LITR 4332 American Minority Literature


Final Exam Assignment
Date:  2 May 2013—email exams due by Monday morning, 6 May

Format: Open-book, open-notebook; use course materials + outside sources (<optional).

  • No direct coaching or contributions from another person in writing final version; no copying or lifting from outside sources without attribution.

Timing of exam: (Instructor keeps office hours 4-7 exam day; 281 283 3380; whitec@uhcl.edu)

2 options for taking exam

  • in-class: 4-6:50pm during class period 2 May; 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). Bring notes, texts, laptop, outlines, drafts to class. Write exam in 3 hours. In-class midterms are graded separately from emails.
  • email: 3+ hours anytime after class on Thursday  25 April and before noon Saturday, 5 May; write in Word or Rich Text Format file; attach and paste into email message to whitec@uhcl.edu (or reply to my email)

Instructional Materials

unity / transition

paragraph structure

Model Assignments

 

2 parts to final exam: 2 essays (in any order)

Essay 1: Review, prioritize, and unify your learning experience across the semester, including your research project, and how you may apply this learning to life, literary studies, teaching or other career possibilities. Connect this essay to your long essay on your midterm. Refer to at least 1 text from each minority group and at least 4 texts total.

Essay 2: Referring to at least 4 texts including Love Medicine, Bless Me, Ultima, and at least one poem, describe how both American Indian and Mexican American literatures and cultures may exemplify qualities of Minority culture and literature. In what ways do these minority groups  resemble each other yet remain unique in their identities, symbols, and narratives? Welcome to compare and contrast African American literature also.

Answers and texts featured in Essays 1 & 2 may overlap somewhat.

Special requirements:

  • Somewhere in your exam, refer to at least one previous final exam from an earlier semester (Model Assignments). If you prefer, you may instead refer to a midterm or research project by one of this semester's students.

  • Somewhere in your exam, you must integrate the terms symbols and narratives, defining and explaining their usage. Apply these terms to examples in our texts and beyond and to Objective 3 (minority alternative narratives to the American Dream) and 5e (5e. To emphasize how all speakers and writers may use common devices of human language, including narrative, symbols, figures of speech, and other literary devices. )

  • For each essay, at least 3 of the required 4 texts must be prose works; beyond that, welcome to use as much poetry as serves.