LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Copy of Midterm Assignment 2007

(Updated 12-13 June. This is the official copy of the exam, to be used in place of the version in the syllabus.)

midterm exam (Monday, 18 June)

Basic information

Relative weight: 30-40% of final grade

Format: In-class or email; open-book and open-notebook

Date & time: On or before Monday, 18 June, during or around regular class schedule.  In-class students may the exam at from 3pm till 6pm.  Email exams are due by 8pm, 18 June.

Prep time and writing time: Spend about 3-4 hours writing the exam you will submit, but spend as much time preparing as you like (or can find). Preparations could include the usual review of notes and texts, but you are also permitted to outline and practice drafting. Outlines and previous drafts count as notes, which you may consult as you write your midterm for submission.

In-class materials: Write in blue or black ink in a bluebook or on handy paper. Fronts and backs, single-spacing acceptable.

Email: email a copy of your answers to instructor at whitec@uhcl.edu.

  •        The mistake students are most likely to make is to send it to “white” rather than “whitec”; if you send it to “white,” it goes to another teacher.

  •         Attach appropriate word processing file(s) to an email for whitec@uhcl.edu.

  •         Copy the contents of your word processing file, then paste them into an email message to me at whitec@uhcl.edu

Length: Given different people's styles, length is hard to estimate, but generally the best exams have more writing. Most of the 2005 midterms had around a dozen paragraphs.

Spacing: No need to double-space, but OK if you do. I convert all electronic copies to single-space for reading onscreen.

Purposes, organization, evaluation, and audience

Purposes: Overall, you should show that you can comprehend and explain the course's contents while developing and expressing related interests of your own. Language and content should combine course texts and objectives with your own style, backgrounds, experiences, readings, and personal understandings.

Organization: Write either one complete essay or two shorter essays covering the two aspects of the assignment. In summer 2005 everyone ended up writing a single essay, but I can't remember now if that was agreed on or a coincidence.

Evaluation standards: As in most Literature courses, quality of reading and writing is the key to judging excellent work from competent work--not just reproducing data but organizing it into a unified, compelling essay.

"Compelling" refers to the quality of your thought, which will be evident but is difficult to criticize. What is criticized is the "unified" aspect. Thematic unity, continuity, and transitions are essential. The best exams connect parts to form larger ideas. Pause between paragraphs to review what you've written or to preview what comes next. Summarize. Explain. Review and preview.

At the graduate level, surface qualities like spelling, punctuation, and grammar are taken for granted. An occasional careless error won't kill your grade, given the time pressures, but repeated or chronic errors will be remarked and factored.

Audience: Welcome to identify and address a hypothetical audience of your own, like another classroom or book group, but such a move is not expected or required. Otherwise write so that someone in our seminar could recognize your terms and explanations and enjoy your personal contributions and style. Future students may read your essays in our "Model Assignments." But keep the instructor in sight--connect with shared terms and texts, and "write up" in terms of organization and ambition of thought.

Midterm Content / Assignment: Write either one long essay or two medium-length essays on the following topics.

  • Introduce and describe a working or provisional definition of utopia, exploring its literary and historical meanings, backgrounds, challenges, and purposes. You are welcome and encouraged to consider the difficulties of making this definition. What are some of the attractions and distractions of this field of study?
     

  • Question and develop a course objective, part of one, or some combination of objectives. (The final exam offers an opportunity to extend or vary this discussion of your selected objective.)
    --Review how much or how little the seminar has engaged the aspect you're highlighting.
    --An option for this part of the midterm (and the final) is to revise the current objective or even to offer a new one (but if you do, try to relate or compare your new objective to the existing objectives or their framework).
    --Explain and defend your emphasis and try to relate it back to the first part concerning purposes, attractions, distractions, etc.

Don't treat the description above as a checklist. The details are only possible prompts.

Required textual references: Refer to all four of our major texts: Utopia, Looking Backward, Herland, and Anthem. Welcome, however, to emphasize some more than others.

Special requirements:

  • Refer to at least one passage or insight from the 2005 midterms
     

  • Refer to at least one student presentation--either information listed or student comments in presentation / discussion

Possible references:

  • Welcome to refer briefly to outside readings and other courses or discussions anywhere, but not required.
     

  • Welcome to refer to student-discussion comments relevant to your themes, but not required.

course objectives