The Final Exam

I include on this page an outline of what to expect on the final exam.

Purpose and Goals

Periodically throughout the semester we have stepped back from readings of individual works--or works grouped together for a single class discussion--to a consideration of larger patterns in the readings and how readings from different days or units relate to each other. The final exam is, with the final project, the last time we will do this in the class. It tests your ability to recall, recognize, contextualize, analyze, abstract from, and synthesize key moments and issues in the texts from the "Literature of Resistance" unit. It provides you with the opportunity to focus on the texts and problems that have interested you most in the unit; rather than identifying what you don't know, it is structured to give you a chance to show what you do know and have thought most carefully about.

Like the mid-term exam, the larger purpose of the final exam is to help you become more conscious of what interpretive moves you make when you read a text, to practice and get feedback on moves that you may not normally make, and to give you an opportunity to integrate your interpretive skills into a consideration of the critical issues of the "Literature of Resistance" unit. This exam is one way for us to see how far along you have come in becoming a more self-conscious reader, in becoming aware of what interpretive moves you make when you read, and in pushing yourself to move beyond reading comprehension and appreciation, toward a "critical literacy."

Structure

The exam will consist of four sections:

• Part I: Movement/Author Identifications (roughly 5 minutes; worth roughly 5% of your grade). You will be asked to match the authors names with the movements they are most closely associated with.
• Part II: Passage Identifications (roughly 15 minutes; worth roughly 10% of your grade). You will be asked to identify the movement, author, and title (correct spelling and full names a necessity!) of a given short excerpt from several works in the "Literature of Resistance" unit. You will have to identify something on the order of 10 out of 15 passages, with partial credit (if you can't remember exact names, good descriptions will be rewarded) and bonus points (for additional identifications) awarded. Passages chosen for identification will be as obviously significant and distinctive as possible; there will be no "trick" passages.
• Part III: Interpretive Skills (roughly 30 minutes; worth roughly 30% of your grade). You will be asked to choose one passage from Part II on which to demonstrate your competence in the following interpretive skills: a) close reading/explication (discuss what a passage means and how it means; make explicit what's implicit/figurative in the passage); b) relating part to whole (discuss how a passage contributes to the meaning of the larger work from which it comes); and c) comparison/contrast (identify a major theme or issue or problem or idea in a given passage and compare/contrast the treatment of it in that passage and one other text from the course).
• Part IV: Short Answer/Interpretive Essays (roughly 70 minutes; worth roughly 55% of your grade). You will be asked to write a) one short answer essay (in which you explain and illustrate two key concepts or distinctions out of several options); and b) one persuasive essay in which you use two passages from Part II to support your argument on one of several options.

ENGL 206: Survey of American Literature, Fall 2002
Created: 12/11/02 6:51 pm
Last modified: 12/11/02 6:51 pm