1. Final Exam
Tips and Review
ENGL 124 B03 Winter 2010

2. Exam Format
• You will be given TWO hours to produce two in-class essays.

3. Exam Format
• You will be given TWO hours to produce two in-class essays.
• You may not use any books or notes. Exam booklets will be provided, and you should feel free to use them as ‘scrap’ paper for outlines or plans, if you choose.

4. Exam Format
• You will be given TWO hours to produce two in-class essays.
• You may not use any books or notes. Exam booklets will be provided, and you should feel free to use them as ‘scrap’ paper for outlines or plans, if you choose.
• If an illness or accident prevents you from attending the exam, CONTACT THE REGISTRAR’S OFFICE immediately.

5. Exam Format
• You will be given TWO hours to produce two in-class essays.
• You may not use any books or notes. Exam booklets will be provided, and you should feel free to use them as ‘scrap’ paper for outlines or plans,
if you choose.
• If an illness or accident prevents you from attending the exam, CONTACT THE REGISTRAR’S OFFICE immediately.
• Tuesday, April 20th, 9:00-11:00 a.m. in HC 2-12 (our usual classroom)

6. Exam Content
• The exam covers the full year’s work. It may refer to any text studied in class:
“Araby”
“A Conversation with My Father”
“A Pair of Tickets”
“The Sick Rose”
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
“We Wear the Mask”
“To Paint a Water Lily”
“Mushrooms”
“We Real Cool”
“My Papa’s Waltz”
“My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun”
“Sestina
Oedipus the King
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Watchmen

7. Exam Content
• The first essay topic will be a ‘cold reading’ of a short poem.

8. Exam Content
• The first essay topic will be a ‘cold reading’ of a short poem.
• The remaining two essay topics will centre around some of the themes the class has been discussing throughout the term concerning literary conventions:
The “turn”
Conventions as: restricting the author vs. offering the author opportunities
Conventions as: challenged by the author (made visible)
vs. conformed to by the author (made transparent)

9. Sample Exam
1. Conduct a formal analysis of the following poem, covering its imagery, meter, rhyme, and sonic devices. Using your analytical findings, write a formal essay discussing the author’s use of the conventions of poetry.
[8-line poem]
2. Choose three of the following texts. Write a formal essay discussing how these texts ****.
***
3. Choose three of the following texts. Write a formal essay discussing how these texts ****.

10. What the Exam Will Test • “I can write correctly and well”
• correct sentence construction
• correct verb agreement
• appropriate word choice
• other aspects of writing mechanics will be taken into
consideration, but given the writing environment, the
standard will be slightly lower than for course-work essays

11. What the Exam Will Test • “I can write correctly and well”
• “I know how a formal essay should be structured”
• well-placed thesis statement which is substantive,
contestable and defensible
• in body paragraphs, topic sentences which describe
paragraph contents and outline the points of an argument
• concluding paragraph which restates the thesis and the
argument’s points, and does not introduce any new material

12. What the Exam Will Test • “I can write correctly and well”
• “I know how a formal essay should be structured”
• “I know what kind of content belongs in a formal essay”
• argues only what it can prove using the texts as evidence
• never generalizes, overstates, or conjectures
• is appropriately formal in tone

13. What the Exam Will Test • “I can write correctly and well”
• “I know how a formal essay should be structured”
• “I know what kind of content belongs in a formal essay”
• “I have read and thought about the course texts”
• actual quotations or citations are unnecessary
• insightful analysis, not content summary, is what will
earn marks

14. How to Study
• If you haven’t read some of the texts yet, get caught up.

15. How to Study
• If you haven’t read some of the texts yet, get caught up.
• If you’re already caught up, don’t re-read: skim. Look for places where the text seems to be making a specific statement about one of the course themes.

16. How to Study
• If you haven’t read some of the texts yet, get caught up.
• If you’re already caught up, don’t re-read: skim. Look for places where the text seems to be making a specific statement about one of the course themes.
• Come up with a ‘short list’ of these references for each of the major texts (Oedipus the King, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Watchmen), and for at least a good proportion of the other, more minor texts.

17. How to Study
• If you haven’t read some of the texts yet, get caught up.
• If you’re already caught up, don’t re-read: skim. Look for places where the text seems to be making a specific statement about one of the course themes.
• Come up with a ‘short list’ of these references for each of the major texts (Oedipus the King, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Watchmen), and for at least a good proportion of the other, more minor texts.
• Study your lists, trying to imagine how you would structure an essay on a particular theme using this particular evidence. Come up with a set of possible thesis statements.