you will work through this excerpt on your own, but of course a simple Google search will turn up summaries paraphrasing the plot/main argument and historical context, not to mention articles and student essays interpreting the text toward a new argument. Remember that these sources offer someone else’s response to the text—your goal in the exam is to engage the original assigned text; looking to these sources means you veer away from your goal. If you find the text very confusing, referencing a summary can be useful, but you need to return to the task of determining what you make of the text.

You do not need to read anything other than the assigned text to prepare for this exam. If you do read something else, you must note where the ideas from that source enter into your essay (this means proper in-text citations and a list of works cited). Skipping this step is not an option; if your exam includes something someone else wrote about the text, that source needs to be acknowledged.

When your exam is graded, your readers will not be assessing your knowledge about the topic of the text or the author. Instead, they will be assessing your ability to construct a well-organized argument-driven essay in response to the prompt. You are expected to refer specifically and accurately to ideas and evidence in the assigned text. Graders will be using this rubric:

Rubric

A passing exam will demonstrate proficiency with the following components of an academic essay:

Argument: The essay presents one complex argument. Someone could disagree with this argument, but the essay suggests (explicitly or implicitly) that the author has considered counter-arguments.

Evidence: The entire essay supports the argument by referencing personal experience and careful analysis of passages from the reading.

Organization: The essay is organized clearly to support one argument, with smooth transitions between paragraphs. Each paragraph has a clear topic sentence introducing the main point being made and ample evidence to support that point. The first paragraph introduces the argument and the conclusion pulls all of the pieces together and offers the larger stakes of the argument.

Citation: This essay indicates clearly where the ideas of others end and the author’s ideas begin. It follows the style demonstrated in the prompts for the inclusion of ideas via paraphrase and direct quotation.

Clarity: This essay is easy to understand. There are few to no grammatical errors.