Purpose and Context:
The final exam offers you two opportunities to exercise your newfound knowledge and skills in creativity and writing craft.
First, you’ll have the opportunity to share one more draft of the fiction or poetry collection you’ve been working on, showcasing your ability to apply writing craft to your creative work.
Second, you’ll be challenged to compose a formal essay that reflects on the creative process you engaged in to create your fiction/poetry, with a critical eye on the course vocabulary, concepts, and ideas you’ve learned about throughout the class.
What to Do:
Step 1
Review the Final Exam Guidelines
document.
Step 2
Create and submit a single document that includes the following:
- A “final” complete draft of your 8-10 page story OR a 7-9 page poetry collection that revolves around a single “thing” (theme, idea, object, place, etc). It should be properly formatted and free of errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
- A reflective essay.
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There is no strict length requirement for this essay; I suggest aiming for 4 pages minimum. It’s pretty impossible to address all of the essay requirements in less than 4 pages. If your essay is 1-3 pages long, you have not done everything you should do on this very important assignment, and your grade will probably reflect that.
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On the other hand, a 15-page essay doesn’t guarantee a good grade, either. Don’t add extra lettuce to your sandwich just to make it look fatter. Make every word necessary. That’s part of what this exam is about-you make the careful, deliberate decisions that will make your work most effective. Be your own best educator!
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How to Submit:
Click the Submit Assignment button in the upper right-hand corner of this page to attach your SINGLE document.
CAUTION: Before you upload your file, be 100% certain that you’re uploading an acceptable file type (.doc, docx, .rtf, .odt) DO NOT submit .wps, .pages, or .zip files.
CAUTION: Be certain to submit your work on time! There is very little time for me to read, grade, and submit final grades to the registrar, so I will not have time to track you down and ask if you’re ever planning to share your final exam with me. Get it in on time, please, or accept the grade-crushing consequences!
Grading:
The final exam is worth 125 points of your final grade. The “final” draft of your creative work is worth 25 points, and the reflective essay is worth 100 points. The grading criteria are described above; your grade will be determined by how well you follow through on the requirements described above.
Most importantly—BE DETAILED, and be sure to USE VOCABULARY TERMS from our course, as well as ILLUSTRATE your points with EXAMPLES FROM YOUR WRITING AND THE COURSE MATERIAL. Remember that this is a FINAL EXAM, so bring everything you learned or should have learned to the two items in this exam. Show CLEAR, STRONG EVIDENCE of your knowledge and skill in WRITING CRAFT and CREATIVITY.