PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State University has announced the names of four undergraduate students who submitted the best junior writing portfolios in spring semester 2006, the Writing Programs office said.
They are Grant Holly, a history major from Longview; James Eberlein III, a German major and Honors College student from Puyallup; Vanessa Serratore, a zoology major and Honors College student from Des Moines; and Zachary Purvis, a math major and Honors College student from Vancouver. Each received a Harold and Jeanne Rounds Olsen Writing Portfolio Award certificate and a $100 gift.
“It’s very prestigious,” said Diane Kelly-Riley, the director of the Writing Assessment Program that oversees the junior writing portfolios. “The winners represent the top quarter of the top one percent of all the submissions.”
These four were judged to be the best of 2,900 portfolios submitted in spring 2006. All portfolios include three papers written for courses plus an impromptu exam. Five faculty graders determine if students have achieved desirable writing skills to perform well in their major, and have accomplished required writing skills to graduate, said Kelly-Riley. Each year, the judges choose a few students who stand out from the rest as extraordinary.
Eberlein, Serratore and Purvis are all currently studying abroad. But Holly attended a winners’ reception.
“I was really surprised to receive the award,” said Holly, who works as a tutor in the WSU Writing Center.
Many Writing Center tutors have received the award, Kelly-Riley said. “They almost always have at least one student in the winners’ group,” she said.
WSU Writing Programs are ranked among the best in the nation. It was ranked for the sixth straight year in the top “Academic Programs to Watch For” in writing according to U.S. News and World Report’s annual “America’s Best Colleges” in 2007. In addition to the Writing Assessment Program, Writing Programs includes the Writing Center, that provides free tutorial instruction to WSU students, and Writing Across the Curriculum, that aids faculty in assigning and grading writing.
