University of Delaware Writing Center

The Communication Condition

Issuing a Communication Condition

CCs should be issued for serious, persistent problems in a student’s writing. Take the time to determine whether the student is putting his or her best effort into the writing for your course, so that CCs are based on a student’s real abilities and not issued to students who don’t need the extra work.

How is a CC Issued?

The forms for issuing a CC to a student may be obtained from departmental secretaries. After the form is filled out, the faculty member returns it to the departmental secretary, who forwards copies of the form to the appropriate offices. The copy sent to the student should be accompanied by a letter provided by the Writing Center. The copy sent to the Writing Center may be accompanied by pieces of the student’s writing that prompted issuing the CC.

After filing a CC form with the departmental secretary, the faculty member should also inform the student that a CC has been issued and tell the student the reasons for issuing the CC. Emphasize the importance of resolving the issue as soon as possible (by contacting the Writing Center) before the CC interferes with the student’s graduation.

Form Options

On the CC form, there are two options for issuing a CC:

The Composition CC should be based on several papers or pieces of in-class wrining rather than on just one poorly written sample. Poorly written out-of-class papers should be considered more serious problem than poorly written essay tests or in-class papers.


The Spelling CC
is issued only to College of Education students when serious spelling problems are identified by means of the CAT test.

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