1. Final Exam Tips
You take one final for HumCore – given by your instructor
Synthesizing the Quarter, Discussion, Test Format, Study Tips, Timed-Writing Tips, and practice Q&A will be posted for your review.
Winter 2016 “War” .

2. Reflecting on the Quarter
In what ways have this quarter’s texts reflected on or represented war as a “gendered” experience (male experience different from female experience)?
Civil War Writing
Partnoy text, The Official Story, The Manchurian Candidate
Waiting for the Barbarians and Billy Lynn’s Long Walk Home
How does a “real” account of war tell a different story than a “virtual” account or mediated re-presentation? What happens when they’re merged? What are the limitations of representing or recounting certain events?
Narrated or Mediated Text, Painting, Ad, TV, News, Film
Photograph, Witness Account, Transcript
Testimonial Fiction

3. In Simone Weil’s text from fall quarter, we explored the idea that force turns human beings into things or objects to each other; those using force end up seeing those against whom force is used as objects stripped in important ways of their agency.
Here we see force in its grossest and most summary form — the force that kills. How much more varied in its processes, how much more surprising in its effects is the other force, the force that does not kill, i.e., that does not kill just yet. It will surely kill, it will possibly kill, or perhaps it merely hangs, poised and ready, over the head of the creature it can kill, at any moment, which is to say at every moment. In whatever aspect, its effect is the same: it turns a man into a stone. From its first property…flows another, quite prodigious too in its own way, the ability to turn a human being into a thing while he is still alive. He is alive; he has a soul; and yet — he is a thing (CR 28).
How do Simone Weil’s ideas about the psychological and existential “costs” of war continue to resonate this quarter?

4. Final Exam Structure 2 Hour Exam Worth 100 points (50% Grade)
Part One: Short Answer (6 of 8) (48 pts)
Weeks 5-10 (Writer’s Handbook Ch., Images, Readings Weeks 5-10, Study Questions, Discussion Materials)
Readings/Viewing: Orientalism, Partnoy, Infotainment, both novels, The Manchurian Candidate, The Official Story, Homeland
Part Two: Passage Analysis (26 pts)
From Waiting for the Barbarians or from Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Part Three: Long Essay (26 pts)
Comprehensive: Based on Larger Themes
Sets 2 or more texts in dialogue with one another
Extra Credit Possibility

5. Preparation Tips: REVISIT THE QUARTER THEMATICALLY
Review your notes, lecture notes, reading notes, texts, etc. and make a list of key terms, ideas, people, events, etc. 
Group information according to the major themes and terms and symbols of the quarter.
Mediating War / Gendered Experience of War / Clean War / Media Convergence / Spectacle / “Picturing” War / Frame – Metaphor of Seeing
Organize according to binary oppositions
Male/Female War Experience, Clean/Dirty War, Real / Virtual
It is also very important to know when the texts were written, who the audience was, what the genre of the text is (and characteristics of the genre), as well as historical and social context.
How does a fictional account /depiction of a war experience differ from a non-fictional account of war? What different obligations to the text and event and memory does the writer have ?
Be sure to think about why these elements matter with respect to the major theme of “war”

6. Organize Study Sessions in Person or On-Line
Have a purpose, assign tasks, check each other’s work, and stay on task.
Practice writing short answers in a timed situation. Compare and discuss your answers.
Practice discussing short passages from the two novels or long essay possibilities
Everyone in the group takes a turn
Say something different, extend, counter other contributions
Make connections to other parts of the text, to other texts, lecture, discussion and to course themes
Continue until nobody can contribute something new

7. Part One: Short Answer.
Answer SIX of the following EIGHT questions. You should spend about 36 minutes on this section of the exam (about 6 minutes per answer). Answer thoroughly and include detailed and specific reference to the course material being tested including texts, lecture and discussion. Your answer must show knowledge of the texts in question. (48 points)

8. Short Answer- Let’s Review
1) Who/what is it (when it took place, general information identifying the individual, what event was it, etc.)   
   
2) Whenever possible provide an example of or elaborate on the term, etc. from a text we read, from lecture, from discussion  (or express what the individual was known for/event depicts, etc.)      
3) Express why this person or idea/thing/event was important or meaningful (especially with respect to the themes of our course)  
4) Use specific details from lecture, texts, discussion as support rather than personal opinion.
You have had a test taking experience (midterm) – Remember make choices/timed situation/details

9. Video Clip Analysis Homeland group exercise
If I use a video clip I’ll either draw from these clips or the clips from The Official Story
Final: You will have a file you can view on your own as many times as you’d like.

10. Sample Short Answer Question
Through what forms of representation does Bravo Company get mediated in the course of the novel, and how do these various “images” reflect what one might call “the real”?

11. Sample Short Answer Question
What are 3 specific differences between writing a Blog and writing an Op-Ed?

12. Sample Short Answer Question
Explain the differences between a “dirty” war and a “clean” war? Identify specific texts or events as you develop your answer.

13. Sample Short Answer Question
What are the differences between peer-reviewed journals and popular press journals? Which are more academically viable and why?

14. Sample Short Answer Question
How can an individual honor the memory of a traumatic experience differently in writing the account in the form of testimonial fiction rather than as a work on non-fiction?

15. Sample Short Answer Question
Explain what it means for an individual to be an “other” in society. Identify one specific textual example and explain how individual otherness is characterized or employed in that example.

16. SECTION THREE: First Long Essay - Passage Analysis (ca
SECTION THREE: First Long Essay - Passage Analysis (ca. 40 Minutes) 26 pts (26% of final exam grade)
The following passage is taken from (Fountain or Coetzee). Read it carefully and then write a passage analysis in which you clearly explain what is going on in this particular excerpt and describe the way the novel depicts or characterizes what is going on. Then, relate the passage and the argument to the concerns and themes of the text as a whole and to the course theme of war.
Your answer should include warrants and specific reference to class discussions, lecture and the text. Remember, pay attention to the implications of word choice and applicable examples, and realize that claims about the text as a whole derive from a close-reading of particular details.
Note: You might be asked to consider the role and function of the narrator or a particular theme (witnessing/complicity/language), etc. Please read the directions carefully.

17. 2) Locate the passage in the text
On the Final Exam I might ask a basic question or identify specific themes to guide you through your analysis. Below are some strategies for this essay…
1) Describe the meaning of the passage (summarize the main point, purpose, argument of the passage)
2) Locate the passage in the text
3) Write an analysis of the passage (identify main theme, point out significant key terminology and logical connections between claims and concepts, word choice, use and function of example, etc. and explain meaning, purpose etc.)
4) Relate the passage to the concerns and themes of the text as a whole (Make connections that go beyond the passage)
5) Demonstrate how the themes present in the passage relate to the themes of the course theme of war (make connections to other texts or to specific lecture arguments)

18. Sample Passage for Practice
“I mean everybody loves you guys, black, white, rich, poor, gay, straight, everybody. You guys are equal-opportunity heroes for the twenty-first century. Look, I’m just as cynical as the next fella, but your story has really touched a nerve in this country. What you did in Iraq, you went head-to-head with some very bad guys and you kicked their ass. Even a pacifist twerp like me can appreciate that.”
“I got seven,” Sykes says, which is what he always says. “Seven for sure. But I think it was more.”
“Listen,” Albert says, “what Bravo did that day, that’s a different kind of reality you guys experienced. People like me who’ve never been in combat, thank God, no way we can know what you guys went through, and I think that’s why we’re getting push-back from the studios. Those people, the kind of bubble they live in? … They aren’t capable of fathoming what you guys did.”
“So tell them,” says Crack
“Yeah, tell them,” says A-bort, and Bravo strikes up a spontaneous chant, tell them, tell them, tell them like a frog chorus or monks at prayer. They nearby Stadium Club patrons smile and chuckle like it’s all a high-spirited college prank. As abruptly as it started, the chanting stops.
“Tell Hilary to tell them,” says Dime (Fountain 56-7).

19. Sample Passages for Practice and Study Group Discussion Billy Lynn
Sample 1: pp.1-4 (title to “for their victory tour”
Sample 2: pp (“No, Shroom said…end)
Sample 3: pp (top of page…”shark smelling blood”
Sample 4: pp (“I mean everybody” … ”very visceral way””
Sample 5: pp (“Kathryn pranced…” to “It wasn’t his place to say one way or another”)

20. Part Three: Second Long Essay - Choose ONE of the following TWO questions and answer it in a thoughtful and substantial essay. Be sure to make specific reference in your answer to the texts in question as well as to specific themes, terms and narrative elements discussed in lecture and in discussion. You should spend about 40 minutes on this section and it counts for 26% of your grade. (26 pts)
Note: You may be asked to discuss two or more texts (this include images, film and written texts )

21. Long Essay Tips
Read each essay option carefully and select the one you understand and feel most confident about.
Take a couple of minutes to write down key points and vocabulary and outline connections or points you want to make etc. before you begin writing your long essay.
Although you are graded primarily based on content, you are expected to have a point or purpose and to write a well organized, structured essay.
Don’t waste your time including information that is unnecessary, irrelevant or based on personal opinion.
Don’t repeat yourself and get to the point.
Explain why your points are important or how they connect to the course theme of war.
Keep track of and budget your time.

22. Sample Long Essay
In a thoughtful essay compare and contrast how the form of each text (the genre) shapes the meaning of the story of war being told. In other words, how does Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians tell a different story of war than ONE of the below texts?
The Manchurian Candidate
The Official Story
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
A Conversation Under the Rain

23. Some study and preparation tips
Begin preparing now. Your retention will be much better, and your answers will be more thoughtful and thorough.
Don’t cram for the exam the night before the exam.  It will be much less stressful if you study and review every day between now and the midterm. (20 minute rule applies)
The midterm will ask you to make connections between texts and lecture/discussion and to synthesize rather than just regurgitate information that was memorized. 
The midterm asks you questions that require you to interpret or to apply your knowledge.
Practice answering questions in a timed-situation.
The midterm asks you to understand and use the terms and definitions and language that is focused on in lecture, discussion and in the texts.

24. Be Time Efficient…Don’t repeat yourself
On the day of the exam…
Select the identification questions you know the best first (this will help relieve some test anxiety).              
Budget your time accordingly (5-6 min each Short Answer – don’t think in terms of sentences)     
Must make choices in timed situation – you will likely know more than you can write or type in 5-6 minutes.  
Get to the point (Don’t waste your time with wordiness or tangential and unnecessary information or personal opinion).             
Be Time Efficient…Don’t repeat yourself

25. Write in complete sentences. Use academic English- avoid slang.
On the day of the exam…
It is the QUALITY of the answer that matters (long answers don’t necessarily mean full credit).
Be specific! Give explicit details from the text and lecture and section rather than Personal Opinion)   
Explicate: Explain why details you draw attention to are important or meaningful.          
Count your answers to make sure you have answered 6 questions (you don’t want to lose 8 points).
Write in complete sentences.
Use academic English- avoid slang.
Please write legibly – If I can’t read it, it will not count.