Hi everyone,

This will be my last post before the final exam. The readings were distributed in class on Thursday. If you were absent and did not receive the reading, I will be on campus early on Tuesday and can coordinate with you for delivery. You must email or comment below for this privilege.

As you know, you may bring the one sheet of readings into the exam, with whatever notes you choose to write on that one sheet. The exam will be during our normal class period—1 hour and 15 minutes. Before class, you’ll likely want to annotate the writing, write a summary statement of the reading, look up any words you don’t know, and think about your own opinion of the author’s thesis (remember our practice final exam). This also involves understanding the author’s purpose, audience, and strategy—something we’ve been working on all semester long with every piece we’ve read. You can’t truly understand a piece of writing unless you can identify the author’s argument.

Don’t forget to review the exam rubric to know EXACTLY what I’ll be looking for when I grade your essay. Remember to pay attention to structure (thesis, topic sentences, paragraphs focused around a single point that helps prove the thesis), textual evidence (use quotes from the reading and show that you know how to signal and cite properly), and grammar (no comma splices please!). You must write legibly, and you may want to make some notes about these things on the reading sheet you can bring into the exam.

For any last minute questions, comment below. See you Tuesday, and good luck!