English 3653                 Spring 2009                 FINAL ESSAY EXAM                                  Mercer

 

OUT-OF-CLASS ESSAY:  Whereas each unit exam was worth 100 points (50 for objective questions and 50 for the essay), the final comprehensive exam is worth 150 points (75 for objective questions and 75 for the essay).  Write your final essay out of class and submit it in class on May 13 at 4:30 p.m.

 

ESSAY TOPIC

Write a well-developed, insightful essay about relationships between men and women in the assigned literary works of all three (3) periods studied in this class, giving special emphasis to the works of the Twentieth Century.   

 

  1. Because this topic is broad and your space is limited, you must focus and narrow the thesis of your essay.  Your thesis and the body of your essay could answer ONE (or possibly incorporate more than one) of the following questions, or it could focus on some other issue(s) relevant to the assigned topic:

 

    1. What types or categories of relationships between men and women appear most frequently in the assigned works?

 

    1. What stereotypical aspects of relationships between men and women appear in the assigned works?

 

    1. What different attitudes do the assigned works seem to take toward relationships between men and women?

 

    1. Are the relationships between men and women in the assigned works primarily positive, healthy, and beneficial to individuals and/or society, or are they primarily negative, pathological, and destructive?  What makes the relationships primarily positive or negative?

 

    1. What universal insights into male-female relationships do the assigned works reveal?   

 

    1. What qualities, characteristics, or character traits do the assigned works show to be most important in fostering good relationships between men and women?

 

    1. What issues, situations, or traits create the most problems in the relationships between men and women in the assigned works?

 

    1. How do the relationships between men and women in the assigned works reflect the customs, prejudices, and/or values of English society?

 

    1. What roles do relationships between men and women play in the assigned works or in society as a whole?
  1. To earn a C, the essay as a whole must meet the following criteria.  To earn an A or B, the essay should exceed some or all of these criteria:
    1. develop at least three (3) main points in the body of the essay
    2. develop each main point with specific references to at least three (3) assigned works
    3. in the essay as a whole, include specific references to assigned works by at least fifteen (15) assigned authors, including

i.                     at least five (5) from the Romantic Period

ii.                   at least five (5) from the Victorian Period

iii.                  at least five (5) from the Twentieth Century

    1. especially demonstrate your knowledge of the assigned works of the Twentieth Century
    2. be at least two and one-half (2.5) pages in length

 

CRITERIA FOR GRADING ESSAY

1.      Adherence to assigned topic and specific instructions, meeting and exceeding minimum requirements (see above)

2.      Clear, logical, organized, original, insightful thinking and writing about the assigned topic

3.      Demonstration of your knowledge and understanding of the assigned works from all three (3) units, with special emphasis on the Twentieth Century, by providing examples that are very specific, numerous, and logically relevant

4.      Mechanical correctness, especially in avoidance of the following kinds of errors:

a.       obvious errors that could have been avoided by mere proofreading

b.      serious errors such as sentence fragments, comma splices, and subject-verb agreement errors

c.       errors in spelling and punctuation of authors, characters, and titles (punctuate titles as they appear on the assignment sheets)

d.      errors in the form of documentation of quotations    

 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING ESSAY

  1. HELP:
    1. Work independently.  This is not a research paper or a group project.  Rely on your own reading of the assigned works.  Do not use sources other than the works themselves.  (If you do, however, use the words or ideas of other written sources, such as the editors’ introductions in the textbook, you must introduce them in the body of your essay.)  Do not submit an essay that is like someone else’s in content or organization.
    2. For best results, get my advance feedback (preferably in person, but if that isn’t possible, by telephone or e-mail) on your thesis and main points and later on a complete draft.  The best way to get feedback on a complete draft is to make an appointment to discuss your essay with me during my office hours.  The deadline for submitting a complete draft for feedback by e-mail (cut and pasted, NOT by attachment) is Sunday, May 10, at 5 p.m. You may continue to ask questions by e-mail after that time, and you may get my response to your draft in hard copy during my office hours as late as Monday, May 11, and Tuesday, May 12.  (Please bring two copies of your draft to your appointment.) 

 

  1. MANUSCRIPT FORM:
    1. Font: Use Times New Roman 12.
    2. Spacing: Double-space your entire paper.
    3. Justification: Use left (not right or full) justification.
    4. Margins: Use one-inch (or no less than one-half inch) margins on all four sides of the page.  The default margin in Microsoft Word is 1.25 inches; please change your margins to one (1) inch.
    5. Identification: Because I do not want to know whose essay I am grading, do NOT put your name anywhere on the paper.  Omit the usual heading from the upper left of the first page.  Instead, insert as a header your SSN followed by one space and the page number in the upper right of each page, beginning with page 1.  To safeguard your SSN, you may falsify any of the digits except the last four (4).

 

  1. TITLE: Give your essay a title that
    1. clearly reflects the content of the essay, using key words from the thesis.
    2. includes the phrase “in English Literature,” “in British Literature,” “in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century English Literature,” “in Romantic through Twentieth-Century British Literature,” or something similar.

 

  1. THESIS:  Carefully state a thesis that
    1. addresses the assigned topic.
    2. is clear, focused, and original, and insightful.
    3. appears in a separate opening paragraph of only one or two sentences.  No other introduction is required or desired.
    4. accurately reflects what the body supports.
    5. (optional): briefly lists (all in one sentence and in the same order as in the body) the main points to be covered in the body of the essay.

 

  1. ORGANIZATION:
    1. Organize the body of the essay into at least three (3) paragraphs, preferably more, each beginning with a topic sentence that

                                                               i.      clearly relates to the thesis.

                                                             ii.      covers the entire paragraph (and therefore does NOT refer to only one literary work).

                                                            iii.      does not illogically overlap with the topic sentence and content of another body paragraph.  It is acceptable, however, to use the same author and/or work in more than one (1) body paragraph. 

    1. Organize the body of the essay is a way that reveals your insight into the topic.  For this reason, do NOT organize your essay period by period, discussing all Romantic works in one paragraph, all Victorian works in another paragraph, etc.

 

  1. DEVELOPMENT:  In each body paragraph, clearly develop and support the topic sentence with specific references to as many assigned authors and assigned works as possible (minimum of three [3] assigned works per paragraph, preferably more). Your supporting references to the works should

a.       clearly support the topic sentence of the paragraph and the thesis of the essay.  

b.      be brief, usually no longer than one (1) or two (2) sentences each.

c.       despite their brevity, still be very specific, demonstrating your detailed knowledge of the assigned works.

d.      usually be in your own words.  (It is NOT necessary or desirable to use a quotation every time you refer to a work!)

e.       occasionally be in very brief quotations, introduced, documented, and punctuated as described below under “QUOTATIONS AND DOCUMENTATION.” 

f.        avoid long quotations of more than three (3) consecutive lines of poetry or more than four typed (4) lines of prose, which would have to be indented and are too long for a short essay like this.

g.       correctly spell and punctuate the names of the authors, titles, and characters.  For the correct punctuation of titles, see the assignment sheets for the three units.

h.       use present-tense verbs to refer in your own words to plots and characters of the literary works; use past-tense verbs to refer to historical events outside the works. When you quote, leave the verb tense as it is.

 

  1. QUOTATIONS AND DOCUMENTATION:  The following guidelines for quotations and parenthetical documentation are based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed. (2003). The quotations below are italicized only to make them stand out.  Do NOT italicize the quotations in your paper.
    1. Smoothly introduce all quotations, as illustrated in the examples below.

   

    1. Immediately after each brief quotation of prose, document in parenthesis the page number(s) where it appears in our textbook.  

Like this: In “My First Acquaintance with Poets,” Hazlitt describes Coleridge’s nose as “small, feeble, nothing—like what he has done” (543).

 

    1. Immediately after each brief quotation of poetry, document in parenthesis the page number(s) where it appears in our textbook, followed by a semicolon, one (1) space, and the line number(s) within the poem.

Like this: In “My Heart Leaps Up,” Wordsworth says he wants to have “natural piety” as long as he lives (306; line 9).

 

    1. Do NOT, however, use page or line numbers to introduce quotations. 

NOT: On page 306, Wordsworth says in line 9 of “My Heart Leaps Up” that he wants to have “natural piety” as long as he lives.

 

    1. When you quote two (2) or three (3) lines of poetry consecutively, place a slash mark (preceded and followed by one (1) space) to show where one line ends and the next line begins.  Do NOT use a slash mark, however, between quoted lines of prose.

Like this: In “To a Sky-Lark,” Shelley says that, unlike birds, human beings “look before and after, / And pine for what is not” (817; lines 86-87).

NOT: In “To a Sky-Lark,” Shelley says that, unlike birds, human beings “look before and after, And pine for what is not” (817; lines 86-87).

NOT: In “To a Sky-Lark,” Shelley says that, unlike birds, human beings “look before and after,/And pine for what is not” (817; lines 86-87).

 

    1. When you cite multiple pages or lines, repeat only the last two digits unless more are necessary to avoid confusion.

Like this: In “Michael,” Luke never returns to his parents’ land because “in the dissolute city [he] gave himself / To evil courses” (301; lines 444-45).

NOT: In “Michael,” Luke never returns to his parents’ land because “in the dissolute city [he] gave himself / To evil courses” (301; lines 444-445).

NOT: In “Michael,” Luke never returns to his parents’ land because “in the dissolute city [he] gave himself / To evil courses” (301; lines 444-5).

 

    1. Place periods and commas INSIDE, not outside, closing quotation marks. 

Like this: In “The Tables Turned,” Wordsworth continues a debate he has already introduced in “Expostulation and Reply.”  

NOT: In “The Tables Turned”, Wordsworth continues a debate he has already introduced in “Expostulation and Reply”. 

 

    1. When parenthetical documentation immediately follows quotation marks, drop the punctuation mark at the end of the quotation (with the exception of a question mark or exclamation point), and after the parenthetical documentation place the punctuation your own sentence requires.

Like this: Blake shows his preoccupation with sin in the poem that begins, “O Rose, thou art sick” (91; line 1).

NOT: Blake shows his preoccupation with sin in the poem that begins, “O Rose, thou art sick.” (91; line 1)

Like this: Blake’s narrator asks the tiger, “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” (93; line 20).

NOT: Blake’s narrator asks the tiger, “Did he who made the Lamb make thee” (54; line 20)?

                 

    1. Leave one (1) space between closing quotation marks and opening parenthesis.

Like this: In her journal, Dorothy Wordsworth writes that the daffodils “tossed & reeled & danced” (391).

NOT: In her journal, Dorothy Wordsworth writes that the daffodils “tossed & reeled & danced”(391).

 

    1. Quotations must be exactly accurate.  Any changes in words, capitalization, or punctuation must be placed inside square brackets.  Omissions within quotations must be indicated by ellipsis marks (three spaced periods). 

 

  1. CONCLUSION: Conclude the essay with a one- or two-sentence paragraph that restates the thesis in different words.  No other conclusion is required.

 

  1. LENGTH: The essay should be at least two and one-half (2.5) pages and no more than four (4) pages in length.  To write a superior essay, you will probably need at least three (3) full pages.

 

  1. WORKS CITED: On a separate page following your essay, type and double-space the following information:
    1. for each literary period (Romantic, Victorian, and Twentieth Century), the authors and titles of the works (correctly spelled and punctuated) to which your essay specifically refers.  If your essay includes any unassigned authors or unassigned works, place those names and titles in parentheses, and do NOT count them as assigned works.
    2. the number of assigned authors and assigned works from each period and from all periods combined.  (Please do NOT fail to report these numbers!)

 

  1. EDITING AND PROOFREADING:
    1. Before you print the final version of your paper, revise, edit, and proofread it carefully.  Be sure to use spell-check. 
    2. After you have printed the paper, carefully proofread it again in hard copy.
    3. If you can’t reprint, make corrections in black ink.

 

  1. ASSEMBLING ESSAY FOR SUBMISSION
    1. Please staple the pages of the essay, followed by the works-cited page.
    2. Since this final exam will not be returned to you, do NOT submit a copy of these instructions along with your essay.