All students entering Rice must complete the Composition Exam before their first semester at Rice to determine the level of communication instruction required or recommended. The exam establishes if students must complete COMM 100 or COMM 103 to graduate or if their writing abilities are advanced enough to allow them to place out of this requirement and take an elective communication course.

Rice currently offers the following three levels of communication courses:

1. COMM 100 – Fundamentals of Academic Communication. This course provides an intensive review of writing, reading, and critical thinking to prepare students needing more review before enrolling in COMM 103.
2. COMM 103 – Academic Writing and Argument. This course is topic specific, but all sections include several writing assignments, a research paper, and oral presentations.
3. Communication Intensive Courses. These courses are offered in various departments across campus and include courses such as the following: COMM/LEAD 321 -Leadership Communication, COMM 414 - Medical Communication, and COMM 300 - Digital Communication, HUMA 201 - Public Speaking, and NSCI 121 - Writing Professionally in Natural Sciences (please see www.rice.edu/comm for a complete list of courses across campus considered communication intensive).

 Four scores are possible on the exam. Their meaning is as follows:

•  Pass. Student’s essay was judged satisfactory.
•  Low Pass. Student should improve his or her writing ability by choosing a course or courses in which they will write frequently and receive substantial feedback.
•  Not Satisfactory. Student must enroll in a COMM 103.
•  NSI. Not Satisfactory, intensive review needed. Student must successfully complete COMM 100 – Fundamentals of Academic Communication - before he or she registers for COMM 103; both courses must be successfully completed before the student can graduate.

Next Steps

If you are unsure about the meaning of your evaluation, please talk to your advisor about it. You may also want to discuss it with one of the Rice writing consultants. If you are still unsure about the meaning of your evaluation or if you feel your essay was incorrectly evaluated, you should send an e-mail request to compexam@rice.edu to have your essay re-evaluated by the Comp Exam Appeal Board. We must receive any appeals to re-evaluate your essay no later than October 10, 2011.

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