Engl 3130 Advanced Composition, Fall 2017


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Final Exam Instructions / Best Student Writing This Semester
last update: December 4, 2017 

 

I. Final Exam Instructions

The final exam has two parts:  Part A is an essay you will write, in class, during the final exam period. Bring your notebook with all the entries you wrote on the days when I returned essays with grades and comments, during the semester. This impromptu writing will count as one of the "miscellaneous, ungraded short memos and other writings" which are listed in the course policies under "Final Grade Breakdown."

 

Part B is a take-home writing activity.  Follow the instructions below. 

 

1.  Instructions for Part B, the out-of-class portion of the final exam

  a. Choose three of your classmates' essays will be posted here by the evening of Weds Dec 6.

  b. Write a response to each of those three essays.  Use the memo format.  Follow the guidelines, and consider the grading criteria, below. 

  c. Print two copies of each response.  Label the two copies separately, as follows:  "Copy 1, for [so-and-so -- author's name]," and "Copy 2, for Dr. O'Donnell, instructor."  

  d. Bring both hard copies of each response to class during the final exam period, which is Wednesday Dec 13, at 10:30am. 

 

2.  Guidelines for each response, for Part B of the final exam

  a. Write at least 300 words.
  b. Address the author of the essay directly, using the second-person, personal pronoun.

  c. Do not evaluate the essay. Instead, write about your own experience as a reader. Why did you choose to respond to that particular essay? What did the essay make you think and feel?

 

3.  Grading Criteria for Part B of the final exam

I will grade each of your three responses according to the usual criteria for good writing:  1) focus/ purpose; 2) support and development; 3) organization, including paragraphing; 4) style/ voice/ readability; 5) editing and proofreading. 

 

I will average the three response grades together to get a single grade, which is worth 5% of your final grade. 

 

II. Best Essays from This Semester

- Black Greek-Lettered Organizations: How Schools Like ETSU Benefit from Their Presences, by Jade Delahoussaye 

- Cooking Like Mamaw: A Guide to Cooking Biscuits and Gravy; Boston Roast with Brown Gravy; and Blackberry Cobbler, by Kayla Welden

- Customers from the Server’s Eyes: A Walk-Through Story from the Server’s Side of the Table, by Jessica Dunker 

- Extrabiblical Revelations: My Prophetess Grandmother’s Prosaic Misadventure, by Kilian Thomas

- Is It Too Late to Start Drinking? Dealing with My Parents’ Divorce, by A. N. Barnes    

 

- A Merciless Deity? An Examination of the Old Testament Reveals a Different God than Typically Depicted, by Luther Knox 

- Retro Goes Metro: A Track-by-Track Analysis of Villains by Queens of the Stone Age, by Lauren Bennett

- Southern Classic: A Guide to Cooking Cube Steak, Green Beans, and Mashed Potatoes, by Chris Price