English 241

American Literature to 1860

MIDTERM EXAM EVALUATION COMMENTS

Rosemarie Dombrowski

Kate Frost

1. Students did a much better job of constructing specific, relevant thesis statements. A thesis should remain the focus of the entire paper. A few papers wandered off topic a bit and a few promised more than they delivered (i.e., their thesis indicated they would be discussing religion, natural rights and education, but they only covered the first two topics). But we had far fewer "discovery papers" this time around. Happily, this was not a consistent problem.

2. About a third of the examinations marshaled significant textual support behind a substantive thesis (i.e. "In these works -- Murray's "On the Equality of the Sexes" and Apess' "An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man" -- the authors use a variety of strategies to garner support from their readers; namely, persuasive strategies such as logos, rhetorical questions, and religious rhetoric.") Others were laxer and less successful (i.e. "Murray and Apess deal with this challenge by appealing to popular belief structures to maintain a connection to their audience throughout a text with potentially uncomfortable social suggestions.").

3. Better organization would've helped a good portion of the exams. Skipping back and forth between points without clear connections makes the argument harder to follow and therefore less convincing.

4. About half of the students would still benefit from careful proofreading and spellchecking. About a quarter of the class showed a real lack of care --- their papers were difficult to read because of the high level of technical errors. In some cases that students did not give themselves enough time to complete the exam---their writing seemed rushed, disorganized, and

not proof-read.