Dan Royer and Roger Gilles
royerd@gvsu.edu
gillesr@gvsu.edu

Foreword Edward M. White

Introduction
Daniel J. Royer and Roger Gilles
Introduction: FAQ

Part I: Principles

Chapter 1
Peter Elbow
Directed Self Placement in Relation to Assessment: Shifting the Crunch from Entrance to Exit

Chapter 2
David Blakesley
Directed Self-Placement in the University

Chapter 3
Royer and Gilles
The Pragmatist Foundations of Directed Self-Placement

Chapter 4
Erica Reynolds
The Role of Self-Efficacy in Writing and Directed Self-Placement

Part II: Practices

Chapter 5
Robbie Sims and Ellen Pinter
Directed Self-Placement at Belmont University: Sharing Power, Forming Relationships, Fostering Reflection

Chapter 6
Janice Chernekoff
Introducing Directed Self-Placement to Kutztown University

Chapter 7
Cynthia E. Cornell and Robert D. Newton
The Case of a Small Liberal Arts University: Directed Self-Placement at DePauw

Chapter 8
Phyllis Frus
Directed Self-Placement at a Large Research University: A Writing Center Perspective

Chapter 9
Patrick Tompkins
Directed Self-Placement in a Community College Context

Chapter 10
David Blakesley, Purdue University
Erin J. Harvey, New Mexico State University
Erica J. Reynolds, University of Arizona
Southern Illinois University Carbondale as an Institutional Model: The English 100/101 Stretch and Directed Self-Placement Program

Chapter 11
Michael Neal and Brian Huot
Responding to Directed Self-Placement

Directed Self-Placement challenges two key assumptions—that college writing ability can be effectively measured outside the rich context of classroom assessment practices, and that writing ability alone best predicts success in the college writing classroom.

Around the country, program administrators at colleges and universities seek to assign entering students to an appropriate first-year writing class by determining as best they can the proficiency of student writing. Standardized tests. Timed writing samples. Entrance portfolios. Done well, these conventional forms of placement are time-consuming and costly. Done poorly, they result in arbitrary decisions based on thin evidence that has very little to do with the real conditions of a student’s success in a writing course.

How can decisions about placement into first-year writing courses include the larger contexts of program pedagogy, programs goals, and complex student lives? How can placement decisions take educational advantage of what students already know about themselves as writers? How can writing program administrators and faculty use what they know about their own programs, expectations, and past experience with writers to help guide students in making an informed, intelligent choice?

The contributors to this volume describe how and why DSP works—how it honors the high school experiences of entering college students, how it motivates students to do well, how it encourages faculty to maintain high expectations, how it challenges both faculty and administrators to define and articulate their curricula, and how it helps ensure that students who really want extra help get the help they need. Representing a full range of institutions—from community colleges to research universities—these contributors explore the principles and practices of this exciting new approach to writing placement.

Back to the GVSU Department of Writing main page.

Article for E-journal of Basic Writing

Self-efficacy and DSP (EJR)

CCC Article on DSP

Letter to students

DSP brochure for students

Book Introduction FAQ

"Why Placement? Why Directed Self-Placement? (a prompt for discussion)

To order the book, call:
Hampton Press Inc
(201) 894-1686
(800) 894-8955