For your final exam this semester, you will not write a “paper” but a self-reflective letter that examines your writing strategies this semester. You can also revise any major assignment or reflection. The goal at the end of the final exam is that your grade is the best representation of the work that you've produced for this course.

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The purpose of the final exam, as a genre, is to encourage students to reflect upon the course material and to make connections between topics, theories, and discussions to help ensure that course goals and objectives are met for the semester.

For students, the final exam is their last opportunity to illustrate what they have learned over the course of the semester/year, and, for instructors, it is the last opportunity to determine whether individual students have mastered the necessary material to move on in their academic studies. Through your first semester of First-Year Composition, we have discussed the purposes, development, and features of effective academic writing.

Effective Academic Writing Illustrates how Writing is a Process: Effective academic writing requires time and meaningful contemplation. Effective writing shows evidence of the writing process (researching, brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading).

Effective Academic Writing is Developed: Effective academic writing is on-topic and follows the directions of the assignment.

Introductions effectively open up the paper and engage the audience to continue reading through the prose. They also offer support and research for claims made. The introductions provide, either implicitly or explicitly, thesis statements that indicate to audiences the purpose and content of the work.

In the discussion sections, the writer makes his/her point precisely and directly. Writers introduce unfamiliar material to audiences. Writers offer specific examples from specific sources to illustrate, clarify, elaborate, or interpret points.

Conclusions provide interesting, unique, or unexplored reflections on the topic.

Effective Academic Writing is Organized: Effective academic writers understand how audiences expect specific “organizational” features (introductory paragraph(s), subject headings, topic sentences, developed paragraphs that provide ample research and support, concluding paragraph(s) that bring the discussion to logical ends). Academic writers recognize that by ignoring or failing to realize their audience’s expectations, their works might not be considered rhetorically effective.

Effective Academic Writing Utilizes Effective Styles and Tones: Effective academic writing is clear, fluid, and direct. Effective academic writing flows from sentence-to-sentence, paragraph-to-paragraph, discussion section-to-discussion section. Effective writing utilizes transitions, combines sentences, varies sentence structures, and cuts excess words to help the paper “flow.”

Effective Academic Writing Illustrates the Importance of Mechanics and Grammar: Effective academic writers recognize that audiences often expect surface-level perfection regarding mechanics and grammar. Effective academic writers continue to learn and review mechanical and grammatical problems to improve their discourses. Effective academic writers recognize that mechanically and grammatically pristine papers are meaningless if they fail to convey the points intended.

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Your final exam, then, is 2 parts:

Explore/Learn
- Read "Revision" from JtC, NCTC Preface, xxx.
- Read "Letter of Reflection" from JtC, NCTC Preface, xxxiv.
Apply/Experiment
- Complete Final Exam: Letter of Reflection.
- Complete Final Exam: Revision.