Final Exam
The final exam for English 231 tests your understanding of how literature has influenced the development of an American mindset. It also tests your ability to develop ideas and organize them in written form using specific and appropriate evidence.
To prepare for the exam, make sure that you are familiar with at least two works from each time period we’ve studied: Puritanism, Enlightenment, and Romanticism. Consider the following ideas as you review:
-What is the American mindset now? How have the works the past 400 years influenced that?
– How have conflicting ideas shaped this country and its mindset?
-How has the American ideal of individualism developed since the 1600s?
– What are the ideals upon which this country was founded? How close has America come to this ideal?
Remember, the purpose of the exam is to synthesize your learning, to bring it all together. Again, make sure you are familiar with at least two representative works from every time period.
This exam tests your understanding of how literature has influenced the development of an American mindset. It also tests your ability to develop ideas and organize them in written form using specific and appropriate evidence. For each response:
Follow directions and address all aspects of the prompt.
Compose in paragraph form as many paragraphs as necessary to address the prompt.
Write topic sentences that express the main idea of each paragraph.
Use specific details from the works to support your claim.
Be sure to explain how the details support your claim.
· Use words and phrases to create cohesion and clarify how ideas are related.
· Establish and maintain a formal style.
· Provide a concluding statement that follows from and supports the argument presented.
· Proofread your writing for careless spelling and punctuation errors.
Respond to the first question and choose one of the other three. You will write a total of two thorough responses.
So I am asking you to know to works from two time periods. For example to demonstrate the revolutionary period, you might become familiar with Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. For the romantic, period, You might familiarize yourself with an Edgar Allan Poe story and a Hawthorne story. Remember that the score of the letter is part of the romantic., Too
