The requirements for standard examinations for incoming freshmen are about to increase a little more.

The American College Test will have an optional writing section, and students applying to OSU will be required to complete it for admission.

A controvery in California was the stimulus for the added writing section in the ACT. Richard Atkinson, president of the University of California, called for the state to discontinue its use of the SAT test. He said he felt schools spent too much time studying purely for the SAT and not enough time on the skills necessary to learn in school.

Ken Gullette, spokesman for the ACT, said this made the SAT take action.

“After this (controversy), SAT decided to radically change their test,” Gullette said. “The ACT didn’t have to change anything because we already meet the requirements that Atkinson required.”

The ACT board decided they would add a writing section to their test anyway.

“We already had an English test that already does a pretty good job predicting good writing skills. When the California controversy came up, we agreed to add one to the ACT,” Gullette said.

However, the ACT decided to make the section optional instead of mandatory.

“Nationwide, we felt there was a real possibility that many colleges would not require it,” he said. “We didn’t think it was fair to make students take a test with a writing component if they don’t need it.”

OSU is one of the schools that decided to make the writing component a requirement. There are several reasons why freshmen entering in 2006 will be required to have taken the writing section.

“The College Board has announced that freshmen entering college in 2006 who take the SAT will have to complete a new writing section that will be mandatory on the SAT. Since ACT is initially making their writing section optional, we believe it only fair to expect the same assessment from our students regardless of whether they take the ACT or SAT,” said Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president for Undergraduate Admissions and First Year Experience.

“Successful people have good communication skills, both written and oral,” Freeman said.

She said the writing section would place more emphasis on writing in high schools.

“As Ohio State continues to bring in freshmen who have stronger academic credentials, it should only be expected that good writing skills will be a part of such credentials,” she said.

ACT is not the only organization adding an optional writing section. OSU has added a writing section to its application. It was first offered to the class of freshmen arriving next autumn. The applications now include two optional essays.

“The majority of our applicants submitted one of the two optional essays. We made this decision so that we would have one more way of learning more about the specific student, not writing per se, but more about the interests, background and what would make the particular student a successful student at Ohio State,” Freeman said.

Each ACT will be scored by two trained teachers.

“There will be at least two people grading a particular essay. Each essay will be scored on a one to six scale. Any essay with scores assigned by these graders different by more than one point will be graded by a third grader to resolve any discrepancy,” Gullette said.

The writing section will then be combined with the English section to give one composite grade for the two. This will be on a one to 36 scale.

Students taking the optional writing section will be charged an extra cost since it will take about 30 minutes longer, Gullette said.

Nate Singleton, a junior in English, said he believes adding a required writing section is a good idea.

“By adding a writing section, it shows creativity. It shows you can think beyond simple facts,” Singleton said. “It shows that you’re not one dimensional.”

The ACT organization has recently finished conducting a national curriculum survey.

“We just got the results in and are analyzing those to see what faculty say is important for students to develop in writing,” Gullette said. “We’re also going to conduct a field test to see how a writing test will add to the predicting validity of our English test.

“Colleges will know soon if a writing test will be able to predict whether a student will be able to write there,” he said.