Why is there timed writing?

I sit quietly listening to the click of keyboards as our ENG 102 class completes the mid-semester timed writing, and I reconsider why students are required to go through such an exercise. My 102 students don't complain much about it, but my ENG 393 class is full of frustrated seniors who didn't pass the Ball State Writing Competency Exam and now find themselves cramming in a 12-week Writing Portfolio class before they can graduate. Some 393s are bitter about how the exam is proctored: handwritten, stuck in a packed room full of other panicky writers, and responding to prompts that some students find confusing. Others disagree with the entire concept that a timed writing proves any sort of competency.

 
Those students are not alone. The use of timed writing, especially as a graduation requirement, is controversial. The complaints of my 393 students are the same ones raised by some researchers and writing instructors. Writing in the journal College Composition & Communication in 1995, Edward M. White says some critics of times writing describe it as "formulaic, unresponsive to the nature of writing, and destructive to the curriculum" (30). Peter Elbow, one of the composition rock stars I met at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Louisville, Ky., last week, described an essay test as a "faint, smudged and distorted picture of the student's writing ability (qtd. in White). 

White does not disagree with these assessments of timed essay writing, but says the criticism is too broad -- that not all essay tests are bad, especially when compared to multiple choice exams, which is the most frequently used alternative to test a student's competency in many subjects. Both multiple choice and essay exams offer "snapshots" of knowledge and skills. However, as White asserts, multiple-choice tests are artificial and authority-based. Such tests force students to try to figure out not just the "right" answer, but the answer the test-creator thinks is right.

Essay exams are a step-up from multiple-choice in that, while they still focus on the "right" answer, at least they allow for a student's interpretation of that answer. Time writing like the kind done this week goes a step further. It is not concerned with a correct answer, but rather how that answer is developed, supported, organized and communicated to readers. In many ways, it is more similar to the portfolios students submit at the end of the semester than to either multiple-choice or essay tests.

White says the most important consideration in any kind of assessment is its purpose. The purposes of the mid-semester timed writing include:

• part of a continuing assessment of students' progress through Writing Program courses 
• skill development and practice for timed writing situations such as the Writing Competency exam, essay exams in other courses, and impromptu writing situations outside of academia 
• an opportunity for focused drafting on a specific topic

It's the last purpose that I find particularly important. Sometimes that kind of focus produces some very good ideas (if not always good writing). When I review what students write in timed situations at this point in the semester, I pay at least as much attention to the ideas as I do to the writing. Frequently, my students and I find ideas that can be revised into effective portfolio contents.

Whether or not you agree with any of White's ideas, others' criticism, or my analysis, timed writing will likely continue to be a part of academic discourse. Hopefully, when you are faced with your next timed writing situation -- whether it's a course exam, a placement essay, or the Writing Competency exam you may need to graduate -- you'll keep in mind some of the strategies that worked for you this year in class. Also remember that you continue to have access to the Writing Program's e-handbook Ballpoint. Chapter 11 offers some very helpful strategies for doing your best timed writing.

Most important, consider timed writing as its own genre with specific rhetorical context. As with other kinds of writing, keep your audience and purpose in mind when you respond.

Prompts: What is your feedback on White's ideas, others' criticism, or my analysis? What is your experience with timed writing (either this week or other times)?

Works Cited

“BallPoint.” BSU English Dept. Writing Program. Web. 15 Aug. 2009. 

White, Edward M. "An Apologia for the Timed Impromptu Essay Test." College Composition and Communication, 46.1, Feb. 1995. 30-45. Print.