined above. In all cases, the requirement must be completed prior to graduation.

Students with an Effective Writing Requirement withhold are not permitted to register under any student category (including Unclassified or Open Studies) until the requirement has been met.

Meeting the Effective Writing Requirement

To meet the Effective Writing Requirement, all students must either:

1. pass the Effective Writing Test (otherwise known as the Alberta Universities’ Writing Competence Test), or
2. be exempted from the test.

A complete list of exemptions can be found by clicking here , but key routes to exemption (besides passing the Effective Writing Test) are as follows:

• passing a non-credit Effective Writing “A” or “B” Course
• earning a grade of B- or better in a university English course
• earning a grade of B or better on a course that appears on our exemption list.

Unless you are exempt, you should write the Effective Writing Test in September, November, or January. Winter term tests are extremely crowded, resulting in long delays in marking and little time to prepare for a rewrite if necessary. If you write the test later than January, your registration for your next year may be delayed and, as a result, you may not get into the courses that you wish to take.

Help Available 

Sample EW test questions, along with a copy of our marking code and tips on taking the test, are available on our website at the Test Preparation link. To prepare for the test, we recommend that you write one or more sample tests and review them with an instructor in the Writing Centre. To book an appointment, click here.

Students who think they may benefit from more structured writing instruction should consider taking a non-credit Effective Writing course. Several sections of the course are offered each term. For more information and a course schedule, click here. Students who receive a pass and achieve a high enough grade on the final in-class essay in this course will be exempt from the Effective Writing Requirement.