Here is a list of things you need to do in your final exam to do well, in no specific order.
- Answer the question.
- If you ignore some aspect of the prompt you will be dinged down for it.
- Be sure to address both passages
- You will be given two passages to compare, contrast, and synthesize into single idea, your position. You must address both ideas. Note that the passages will not necessarily take contrary positions on a topic. Don't assume that they do.
- Don't quote the whole passage or even large chunks of the passage. That just looks like you're trying to fill space. Instead, identify individual sentences that you want to specifically respond to in each passage. Quote those individual sentences, or better yet, parts of sentences, so that you can integrate them into your own sentences.
- Use more than just the passages given to you for support.
- Essays that get higher scores tend to be the ones that not only bring in specific support from the outside world, but convincingly tie it back to the prompt.
- Go back and proofread.
- You have 30 minutes to prepare and 60 minutes to write, so there should be plenty of time to go back and correct a few spelling mistakes here and there. Believe me, doing so will up your score.
- Specificity is knowledge.
- Don't talk about people, or a child, or a guy, or some person. Talk about Harry Potter, or Bob down the street, or Barack Obama, or someone specific. The more specific your examples the stronger they are as evidence.
- A good mixture of examples is better than a lot of the same example.
- Don't repeat yourself. Try for a good lit example, a good movie example, a good historical example, a good personal example, and a good use of the passages included in the prompt.
- Avoid hypotheticals and rely on reality
- If you begin an argument with if, it might just be a bad argument. While that is a common structure for logic (if this is true, then that is true), it does not make an argument. To make that an argument, you first have to prove that your premise is true, and that can take too much time that you don't have. Simply show the world for how it is, and not how it should be to support your argument.
- Write more than five paragraphs.
- Seriously. Most of the readers of your essay have a loathing of the five paragraph structure, and if they see only five, it is possible it may induce an irrational response. Throw in a sixth paragraph. Each paragraph should address a specific idea with the sentences in each paragraph building the argument for that idea.
- Development is the key
- Chances are your two pages single spaced or four pages double are not going to do the trick. You should have between four and five examples to support your position clearly tied back to the prompt.
- Anticipate counter arguments.
- Give yourself at least one paragraph in which you consider and respond to a potential counter argument to your position. This shows the reader that you're thinking critically on the issue, and not just plowing forward with narrow focus.
- When five minutes is called, jump to the conclusion.
- Seriously, one of the things the readers will look for is completeness. When I call five minutes you better be on a conclusion or moving toward it. Simply ending your essay is not a conclusion. A good conclusion explains why your position is important and gives a satisfying close to the essay.
- Unless you are using specific information gathered by anthropologists about the ways early humans lived, Cavemen make poor argumentative examples.
- Seriously, no cavemen.
