Your Midterm Exam

Folks,

Since some of you are probably wondering what your midterm exam will be (which by the way takes place on Wednesday, 26 October), I’m going to tell you what we’ll do. Not in exact detail, but the basic idea.

I’m going to give you something to read. You will have to do things with the text.

That’s it.

I realize this sounds a bit simplistic, or maybe crazy. But it’s basically what I will be testing you on.

So  far in this class, I’ve asked you to do things with texts a few times. I’ve asked you to answer questions about texts. (Like, in your textbook.) I’ve asked you to write outlines for texts written by other people (and given you a pretty good guide to writing an outline). I’ve asked you to take information from one  text and use it to write another. (Like using information about the classic addictive personality, and Mickey Mantle’s writing, to write an essay on how Mickey Mantle had the classic addictive personality.) I’ve given you a template to use in responding to an argument in someone else’s text that you either agree with, or disagree with.

So review all these things. Pick a random text (say, one in another chapter of the textbook?) and try doing these kinds of things with it. Practice the skills I’ll be testing you on. The test is only two hours long, so we won’t have time to have you do them all… but knowing them all should make the test much easier for you.

Have a nice week, and see you on Monday!

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