2 options for taking exam: in-class or email
in-class: 1-3:50pm during class period Monday, 21 March; write on laptop and email, or hand-write in ink in bluebook or notebook paper. Bring notes, texts, laptop or other e-devices, outlines, drafts to class. Write exam in 3 hours. (In-class midterms are graded separately from emails.)

OR

email: 3-4+ hours anytime after class on Monday 7 March and by 11:59pm Tuesday 22 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 before sending).

Attendance not required on 21 March unless you take exam in-class. Instructor keeps office hours during class period.

Format: Open-book, open-notebook

Use materials on course website: esp. terms, objectives, Model Assignments +- outside sources (<optional).

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

No copying or lifting from outside sources without attribution.

3 parts to midterm exam

1. Essay 1: 6-8 paragraphs on 5-6 texts & 2-3 terms developing Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, and/or 5.

2. Essay 2: (4-6 paragraphs) 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

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

Special requirement: Essays ! & 2 & Web Highlights must have titles—better title, better start.

Advice: Start working on #3 Web Highlights first in order to acquaint yourself with standards and inspire thinking.

Special notes: Sections’ contents may overlap or repeat materials, but be efficient; cross-reference to economize.

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

Referring to 5-6 texts from readings before midterm, describe your learning experience in terms of Course Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, and / or 5. (You should probably do at least two, but you may emphasize one or two of these while referring to more.)

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

Obj. 2. Early American Literature as an origin story about the beginnings and evolution of North American culture and literature.

Obj. 3. To reconcile the "Culture Wars" over which America is the real America? Which America to teach?—Dominant culture and / or multicultural?

Obj. 4. To gain knowledge of historical periods & attempt trans-historical unity, progress, or evolution.

Obj. 5. Can American literary and cultural history tell a single story?

To make your texts matter, refer to these or other course objectives, at least 2-3 important terms (referring to term links), and text-passages connected to your and the course's interests. State your central ideas and themes clearly, connect them to each other, and relate to relevant texts as you go. (You don't need to number your references to objectives as much as you need to share the objectives' and terms' language.)

Or start with 1-2 texts that worked for you and build from their examples to what works for you in the course objectives & terms as specified above. Develop texts' applications and meanings relative to objectives, relate to other texts in and beyond the course.

Required references:

Sustained references to objective(s): 1, 2, 4, and / or 6. ("Sustained": don't just mention and drop them; return to and reinforce or extend.)

2-3 terms using information from term-links: Don’t just mention them—work with them—reconnect and extend.

5-6 Texts from course up to midterm: you may cover 1-3 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. (You may also involve 1-2 texts beyond course, as long as they connect.)

Your selection of texts should be from several class meetings. Warning: If you write about origin / creation stories, you cannot limit yourself to the first few classes of the semester. In past semesters' midterms, several students wrote Essay 1 as though they came to the second class but never read or discussed anything afterward.

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

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.

Possible emphases—you may select, vary, combine, or ignore; plenty of other topics identifiable in the course:

Creation / Origin stories; The Puritan generations; Plain Style & Baroque; Voices and images of women and ethnic groups; material and spiritual aspects of American culture; what's surprising and familiar about early American literature; 1600s & 1700s, Religion & Enlightenment; interactions between Europeans and American Indians and the literature that results.

For Model Assignments, see LITR 4231 2014 Essay 1 samples; LITR 4231 2012 midterm samples & LITR 4231 2010 midterm samples

Suggestions for starting and organizing:

Describe your learning experience. What have you found most useful or rewarding? What themes or issues do you find yourself responding to?

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? (What sources?) > narrow down to particular interests or texts.

Welcome to describe previous sources of learning: earlier courses, religious instruction, movies or cartoons, outside reading, Thanksgiving pageants, etc.

Consider using the dialectic method of engaging two competing ideas in dialogue (e.g. religion and science, dominant culture and multiculture, your expectations about Early American Literature v. what the course offers) .

2. Essay 2: 4-6 paragraph essay on choice of 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)

OR

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

Model Assignment samples available: LITR 4231 2014 Essay 2 samples; LITR 4231 2012 midterm samples

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

2a. Highlight & analyze 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, objective, theme, or idea appeals to you the most & why? What does it help explain about your, our, or their world then or now? Why does the term or concept 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?

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

Assignment: Review at least 3 submissions from previous semesters' 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 2014, 2012, or 2010 midterm essays.

  “Review”: describe what interested you, where, why you chose it, 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. 

For Model Assignments of the Web Highlights assignment, see LITR 4231 2014 Web Highlight samples

Standard advice for exams:

Don't copy out long passages from texts.  Quote briefly, or 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 author's name the first time; abbreviations welcome thereafter.

Organize / Unify 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.)

Most common problems in midterms:

  Forgetting or ignoring objectives and course terms; ignoring materials provided on term-links.

  Students don’t write enough—they write what they have to, then happily stop instead of pushing their ideas another step. (See writing more, not less)

  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, wondering, and applying what you can learn.

  Students fear I'll bust them on documentation or double-spacing instead of content, organization, and surface style. (Most students and teachers find a way to mess up something, but the point isn't to punish you for mistakes but to reward you for learning.)

  Forgetting or failing to proofread and edit before submission

Evaluation criteria for essays: Readability & surface competence, content quality, and unity / organization.

  Readability & surface competence: Your reader must be able to process what you're reporting. Given the pressures of a timed writing exercise, some rough edges are acceptable, but chronic errors or elementary style can hurt.

Make your information meaningful; make it matter to your and our study of literature and culture.

  Content quality: Comprehension of subject, demonstration of learning, + interest & significance. Use of course website materials, esp. terms, objectives, Model Assignments.

Reproduce course materials, especially through reference to terms and objectives, but also refresh with your own insights and experiences. Avoid: "You could have written this without taking the course."