expect to devote three to six hours of preparation for this Final Exam to do well on the final
Preparing for the Final Exam: English 1301 Summer 2017
The Final Exam will be an essay exam that you take in-class on Thurs. 7/6. The exam will be an essay that you write over your learning in this class. You will not know the exact topic until you arrive for the final exam.
Success in this Final will be determined to a great degree on preparation, so here is the way I want you to prepare:
Step 1: Collect
a) Collect in one document ALL your Process Journal posts. Put these together into a single document where you can read these posts together.
--include your post PLUS one selected post on that process journal by a peer. This selected post should be one that you believe addressed the topic very well and that you gained something from reading.
b) Collect together your Writing Review 3s (that is, the last writing review that you wrote on
the final draft of our essays).
Take a close look at PJ2 in particular where you were asked to determine what you think a writer should strive to do to make a good piece of writing based upon what we learned reader’s value.
I want you to put these posts all together into one document. Then print it and read it.
Step 2: Review
Read the above collection over. Take notes. Walk around and think about the class. Talk to a friend. Skim through Trimble and our handbook and other class readings and materials. Take a quick tour back through the terrain of our class. Skim through the Essay Cycle Assignment Sheets. Review what you did in the EGW exercises. Review our Class Announcement’s page. Look at your essays and other work. As you take this tour, keep in mind this question:
What are the concepts and strategies of college writing you have learned in this class that have been most significant and meaningful for you?Identify SIX that you think are the most important to you (you hopefully will identify 50 possible ones, but I’m going to ask you to choose the ones that have been most important to you).
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expect to devote three to six hours of preparation for this Final Exam to do well on the final
What’s a concept?
Whenever we approach a task, we have an idea about what we are going to do. We have concepts that are like mental models or theories of this task or parts of this task. These concepts present a model of what it is that we are doing, why we are doing it (goals), how we will go about it (process or procedure), and what is important as we do the task (values and principles). A concept could even be an idea about one part of the larger task. Our concept of what we are doing will also present us with various dynamics and variables that might offer a prediction of what will happen depending upon the interaction of these variables.
What’s a strategy?
We may have an idea (or concept) of what we want or need to do. We may have a goal in mind or an end point to our task. But how do we get there? How do we actually accomplish the task? Our goals may be shaped by the concepts we have of what we are doing, but strategies are what we actually do to accomplish this goal. Concepts, goals, and strategies are intimately linked, but a strategy is different because it involves action. It is hands-‐on. It is what you do to accomplish your goal. It is what you do guided by your conceptual understanding. The one thing to keep in mind about strategies is that they are always associated with a goal.
I am hesitant to give you too many examples of concepts and strategies because I want you to think about these things on your own, but I will give you two of each to help clarify the distinction:
Concepts: invention, the writing situation
Strategy: zero draft (freewriting draft), the sandwich principle (you could have a cluster of strategies that relate to a goal)
Step 3: Prepare A Note Sheet
Create a note sheet for each of your six concepts or strategies. You may have four concepts and two strategies or three and three or even five and one. Whatever your mix and choice of concepts and strategies, on the note sheet devoted to each one you should collect information and understandings about that concept or strategies from your review of our class materials and your experience.
In the final, you will need to explain the concept or strategy using information from our course materials and then relate why you think it is important. Notice the two key terms describing your task: explain and relate.
As you work to explain and relate, I want you to explain by pulling in information from at least two different sources of information we have read in this class for each concept or strategy. These sources could be Trimble, our handbook, readings from Writing Spaces, my materials, or even something written by one of your peers. Be prepared to use quotes from these sources in your essay and to document them. (Hint: prepare your Works Cited entries of the materials you may quote in your essay because you will be expected to Document this final according to MLA.)
For each concept or strategy, after you explain them through reference to our course learning materials, I want you to relate this concept or strategy to your writing and your writing experience in the class. Make direct reference to a piece (or pieces) of writing you wrote or experiences you had working on assignments in this class. Be specific in describing this experience and the direct connection you see between the information you have learned about this concept or strategy and your experience.
Turn in BOTH your collected Process Journals and Writing Review 3s AND your preparation Note Sheet into the “Final Exam Prep” assignment.
Template for Note Sheet on a Concept
Explain it
Concepts present a mental model/idea/theory of --what it is that we are doing,
--why we are doing it (goals),
--how we will go about it (process or procedure),
--and what is important as we do the task. / Information from at least two different sources of information we have read in this class:
Your thoughts/understanding:
1)
2)
Relate it
Make direct reference to a piece (or pieces) of writing you wrote or experiences you had working on assignments in this class and connect it to the explanation of the concept from our class learning sources. / Specific class writing/learning experience(s) and connection to above information
Template for Note Sheet on a Strategy
Name of Strategy:Explain it
What is the goal or end point this strategy is attempting to accomplish?
--What is it? (name it/define/describe it)
--How does is work? How do you do the strategy?
--When is it appropriate to do the strategy? When is it best applied? What contextual factors might influence the use of the strategy? / Information from at least two different sources of information we have read in this class:
Your thoughts/understanding:
1)
2)
Relate it
Make direct reference to a piece (or pieces) of writing you wrote or experiences you had working on assignments in this class and connect it to the explanation of the concept from our class learning sources. / Specific class writing/learning experience(s) and connection to above information
**You can copy and paste these tables into your own documents to fill in.
Below is a list of ten “Core Concepts” developed by Robert Yagelski for his textbook Writing Ten Core Concepts. These are examples of concepts that you might use or that could provide inspiration for other concepts you come up with.
Here also is a list of threshold concepts in writing studies from the Table of Contents of Naming What We Know:
http://upcolorado.com/utah-state-university-press/item/download/434_57c002291f46f509585eaa7fe0ea0b2a / Notice the way Yagelski states his concepts: he leaves off a subject name for the concept and instead expresses a “belief statement” that expresses the mental idea or model.
You should recognize the names for concepts. For instance, number 1 we can recognize as “the Writing Process” and number two as “the Writing Situation.”
Other concept topics (without the belief statement):
--invention
--getting started
--punctuation
--the essay
--drafting, the writing feedback loop
--collaboration
--reflection
--organization
--development
--introductions
--description
--Documentation
--academic honesty/ plagiarism
…incomplete list
--readability
--reader/writer relationship
--speaking/writing relationship
Posting Your Preparation Documents
TEN POINTS of the Final Exam grade will be devoted to your preparation documents.
In a single document, put together
1) Your COLLECTINGS
--collected copies of all your Process Journal posts (no ah-hahs) plus the one peer Process Journal for each post
--collected copies of all your Writing Review #3s for each draft (i.e. WR1-3, WR2-3).
2) Your NOTE SHEETS
--six note sheets, one for each concept or strategy, using and following the provided template.
NOTE: If you simply turn this preparation document in and put a good effort into this preparation, you will get an easy 10 points on your grade. Those who put exceptional effort and engagement into this preparation task, particularly with the Note Sheets, may get +5 points Extra-Credit.
This preparation document will be posted on time in the assignment titled “Final Exam Preparations.”
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