2 options for taking exam

• in-class: 7-9:50pm during class period Thursday, 8 March; write in ink in bluebook or on notebook paper (fronts and backs of pages okay; single-spacing okay, or write on word program and print-out or email) or on laptop. Bring notes, texts, laptop, outlines, drafts to class. Write exam in 3 hours. In-class midterms are graded separately from emails.
  
• email: 3-4+ hours anytime after class on Thursday 1 March and before noon Saturday 10 March; write in Word or Rich Text Format file; attach and paste into email message to whitec@uhcl.edu (or reply to my email)

Email students may take breaks and write parts in installments + review & revise.

Attendance not required on 8 March unless you take the exam in-class. Instructor will keep office hours during class period. If you plan to take the exam in class, please notify instructor.

Format: Open-book, open-notebook

• Use course materials + outside sources (<optional).

• No direct coaching or contributions from another person in writing final version.Welcome to consult beforehand with instructor or Writing Center.

• No copying or lifting from outside sources without attribution.

  

4 parts to midterm exam (Parts 1 & 2 may overlap)

• 1. Essay 1: 6-8 paragraphs on 5-6 texts & 2-3 terms
  

• 2. Essay 2: (4-6 paragraphs) on 1 of 2 options (or combinations as inspired): (NOT ON 2010 midterm)

  • 2a. Highlight and analyze a passage from our course readings--your best textual experience in comprehending course contents (terms, themes, objectives, class discussion)

  • 2b. Favorite term, objective, concept in course + explanation & application to at least 2 texts

• 3. Web Highlights: Review at least 3 student contributions from course website's Model Assignments (4-6 paragraphs)

• 4. Research plan exploring likely-possible topics for research posts assignments (2-3 paragraphs; prepare beforehand?)

Special requirement:

Essays, web highlights, and research plan must have titles--the better the title, the better the writing.

Special notes:

• sections’ contents may overlap / repeat; acknowledge, cross-reference, economize

• If your exam will be late, communicate! (professional courtesy)

Advance preparations:

Complete your Research Plan ahead of time or compose it while writing your exam.

Organize, draft, and revise essays answer as much as helpful--no real time-limits for writing on email exams, but time doesn't always equal quality. Edit, proofread, and improve before sending.

Welcome to take drafts to Writing Center for help. Also consult with instructor, teaching assistant, fellow students, or other mentors. Use common sense in managing conflicting advice.

To complete the midterm, you minimally need to plan topics for your essays and your research posts. These various topics may connect or be distinct (within course parameters).

Audience: a member of our class, someone starting the next semester of this class, or maybe even your family or other teachers, so they can know what you’re learning. Of course your main audience is me, the instructor, but my response may address how much you wrote for the class as opposed to talking about whatever you would have said before the class started or as if you hadn't been there.

Essay 1: 6-8 paragraph essay unifying 5-6 texts & 2-3 terms

Describe your learning experience in terms of course objective 1.

Obj. 1: To learn about early North American and U.S.texts and cultures and make them matter now.

To make your texts matter, refer to 2-3 terms or course objectives, your literary preferences, and what parts of texts connected to your and the course's interests.

Or start with 1-2 texts and build from what worked in them to what works for you in the course. Connect to 2-3 terms or objectives, develop texts' meanings, involve other texts.

References:

• 2-3 terms or objectives: Don’t just mention them--work with them—reconnect and extend.

• 5-6 Texts from course till midterm: you may cover 1-2 texts in more detail than others. Most important: connect texts to each other—compare-contrast subjects, themes, characters. Texts may include 1 poem or web review.

• Within these limits, develop your own emphases or discuss with me or others like the Writing Center.

Requirement: Essay 1 must have a title.

Priority: Write about something you care about or can make yourself care about. Develop your interest to match, vary, and extend the course’s interests.

Possibilities—you may use, vary, or ignore:

• Creation / Origin stories (obj. 2)

• The Puritan generations (obj. 2)

• Plain Style & Baroque

• Unity / diversity: who tells the story of America? (obj. 4—which America to teach?)

• Voices and images of women and ethnicities (obj. 4)

• How to tell a single story about a diverse America? (obj. 6)

• Material and spiritual aspects of American culture

• What's surprising and familiar about early American literature

• The 1600s & 1700s, Religion & Enlightenment

Thematic purposes are best, but you could start with authors so that themes develop.

For many other possibilities, see LITR 4231 2010 midterm samples

suggestions for starting and organizing:

• Describe your learning experience.

• What did you previously know about our overall subject (Early American Literature) and/or your particular interest in it? How did you know what you knew?

• Welcome to describe earlier courses, religious instruction, movies or cartoons, outside reading, Thanksgiving pageants, etc.

Essay 2: 4-6 paragraph essay on 1 of 2 options (or combinations as inspired):

• 2a. Highlight and analyze a passage from our course readings--your best textual experience in comprehending course contents (terms, themes, objectives, class discussion)

• 2b. Favorite term, objective, concept in course + explanation & application to at least 2 texts

Essay 2 was NOT on the LITR 4231 2010 midterm; for samples, see LITR 4232 2010 short essay samples.

Details: Choose & indicate either 2a or 2b. If  inspired to combine the options, announce at start of answer.

2a. Highlight a passage from our course readings—your best textual experience before the midterm—explaining why it made an impression on you. Analyze the passage’s language, how it works and connects. Apply to course terms and/or objectives + extend or apply beyond course.

• Copy and paste the passage into your exam, or refer to it so instructor can find it or know what you’re talking about. (Doesn’t count as essay length)

• You may refer to more than 1 passage, but more material may equal shallower analysis. If 2 passages, be sure to connect.

• References to discussion or lecture welcome; otherwise analyze text on its own terms, in larger context, by connecting to other texts.

• Make it matter. Why or how does the passage speak to literary and/or cultural issues in and beyond our course?

2b. Favorite term, objective, concept in course + why + application to at least 2 texts

• What  term or idea appeals to you the most & why? What concepts does it explain? Why does the term or its applications matter? Two textual references may be better than one.

• Connect, compare, or contrast with other terms.

• How has your understanding evolved? Where do you apply or see it?

Requirement: Essay 2 must have a title.

3. Web Highlights: Review at least 3 posts from course website's Model Assignments (4-6 paragraphs)

Web Highlight was NOT on the LITR 4231 2010 midterm; for samples, see LITR 4232 2010 web review samples.

Assignment: Review at least 3 submissions on the course webpage’s “Model Assignments” page and write 5-7 paragraphs (total) on what you found and learned.

Requirements & guidelines:

• Review at least one midterm essay from LITR 4231 2010 midterm essays.

• Review at least one research post from LITR 4231 2010 research posts.

• “Review”: describe what interested you, where, why, what you learned. You may criticize what you found, but not required.

• To identify passages, copy and paste brief selections into your web review or refer to them using names, locations, paraphrases, summaries, and brief quotes. (Both options in models.) Either way, highlight and discuss language used in the passages as part of your commentary. Critique what you learn.

• What did you learn from reviewing model assignments that you didn't learn from in-class instruction?

Requirement: Web Highlights essay must have a title. Also remember to write it as an essay, not just a list of 3 items. Unify your learning experience. 

4. Research plan exploring likely-possible topics for research posts assignments (2-3 paragraphs; prepare beforehand?)

For the research component of this course, you will write two “research posts”--not traditional essays but reports in which you organize knowledge you gather on a self-selected topic.

This proposal is to start thinking about your research post topics—first post is due 22-29 March, just after spring break.

Again you have choices—priority should be to write on something you want to learn about that connects to our course.

Parameters:

Your topic should stay within the time-boundaries of our course, from 1492 to the 1820s. You may connect to materials beyond our course limits, as the course does with Irving and Hawthorne, but your learning must focus or refocus on periods studied in Early American Literature.

You are not limited to authors, texts, or cultures in the syllabus—you could do more research on American Indian literature, the Founders, the Pilgrims and Puritans, Spanish or French explorers, women writers, early poetry or drama, or authors like Bradstreet, Paine, Jefferson, Abigail Adams, or any other names that catch your interest.

Topics often change somewhat as you do research. Just start, and see what you learn, then shape the report around your learning.

If your topic changes drastically, let me know so I won’t be surprised and think the wrong things when I see it.

More on research posts.

Review of research posts from other semesters or courses—what did you see that helped you understand the assignment?

sample research proposal

LITR 4231 2010 research posts

Requirement: Research proposal must have a title.

Standard advice for exams:

Do not copy out long passages from texts.  Quote briefly; otherwise simply remind your reader of events, characters, situations in texts.  No need for page documentation unless it’s something surprising. Refer to texts by full title and full name of author the first time; abbreviations welcome thereafter.

Organize essays around a central theme, question, or problem. Keep returning to it and developing it as you write and revise. (Much of instructor's feedback will focus on your writing.)

Final steps:

Review & edit your essay. Make it better.

Emphasize main points. Connect ideas. Develop examples.

Remember what teachers have told you about your writing.

Examinations are not just chances to show what you already knew or to wish you’d known more beforehand—they test learning even as you write.

See grading standards below.

Rest & edit before sending. Surface quality is part of your grade. If you have trouble with spelling, word endings, punctuation, etc., get help from a mentor or tutor as long as they explain changes.

Most common problems in midterms & research plans:

Students don’t write enough—they write what they have to, then happily stop instead of pushing their ideas another step.

Students ignore what happens in class and blah-blah-blah as they would have whether they took the class or not, recycling old ideas from other classes or hallway conversations (which you can use as long as you connect them to the class). Show what you've learned--even if you haven't thought of it till now, work up some learning. Keep remembering, asking questions, and thinking what there is to learn.

Students fear I'll bust them on documentation or double-spacing instead of content, organization, and surface style.

Forgetting or ignoring objectives and course terms

Forgetting or failing to proofread and edit before submission

Grading criteria:

general guidelines for exam grades

unity / transition

paragraph structure

Instructional Materials