Guilford College Writing Manual

We have found that the verbal SAT score (or, for those taking the ACT, the corresponding ACT score) is generally the best predictor of success in writing at Guilford. Thus, to determine placement we use this tool, supplemented with on-site diagnostic work in your first weeks at Guilford.

If your verbal SAT score is 520 or below (or, if you took the ACT instead and your score is 23 or below), we will ask you to take English 101 in the fall semester.

English 101: Writing Seminar provides intensive work on writing skills. Students taking this course move on to the standard track in the spring. Those taking this course often become stronger writers than students who take only College Reading and Writing: Many Voices and Historical Perspectives.

If your verbal SAT score is 520 or above (or, if you took the ACT and your score is 24 or higher), we will ask you to take College Reading and Writing: Many Voices (English 102)in the fall semester.

If you have received a grade of 3 or higher on an Advanced Placement English exam, you will be exempt from College Reading and Writing: Many Voices and may take Historical Perspectives in the fall or the spring. You must submit an official record of your scores to the registrar's office before credit will be granted. If you have two AP exemptions for first-year English, we will credit your second exemption toward your humanities requirement.

If you have neither SAT or AP scores or AP credit, we will ask you to send us two pieces of writing by the end of the first week of July. We will send instructions for these writing samples, samples which we will use to determine whether you will take English 101 or College Reading and Writing in the fall. You may, if you choose, self-select English 101, in which case you do not need to submit the writing samples.