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The final exam is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on Monday, December 8, in our regular classroom. Be sure to bring paper and pens. You will have two hours to complete the exam, though it's unlikely that you'll need the full two hours.

Preparing for the Final Exam
1. On this website, review the NEWS page (to make sure you've kept up with all additions to the site during the semester) and (especially) the previews and postscripts at NOTES. Pay special attention to terms, concepts, and strategies (in particular those covered in more than one class session) and supplementary notes on assigned readings. Also, make sure that you review your own class notes.
2. Review the weekly quizzes (correct answers to all quiz questions are in the postscripts at NOTES). Pay special attention to questions based on the assigned chapters in On Writing Well and in articles (handouts and online) concerning methods of developing, organizing, and revising profiles, travel essays, and feature stories. (Some past quiz questions will reappear, in one form or another, on the final exam.)
3. Review all handouts and online articles, especially those concerned with editing strategies. (Some of the editing questions on the final exam will be taken directly from these handouts.)
4. Review assigned essays posted at READINGS, with special attention to any re-readings (that is, texts that were assigned more than once). As we get closer to the night of the final, I'll post a shorter list of selected essays for you to focus your attention on. (See, for instance, the re-readings assigned for December 1.)

Format of the Final Exam
The exam will consist of three parts:
(1) Short-answer questions
(2) Discussion questions
(3) Editing questions

(1) Short-answer questions (tentative value: two points each) will call for a one- or two-sentence response or (in the case of multiple-choice questions) the letter of the correct answer. Some of these questions will be adaptations of questions that appeared on our weekly quizzes. For example:
In the section on “Rewriting” in Chapter 10 of On Writing Well, which one of the following points does William Zinsser not make?
[followed by five choices]
Others, based on assigned readings (see Preparing for the Final Exam, above), you'll be seeing for the first time, such as:
According to the handout distributed in our first class, which one of the following is not one of the “hallmarks of literary nonfiction”?
[followed by six choices]
Keep in mind that not all of the questions in this section will be multiple choice. Here's an example of a question that can be answered in a sentence or two:
A journalist, social historian, and early novelist, this English writer insisted publically that his novels were as historically and journalistically accurate as his chronicle Journal of the               Plague Year.  Identify this early English novelist, and name at least one of his well-known works of fiction.
You'll have some choice in this part of the exam (such as, "Answer 12 out of these 14 questions"), so be sure to review all the questions before you start writing.

(2) Discussion questions (tentative value: 10-15 points each) will call for paragraph-length answers. Here's an example of the sort of question that will appear in this part of the exam:
In a concise paragraph developed with specific examples, briefly describe the nature of the persona that Susan Orlean creates for herself in both "The Place to Disappear" and “The American Man at Age Ten," and explain how that persona helps to shape the reader’s response to the subjects she writes about.
Be sure to answer clearly, concisely, and directly: don't repeat the question or belabor the obvious.

To give you an idea of what constitutes a good, concise answer in the discussion part of the exam, here's a sample Q&A:
Q: Discuss (and illustrate specifically) how E. B. White employs the strategy of identification in "Once More to the Lake."
A:  In "Once More to the Lake," driven to compensate for the loss of the things of his childhood (the railroad, Moxie, and, most importantly, his father), White seeks out things that apparently have not changed (the grocery store, the lake itself, and the enthusiasm of a boy) to affirm his connection with the past.  Throughout the essay, White indulges in the fancy that "nothing had changed" (though of course he knows differently) as he deliberately confuses his own role through his identifications with his deceased father (whose role he has now adopted) and his son (who has assumed the role played years ago by White himself).   Metaphorically, the final two paragraphs dramatize the thematic significance of these identifications: the thunderstorm over the lake represents the continuity of past and present and the comic celebration of the life cycle; more darkly, the "icy cold" felt by White at the end signifies the simple truth that death is an inevitable part of this cycle. 

(3) Editing questions (tentative value: three points each) will be based on editing exercises that we have worked on throughout the term. Here are a couple of sample questions:
-Make this sentence more concise by eliminating needless modifiers:
The steward was really a very friendly and agreeable man, quite round and rotund, with a very noticeable set of dimples on his cheeks.
-Reorganize the words in this sentence to give greater emphasis to the word "motels":
Any listing of 20th-century America's contribution to the world must surely include motels, along with computers, rock music, and fast foods.