The COMPASS® Writing Skills Placement Test presents one or more passages, each containing several errors. When an error is detected in a passage, clicking on that section of the passage brings up several alternative segments of text from which a more appropriate segment can be selected and inserted automatically into the text. Items in the Writing Skills Placement Test assess basic knowledge and skills in usage and mechanics (e.g. punctuation, basic grammar and usage, and sentence structure) as well as more rhetorical skills such as writing strategy, organization, and style. Sample of items from these knowledge and skill areas are provided in the following pages.
Note that in the sample passages that follow, each section is numbered. In the computerized COMPASS® Writing Skills Placement Test, sections are not numbered; instead, errors are identified by moving the cursor to the section of text in which an error is identified and then clicking the left mouse button to make the alternative text options appear. Also note that for each set of answer options, option A is always identical to the text as it appears in the passage. As such, option A represents "no change."
Created by Renee Wright for Triton College 2013.