Students in Applied Grammar III (ENSL 0091) write an exit essay in each of the last two class sessions of the semester. The time limit for each exit essay is 75 minutes (the usual time for one class period). For each exit essay, students choose between two topics, but they do not know what the topics are until they open their blue books to begin. After each essay, the instructor collects all the essays, reads and scores each one without making any marks on the paper, and then submits the essays for reading by the ESL faculty.

Each exit essay has three readers: the classroom instructor is the first reader and other ESL faculty are the other two readers. Each reader scores each exit essay independently without discussing the paper with anyone else. Each exit essay receives a rating of “Pass” or “Fail” from each reader. Any exit essay that receives two ratings of “Pass” is a passing exit essay; any paper that receives only one rating of “Pass” is not a passing exit essay.

As each student writes two exit essays, each student has two chances to pass the ESL Exit. Sometimes a student writes only one exit essay. In such cases, the student has only one chance to pass.

For the 2009 fall semester, students in ENSL 0091-221 write their first exit essay Friday 20 November during the second class session that day. Students in ENSL 0091-221 write their second exit essay Friday 4 December during the second class session that day. Before students write their second exit essay, they will not know whether their first essay has passed or not as the first will yet not have been read by three ESL faculty.

Students in Applied Grammar III (ENSL 0091) find out from their instructors the results of the ESL Exit. Without passing the ESL Exit, students cannot receive a passing grade in Applied Grammar III (ENSL 0091). In other words, any student without a passing exit essay automatically receives a final course grade of "D" in Applied Grammar III and must retake the course the next term.

Good writing always passes the ESL Exit, so knowing what good writing is, being able to recognize it, and being able to produce it are all valuable to pass the ESL Exit.