The English Department Writing Program welcomes you to IUPUI! We’re glad you’re joining our campus community, and we look forward to helping you grow as a writer. Through courses and the University Writing Center, the Writing Program will help you become a successful college writer. Our courses are designed for native speakers of English; the English as a Second Language Program handles courses for non-native speakers, and IUPUI requires all non-native speakers of English (including U.S. high school graduates) to take the ESL Placement Test before starting their courses.

Being successful involves starting off in the right course, one that will support and challenge you. Instead of using a writing test to determine where you should start, we invite you to reflect on your experiences using materials we have prepared. After you have learned about IUPUI’s three first-year writing courses, thought about questions we have prepared, and looked at writing samples to see what college writing really looks like, you will be able to choose the course that’s right for you. This process is called Guided Self-Placement.

Guided-Self Placement has three steps. Complete all three before coming to orientation.

Step 1, Reflection: Use our structured questions to reflect on your writing and the way IUPUI’s writing courses can help you.

Step 2, Course Information: Look at descriptions of the courses and writing samples to see what college writing requires.

Step 3, Course Selection: Indicate which course you’d like to take. Note that you must have your IUPUI e-mail account activated before you can complete Step 3. If you need help with this, contact: support@iupui.edu