April 09

Paper Five Drafts
I took a look at all of the posted drafts for Paper Five, and I have to say, I'm impressed. Every one of the drafts is fairly strong, and all show great promise. I love the way you all approached the question in unique ways, and it seemed like everyone was staking out a fairly specific and unique project and doing particularly solid work with the text to support it. Take a bow, class.

Abram and Final Paper Assignment
I won't start an Abram discussion--given the results of Paper Five drafting, it's simply not necessary for me to take the lead when all of you are doing pretty good on your own. I will, however, get the last paper assignment posted--some time tomorrow. I'll put a notice in the forum when it's up.

Looking Ahead
You all need to start thinking about the final exam. Here's how it works:

1. You're assigned a new reading for the exam. Not that it matters, but I am actually not allowed to participate in the discussion of the new reading, but you are strongly encourage to discuss it and possible relationships to the other essays in the forum.
2. You will need to make arrangements with me to take the final in person. This must be done before 5/6, the last day of classes.
3. The final exam is 80 minutes long--one class period. You will be asked to write about the new essay and ONE of the previous essays. You will have the choice of which previous essay to work with, so a good strategy is to pick which of the previous authors you'd like to work with before or as you read the new essays. That way, while reading the new essay you can look for relations to the author you have chosen.
4. The exam is pass/fail. You must pass the exam to pass Expos, but it's fairly easy to pass. Essentially, we're looking for the same kinda stuff you do in your papers, so if you can pass a paper, you can pass the exam easily.
5. Students with second language concerns can have extra time for proofreading.
6. The exam is open book--you can bring your New Humanities Reader. You may also bring a dictionary.

That's all I can think of right now. Usually, in a real classroom, students have lots of questions that clear things up. I'm going to start a thread in the forum. Post your questions about the final exam there and I will answer them so everyone can see.

To Do for Next Class:

1. Discuss Abram.
2. Final papers are due by Friday afternoon. Details in next class.