ENGL 1301 Final exam FA 2020
Read the directions carefully. Read everything!
General overview of the task: For the final exam you will have to write an essay. I expect you to follow the MLA format and use conventions of the English language with proper spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure.
1. There are four articles provided to you. Read and annotate these articles. When annotating, keep in mind the goal or the purpose for your annotations (read the entire document to get that information). Think how you will be using the annotations for your essay. As you work with the articles, identify and be prepared to discuss several elements of the rhetorical situations: audience, purpose, message/main idea, reasons provided by the author in support of the author’s position (stance) on the issue being discussed.
2. Choose two articles and write an essay in which you will compare and contrast at least 2 rhetorical elements (see step 1).
3. Compare and contrast means that you need to show what is similar and different about these elements. For example, do the authors of both articles address the same audiences or are the intended audiences different? In what ways? How is the purpose alike and how is it different? How is the stance (the author’s position or point of view different)? What is similar or different between the main message or the main idea of each article? Give specific examples to support your claims. Author of which article provides stronger support for his/her position (stance)? Which support is more effective?
4. In the introduction, you will have to introduce the two articles with their titles and the names of the authors. Provide a brief (1-3 sentences) summary of each article as background information.
5. You should also try to persuade your reader (that is me 
) that one of the articles is better than the other. The thesis will answer the question: which article is better or more effective and which criteria prove it? Use the Thesis Table to generate your thesis:
Topic
Attitude
Criteria or reasons
Article 1 and/or article 2
Which one is better or more effective?
Which article/author does a better job?
Addressing the audience
Taking a stance or a position
Etc…
For example: Article 1 is better than Article 2 at purpose and audience.
Article 2 is more effective delivering the main idea (message) and addressing the intended audience than Article 1.
6. Begin each of your body paragraphs with a topic sentence like we did with the other essays this semester. Your topic sentence will address only one of the criteria/elements that you are analyzing (only audience, or only message, or only purpose, etc…).
7. Support your comparison and contrast with text evidence. You should use a direct quote and either a summary or a paraphrase from the articles. You will need about 4 text examples (2 from each article). I want to remind you of the importance of annotating your articles. Now that you know what you are going to write about, make sure to annotate with the end goal in mind. In other words, when annotating, mark passages that are good examples of audience, purpose, stance, or message, etc…
8. Remember to use in-text citations or attribution for all borrowed ideas. Failure to do so will result in plagiarism. Plagiarized essays (even if it was unintentional, but just a careless mistake) will receive a zero.
9. You may type up your essay in Word. Follow standard MLA formatting guidelines. I am not expecting you to create a Works Cited page since we all know which articles were provided for this assignment.
5 Bonus points will be awarded to students who create a Works Cited page in MLA format.
10. This assignment should be no less than 2 full pages long.
Helpful tips:
1. Do your own work. Do not ask your friends, sisters, cousins, aunts or uncles to write your paper for you. I have been following your growth and development as writers and have plenty of original samples from you to tell the difference. If I suspect that you did not write your own final essay, we will have to have a conversation. Be prepared to discuss your writing process and how you worked on this essay in detail. The burden of proof will be on you. I feel I had to address this issue of academic integrity since several students this semester have admitted to using help from others. I also want to point out that when you solicit help of others, those individuals do not know all the details and nuances of the course and frequently do more harm than help you. Bottom line – do your own work, use your brain. What’s the worst that can happen? – you might earn a lower grade vs. you will get a zero for the course.
2. Do not put this off until 5 minutes before the due date and time. There will be absolutely NO extensions of any kind. You must meet the submission deadline for this final exam.
3. Since this assignment is not timed, I suggest you plan this essay, draft it, and edit and revise several times before submitting.
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