Blake Wilder

Teaching Artifact: Final Exam for English 1110

Although exams are commonly used in literature course to assess students retention/mastery of major
authors, titles, trends, and literary devices, having an exam in a writing course is a bit of an anomaly. I include
an exam in my First-Year Composition course because it allows me one last change to use a scaffolded structure
to teach metacognition skills and to communicate, that although there may not be a singularly right answer to
the essay prompt there are strategies of interpretation that make some answers better than others. I devised the
exam because I wanted to give a sense of credibility to the free-/pre-writing strategies that students might
otherwise think of as passing classroom activities. The scaffolded structure of the exam leads students to
embody a metacognitive stance as they make strategic decisions about deploying the interpretative skills
theyve learned over the course of the semester.
The exam involves three parts: a initial pre-writing on an essay prompt, a short answer section, and a
revised essay. Students are given the prompt for part I by itself. The detailed prompt attempts to make it clear
how the assessment builds on multiple aspects that students have learned in the class. First of all, it calls explicit
attention to free-writing as a brainstorming strategy and helps students imagine how the work they do in part I
will serve them in part III. The also recalls specific terms that we had discusses throughout the class to remind
students how we had used those terms as interpretative lens. Lastly, present a quote as the organizing principle
of the prompt and a series of questions that guide students through a range of possible essay topics, the prompt
reminds students of specific texts and media artifacts that they might drawn on for evidence.
After about 20 minutes, I pass out parts II and III. The majority of the short answers are drawn from the
writing textbook I used in the course: John Trimbles Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing.
On the accompanying artifact, I have integrated my answer key using blue text and condensed white spaces that
would have been left for student answers. Although the specificity of the short answers might seem narrow and
prescriptive, I emphasize these points (and expand on their significance for them writing process) throughout
the term. Although there may be other, and some would argue better, principles of good writing, I like the
simple direct advice that Trimbles textbook offers as a good starting place for young college writers. By having
my students study for a test of principles of good writing (I am very clear ahead of time about the content that
will appear in the short answer section), my hope is that my students will be able to recall these principles in the
future.
After a series of questions, students encounter my capitalized exhortation to PAUSE and reread their
writing from part I before answering the final reflective questions, which are also distilled from Trimbles
writing advice. But by having students apply these reflections to their free writing from part I rather than simply
recalling them as principles, there are prompted to reflect on their own though process. Asking students to think
about what they discovered as they put their thoughts into words prompts to engage in metacognition

Wilder Teaching Artifact: Final Exam for English 1110

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Part I: (20 points)

Read the prompt below and begin brainstorming for an essay response to it. There is a series of questions to get
you going in the right direction. You do not have to answer every question, but you should consider them as you
try to find something that you think is worth saying.
Remember: Part I is specifically the pre-writing part of the writing process. You will not be expected to have
an organizing claim. Mostly, I will be looking to see if you are brainstorming to come up with ideas and if you
are considering both claims and evidence. In Part I, you dont need to explicitly support your claims with
evidence, but you should be thinking of both and trying to find the pieces that will build your overall
claim/thesis in Part III. You can make some lists and scratch work if you want to, but you should also be
putting sentences together to begin thinking about possible ways to communicate your ideas. Basically, you
should think of Part I as a rough draft in whatever way is most helpful to you.
You will find it helpful to remember the idea of interdependent or zero-sum game. Also remember, the
definitions of violence and identity. Violence is (almost) always expressed with transitive verbs, which
means that they have to have an object. And identity is actually based on an idea of sameness or sharing some
characteristic with a group.
Prompt:
What the United States does best is to understand itself. What it does worst is understand others.
Consider the above quote from writer Carlos Macias. Use this quote as a jumping off point to think about
relationships between America and the world at large. What is the relation between American culture and
violence in other parts of the world? Is this relation something that most Americans are aware of? How do
certain values associated with an American identity relate to violence in other parts of the world? How do those
values contribute to a situation that might encourage violence elsewhere in the world? If an American identity
sets us apart from something else, what is that something else? You should also consider how an American
identity might be shaped by an us and them dynamic and what problems that might lead to.
Use examples from our recent readings and discussions to support your ideas. You can think about war and
imperialism (using the Stacy Takacs article, the Madonna video, and/or reactions to Bin Ladens death) or about
conflict diamonds (using any of the sources we discussed on Monday). Make sure to remember to address the
idea of rhetoric explicitly. Dont limit yourself to talking about the issues. Consider how the way you encounter
those issues shapes what you think about them.

Wilder Teaching Artifact: Final Exam for English 1110 / 3

Violence and Identity
Name:_______________________

English 110.02

Part II
Label the rhetorical triangles: (9 points)
ethos

author

How?

-centered
pathos

logos

audience

subject

Why?

What?

Name the four types of sentence structure: (4 points)

simple, complex, compound, and complex-compound
What is unconscious writing? and How can it be remedied? (2 points)
Unconscious Writing is simply putting thoughts on paper without regard for anyone else.
Unconscious Writing is remedied by reflecting on what the writing/reading process ideally involves.
The process itself is your teacher. (1 point)
What is pre-writing? What are some concrete strategies to accomplish it? How does it help you write better? (2
points)
Pre-writing is a way to explore your thoughts before you begin writing the final product. Free-writing,
brainstorming, listing, concept mapping, and notice and focus are all pre-writing strategies. Pre-writing helps
you identify your main ideas early so you can communicate them more directly.
Define the following terms as they relate to writing: (3 points)
objectivity a writers awareness of himself from the readers vantage point
empathy the capacity to put yourself imaginatively in the readers mind
courtesy an appreciation of the readers rights and feelings
What are four specific ways to serve your reader: (4 points)
1. phrase your thoughts clearly so youre easy to follow
2. speak to the point so you dont waste readers time
3. anticipate their reactions (boredom, confusion, fatigue, irritation)
4. offer them variety and wit to lighten their work
5. talk to them in a warm, open manner instead of pontificating to them like a know-it-all
List three principles of good diction: (3 points)
1. Conciseness
2. Vigorous verbs
3. Freshness
A good opener uses what kind of approach: (1 point)
a front-door approach
Define continuity. How can you achieve it in your writing? and Why is it important? (2 points)
Continuity linking every sentence and paragraph is one of the most important characteristics of good writing

Wilder Teaching Artifact: Final Exam for English 1110

What are the five essential elements of a good essay: (5 points)
1. A well-defined thesis
2. A clear strategy
3. Strong evidence
4. A clean narrative line (i.e. continuity through the sentences and paragraphs)
5. A persuasive closing

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PAUSE. Take 3-5 minutes and re-read what you wrote for Part I. Answer the following questions based on
that re-reading.
What did you learn as you were writing it? What idea did you discover as you were putting your thoughts into
words?
(1 point)

Ask yourself: What am I really trying to say in this piece? Well, what are you trying to say? What is the main
idea?
(1 point)

Anticipate your reader: What is the big idea they need to get? What problems might they have in understanding
what you are trying to say? What steps will you take to serve the reader? How can you help them understand
what you have to say?
(2 point)

Part III: (40 points) Using the principle of good writing highlighted on Part II and these reflective questions,
revise what you wrote for Part I. The piece you write for Part III should be organized around a claim and
your paragraphs should follow a structure based on the most effective way to communicate your main point to
your reader. If you want to take more time to pre-write or to outline, thats fine. Signal where your piece for
Part III starts with a title that reflects the main idea.