EXAM PREP. FOR E307 ADV. COLLEGE WRITING IN ENGLISH STUDIES
CSU FULLERTON, FALL 2015

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The exam is closed book and closed notes. You will not need a Scantron, a bluebook or any extra paper. You can use either pen or pencil. I will bring in a sheet containing the exam, and you can simply write your responses directly on the exam. There is no essay portion.

You may not do things that distract others. Taking an exam is like being in a library: one doesn’t chomp on bubble gum or chips in a library, and it isn’t acceptable during an exam either.

EXAM STRATEGIES: LEARNING BEYOND TESTS, TAKING NOTES

Why are exams worthwhile? Without the accountability factor, we just don’t learn as much as we should. Exams aren’t worth much in themselves, but because you want to do well on them, you may approach the material in a way that helps you learn more in the short term and enjoy subsequent literary encounters later on.

What’s the best way to prepare for an exam? The first thing is to find out what kind it will be and work out a learning strategy to suit that kind of exam, but even more important is not to make “doing well on the exam” the sole purpose of your efforts. In the present course, the exam will not be about the literary texts we have read; it is very limited in scope and will cover only selected key issues in Thomas Kane and Graff & Berkenstein. If you read these texts with attention and genuine interest, you should do well on the exam.

WHAT WILL BE ON THE EXAM, GENERALLY SPEAKING?

What will the exam consist of? What follows is a good general description: I will begin with questions based on some key concerns in Thomas Kane’s The New Oxford Guide to Writing. I will, for example, offer you some sentences and ask whether they are fine as-is, or in need of some correction because of a grammatical or other stylistic issue that you should be able to identify. I will also provide some sentence examples and ask you which of the various sentence types mentioned by Kane correctly identifies each example. In addition, I’ll ask a number of basic questions on punctuation, grammar, and on handling quotations, with the key issue consisting not in precise citation format (MLA, APA, etc.) but rather in smooth integration and/or appropriate analysis of the quoted language. I may also pose a question not about grammar per se but rather about the stylistic infelicities and lack of clarity in a given piece of text.

A small but important block of questions will probably center on the Graff & Birkenstein textbook. Please review these authors as thoroughly as your time permits, paying attention to their key concepts.

Finally, don’t stress out over the exam — it isn’t going to be a huge percentage of the course grade, and I’m not out to trip you up with ridiculously minute points of style or grammar. I’ve tried to make the class both enjoyable and informative, and the exam will, I hope, fulfill its mission as an assessment of part of what you’ve learned while not diminishing the general approach we have followed throughout.