Introduction to Liberal Arts

General instructions. This exam is an opportunity for you to review and reflect on the material thus far in the course; it is also a chance for you to put into practice your very best writing skills, based on feedback you have received in recent weeks from the various writing assignments. Accordingly, the essays will be graded both on the basis of content – did you address the assigned question? Did you engage the relevant material thoughtfully and meaningfully? – as well as in terms of writing style, grammar, etc. You may want to visit the Writing Center for help in preparing or in polishing your essays but the ideas must be your own. Please feel free to set up a time to meet with me if you have any questions or need some guidance. It is open-book, open-note and you may use as much time as you need before the stated deadline.

The last date in which you can turn in the exam is during our final exam meeting on Tuesday, December 13th at 1pm; if you complete the exam sooner, please feel free to email it to me so that I can go ahead and read it. You will also need to submit the exam to www.turnitin.com. Our class ID number is 1336204 and the password is ILA 05.

The exam has four parts; you must complete all three parts to receive credit on the exam. Please make sure to read all of the directions for each part. Also, please make sure that your discussion for each essay is distinct and does not duplicate or overlap material from your other answers (make sure to talk about different things, refer to different points in the text, etc.)

This exam is worth 10 per cent of your final grade in the course.

Suggestions. Take the time to brainstorm about each question, review the relevant texts, make notes and generate an outline for each essay before you launch into composing your essay. Since these are short essays, you want them to be as tightly focused as possible - get right to the point and avoid tangents, being vague and/or unnecessary generalizations.

Purpose. The purpose of this essay is to focus on how to develop and support a thesis about a text. Review the text and find good examples to support your sub-claims in discussing and supporting the thesis. Do you not use any direct quotations in this essay; however, you must cite the relevant page numbers for when you refer to information from the book.

Assignment: Drawing upon several examples from Masur's 1831, develop a thesis about the role that history or historical context plays in whether lives can be exemplary. Does the idea of an exemplary life hold true no matter the time and place or does historical context matter? Write a short essay (250-300 words) in which you articulate a thesis clearly and then support it with examples from the text.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to work on explicating – drawing out the meaning – a short passage and making connections to the larger themes of a particular text. You will also incorporate a reference - either a direct quotation or an indirect reference - to the article or essay you researched on Nervous Conditions.

Assignment: Choose a scene from Nervous Conditions and write a short essay (250-300 words) in which you interpret/explain the passage (keeping in mind the scene/context it is from) and connect it to larger themes or issues and plot line of the book. In your answer, try to include at least one specific example from the relevant book other than the passage cited in order to support your discussion. Choose your scene carefully - make sure it is significant to the overall meaning of the novel. Your answer must also include at least one reference to the article you found while researching Nervous Conditions. Review the Bedford Handbook's discussion of how to cite using the MLA format. Properly cite the text within the body of your paper.

Texts: All of the texts from this course (Obama, Lightman, Nuland, Hallie, Masur, Dangarembga) as well as your notes from convocations and class meetings.

Purpose. The purpose of this essay is to provide you with an opportunity to synthesize the material in the course and to take your reflections on the theme of “exemplary lives” to a more advanced level.

Assignment: Write a short essay (400-500 words* note that this essay is slightly longer than the previous) in which you consider our theme of “exemplary lives.” Strive to be as specific as you can, and draw upon the course texts and convocations for examples. Make sure to include at least five of the course texts and at least two convocations. Use this essay to articulate your conclusions about the course theme.

Here are some questions you might consider as you think about the theme and the texts. These are offered simply to prompt your thinking; you do not need to answer these questions nor is this list exhaustive of the kinds of things you can discuss:

Prepare a list of Works Cited that includes full and proper citations (using MLA format) for all of the texts, convocations, or other texts used in writing this exam. Please consult with the Bedford Handbook for the proper format - you will be graded on every detail - proper placement of periods, commas, spacing, etc. See section 57 for proper entries as well as an example of a Works Cited page.