Final Practice | Fiction and Fact in English Prose

This discussion of the practice final is intended to help you review, extend your critical and analytical skills, and improve your writing.

The final exam is divided into two papers, each worth 50 points, and takes place during the 90 minutes of usual class time (open book) on Wednesday, April 29 and Friday, May 1. Each exam paper asks you to write two essays in response to the prompts given, so pace yourself accordingly. Try giving yourself 40 minutes to respond to a prompt in the following practice paper. You can use the same prompts to practice writing as many times as you like about different pairs of works.

General Comments:

Know the texts well. Though the exam is open book, you have only a little over forty minutes to write each essay. That time is better spent getting down your ideas and supporting them rather than looking up passages and information. Prepping should include reading the texts, thinking critically about them, and making perceptive notes.
Follow instructions. If the instruction asks you to choose two works, one fiction and one nonfiction, don't write about two nonfiction pieces. If the prompt asks you to discuss turning points in the lives or children and adolescents, don't discuss turning points in the lives of adults, or the lives of adolescents in general.
Write quickly. Start writing within half a minute of reading the prompt. Have a general outline of main points you want to make in your head. Flesh out your arguments and support your ideas along the way. You do not have time to outline every detail in advance. Keep the flow of writing/typing quite fast and continuous. Don't mull over too long on a perfect phrasing. It is more important that you get the idea down than that you word it precisely and in an absolutely polished manner.
Have a clear point to make in each of your paragraphs, and in the essay as a whole.
Support your ideas with textual evidence.
Avoid plot summary. Order your discussion around your argument, not according to the the structure of the article or the plot of the story. Mention only plot points that are necessary to your argument. Be precise and detailed when elaborating on them to develop your argument.
Proofread. If you have time at the end of the test, check your writing for

Spelling
Capitalization
Agreement

Follow academic conventions in writing about literature. For example,

Use literary present tense.
Refer to authors by their last names.
See also

Christopher P. Wilson, "A List of Technical Conventions It Helps to Know," Boston College
Simon Lewsen, "Writing about Literature," University of Toronto
"What Is Plagiarism?," Georgetown University
"Plagiarism Checklist," Georgetown University

Write about a technique that is especially effective in creating an impact or in getting across an idea, or that is otherwise notable in two of the works we have read in this course.

The English prose in our course shows that the writers take their craft seriously, and our study at the Faculty of Arts involves exploring that craft of creating art and beauty. Choose two works, one fiction and one nonfiction, and discuss what their idea of art or beauty seems to be and whether they challenge any concepts of what art or beauty is or can be. How do the works show what good prose is? What values do they give to the written form? Do they question any aesthetic idea? Do they change it? Do they create new definitions and products of art and beauty? How?

Student V	Student U
Prompt Response.	Prompt Response.
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