Survey of First Year Writing Students

English 101

Total response: 673

If in English 102, did you receive credit for English 101 through a placement test?

Yes	7	1.08%
No	53	8.20%
Don’t know	16	2.48%
Left blank	570	88.24%

2.) Age?

age	#	age	#	age	#	age	#	age	#	age	#	age	#
16	1	21	32	26	11	31	2	36	2	41	1	46	0
17	41	22	26	27	9	32	1	37	4	42	1	47	1
18	303	23	18	28	8	33	1	38	6	43	3	48	0
19	90	24	15	29	5	34	3	39	1	44	1	49	1
20	39	25	10	30	7	35	6	40	2	45	0	50	2

3.) What is your sex?

Male	297	44.8%
Female	366	55.2%

4.) What is your academic standing?

Class	#	Percent of Class
Freshman	575	89.14%
Sophomore	37	5.74%
Junior	14	2.14%
Senior	5	.76%
Other	14	2.14%

5.) Is English your main language in your home?

Yes	630	95.6%
No	29	4.40%

6.) If English isn’t mostly spoken in your home, what language is?

Language	# Spoken	Language	# Spoken	Language	#spoken
Basque	3	Japanese	2	Spanish	11
Bosnian	1	Korean	1	Swedish	1
Chamorrow	1	Polish	1
Chinese	1	Romanian	2
German	1	Russian	1

7.) What test did you use for placement into this course?

	English main language		Foreign main language
Compass	83	13.17%	10	34.48%
ACT	323	51.27%	5	17.24%
SAT	87	13.81%	8	27.59%
Michigan Test	0		2	6.90%
A/P	6	1.00%	0
Other	40	6.35%	4	13.79%
Don’t know	70	11.11%	3	10.34%

8.) In your previous English courses (including high school courses), were you ever required to write a research paper?

Yes	631	92.39%
No	37	5.42%
Don’t know	15	2.20%

9.) In your previous English courses (including high school courses), did you ever discuss plagiarism?

Yes	601	88.12%
No	61	8.96%
Don’t know	20	2.94%

10.) How would you describe your attitudes towards writing?

I love it	86	12.98%
I like writing	213	32.13%
I don’t mind it	320	48.27%
I dislike writing	96	14.48%
I hate writing	31	5.68%
I don’t have a opinion about it	17	25.64%

11.) Which of the following are problems you face when writing? Check all that apply.

Getting started	470	70.89%
Coming up with information or ideas	310	46.76%
Rewriting or revision	213	32.13%
Trying to avoid grammar mistakes	348	52.49%
Organizing the information	273	41.18%
Finding a good ending	276	41.63%
Coming up with a topic	266	40.12%
Having enough time	214	32.28%
Making a point	182	27.45%
Doing research	170	25.64%
Spelling	170	25.64%
Narrowing my topic	189	28.51%
None of the above	7	1.01%

12.) Which one of the following do you believe most strongly is the key to becoming a better writer?

Studying the basics, starting with sentence structure, then paragraphs, and then the whole compositions.	160	24.13%
People are born writers. Either you can do it well or you can’t.	39	5.88%
People have to develop confidence in their own writing voices before they can improve.	206	31.07%
Improving one’s writing involves an understanding of the steps involved and practicing each separately.	101	15.23%
You get better at writing if you read a lot.	86	12.97%
Developing writers most need to learn how to produce the various forms of writing-argument, exposition, description, etc	103	15.54%
The best way to develop as a writer is to imitate the writing of others who are better than they are.	7	1.06%
The key to a writer’s development in the fluency. Once a writer can learn to write a lot, he or she will improve.	66	9.95%