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Leslie D. Hannah Department of English University of Oklahoma
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Unit One: The Essay Examination - Literacy in America The students' purpose in essay examination responses is to display knowledge of course material in the context of the examination question. This predisposes critical reading ability, analytical thinking ability in interpreting the question, and composing strategies to recall, organize, and draft a response quickly. A large portion of the students’ writing here at the University of Oklahoma will be timed under examination conditions. Because these examinations begin early in the semester, this unit has been placed first. Readings for this unit include four articles in the course packet, chapters 9, 10, 12, and 23 from The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing. The Essay Examination: Goals and Criteria The students shall gain an understanding of what it means to read a text critically. Students shall formulate an understanding of the contextual factors that impact the writing process during an in-class examination. Students will generate and hone strategies for structuring and writing an in-class essay examination. Students will analyze how both preparation and writing strategies impact their success in taking essay exams. Students shall critically read four pre-selected texts within the setting of individual and peer reading sessions. During these readings, students shall "get deep inside the text" and reason within it in an effort to discover meanings and connections, not just within the individual text but with the other texts in connection to one another. These critical readings shall culminate with a timed essay examination. The students will be responsible for writing their own study guides as well as their own test questions. That’s right—the students will write the test. Each student will write a minimum of two test questions and submit these questions—with a brief outline of an answer—to the instructor. From this pool of questions, the instructor will select what he feels are the ten best questions; the instructor may modify the questions for the desired effect. The ten finalized questions will then be placed into a test generating program on a computer that will randomly select two questions per test form. The program will print the predetermined number of test forms, each containing two student-written questions. A student may get both of his or her own questions for the actual examination; that is perfectly fine. It is also possible that the student may get neither question. That, too, is fine by me. The essay examination will be a timed event. |