The effect of a timed writing assessment on ESL undergraduate engineering students

Pressure from engineering faculty and external accreditors to improve the quality of undergraduates´ communication skills led to the development of a timed writing assessment, which has resulted in an unproportionally high failure rate among English as Second Language (ESL) students. This paper provides explanations for why some ESL writers are unable to successfully negotiate a timed writing instrument, the types of rhetorical and linguistic errors they commonly display in this context, and suggestions for instructors of ESL writing and engineering courses to become more proactive in helping prepare students to write under pressure as undergraduates and in their future professional lives.