ENGLISH 1301 FINAL EXAM
SAMPLE TOPIC PROMPTS & PRACTICAL WRITING STRATEGIES 

The Collin College English Department distributes final exam topics on a wide variety of general subjects with the expectation that students will have sufficient knowledge of at least one of the selections for the successful writing of a five-paragraph essay.  Immediately following the topic prompts (which are similar to the kinds you may find on your ENGLISH 1301 FINAL EXAM) are pre-draft strategies, practical writing strategies, and a checklist of writing characteristics designed to help you write a successful final exam essay.

  

TEN TOPIC PROMPTS

Prompts #1 and #2 offer two viewpoints on smoking bans.  As you read the others, you may also wish to consider your management of opposing views in preparation for the final.  (PLEASE NOTE: The construction of the following thesis statements along with the topic sentences and details reflects REALISTIC TIME CONSTRAINTS of  a two-hour limit of in-class drafts.)

  

 

  

TEN TOPIC SUBJECTS WORTHY OF ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATION

Please ponder your position,  inventions of thesis statements, audience/purpose, topic sentences, details, et cetera, to the following subjects as worthwhile practice for subjects you may also find on your final exam topics sheet. 

1.   Fad dieting

2.   Breaking a destructive habit

3.   Drinking age

4.   Universal health care

5.   Campus day-care centers

6.   Plagiarism

7.   Computer-based classrooms

8.   Distance learning courses

9.   Lotteries

10.  Online auctions

 

 

 SAMPLE STUDENT INTRODUCTIONS ON THE SAME SUBJECT

 The following introductions on dieting effectively demonstrate two acceptable approaches to writing.  They equally demonstrate thoughtfully composed thesis statements/claims setting up the potential for writing meaningful essays:

Example one:

Why do so many people in America become preoccupied with dieting?  Over the past twenty years or so, we have become increasingly aware of our weight, largely because of the way the general public has set the standard for beauty.  Anyone can look around and see the constant bombardment of weight loss advertisements.  These advertisements focus on what has become a billion-dollar industry in the United States.  Even the federal government has gotten involved by implementing a law requiring food producers to list all calories and fat grams on the side of food products produced here.  Because a high number of Americans succumb to advertisements at an alarming rate, the media are guilty of creating a mass preoccupation with diet.

Example two:

Daily, popular magazines and advertisements focus on the physical appearance of teenage girls and young women.  Magazines such as YM, Seventeen, and Cosmopolitan dominate the racks in drug stores and the floors in homes females occupy.  Now, what do the models inside these magazines look like?  Do they look average?  No.  Do they have flaws?  No.  Do they look like anyone we may know?  Of course not.  But every time we females look at them, do we still feel a small desire to look like them?  Probably yes.  Many young women define normal by the pictures of these models, yet these models are just icons.  Photographers and advertisers airbrush and alter photographs to construct flawless images.  Sometimes the emotional side of a woman’s brain takes over her rational side and blurs the ability to realize that nobody can achieve such perfection.  Unrealistic images of flawless bodies appearing in many media outlets manipulate the minds of young women sufficiently enough to cause them serious physical and emotional harm.

 

 FINAL EXAM PRE-DRAFT STRATEGIES

Now that you have reviewed the above sample topics and introductions, you may wish to imagine that the day of the final exam has arrived and that you are struggling to choose the “right” topic from the list (which will include at least five or more choices).  Your choice is simple: Select the one that you know the most about, not the one that appears “the easiest.” 

Your first step after reading the instructions and selecting your topic is a vital one, for the topic prompt’s language serves as a mini-blueprint.  Does the topic prompt ask you to argue (agree or disagree)?  Write a cause and effect analysis?  Write a process paper?  Compare?  Contrast? Compare AND contrast?  Illustrate?  Well, you get the picture.  Adhering to the topic’s prompt instead of launching one of your own making is a critical component of the final exam. 

Your next step is equally vital.  Using your preferred method, plan on spending no fewer than ten or fifteen minutes brainstorming.  Brainstorming allows your setting of the overall blueprint for organizing your paper; it is not, therefore, time wasted.  Here you can jot down supporting details and create a working thesis.  Then, after first constructing your thesis statement, devise your topic sentences, keeping the strongest one for the final body paragraph.  If you think in BIG subject “chunks” for each paragraph, the details should follow nicely.

As an example, were you to respond to a topic asking you to compare and contrast two television sitcoms, say, The Bill Cosby Show and Married with Children, your three body paragraph “chunks” feasibly could include some of these topics: the characters' educational levels, professions, diction, family values, goals, and community service.  Within each "chunk," then, you would then be able to offer plenty of supporting details. 

Your decision over the appropriate purpose and audience generally also falls rather naturally into place at this stage.  You may additionally consider the title at this stage, but avoid fretting if the title’s formation does not occur to you until you conclude your essay.   Be sure to make the connection to your thesis statement when you write your title, too.  (By the way, do not underline your title if every word is of your own making.)  One other point for those students not in a computer classroom: You'll find your revision process easier if you write on one side of the page only, leaving the left side of the fold in the blue book space to rewrite an entire paragraph.
 

 A FEW WORDS ABOUT THESIS STATEMENTS

•  A thesis statement announces what the entire paper is about, and a topic sentence announces what the entire paragraph is about.

•  A thesis statement is never a fact.  This bears repeating: A thesis statement is never a fact.  It is, rather, a writer’s opinion, one supportable with details that may include facts, examples, statistics, analogies, anecdotal evidence, and general information appropriate for the length your paper demands.  (Of course, the thesis may contain a fact.)

• In a short essay, your introductory paragraph should conclude with your thesis statement.

• If you’re inclined to write a non-specific thesis statement (“There are many differences and many similarities living in urban and suburban areas”), your audience won’t have a clue about the direction of your essay.  Brainstorm your thesis statement until it contains the kind of specificity that you would enjoy reading in someone else’s paper.

             Once you’ve completed your rough draft, re-read the paper with an eye on its overall coherence and clarity.  Is the content shallow or well supported with meaningful details, for example?  Correct your sentence errors (comma splices, fragments, and run-ons), if any.  Check agreement of subjects and verbs as well as of antecedents and their pronoun references.  Replace faulty usage with correct usage and misspelled words with correctly spelled ones.  (If you still cannot differentiate between the words "affect" and "effect," it's never too late to review them again.)  As time permits, refine your style by using fresher diction and clearer syntax, combining sentence structure for variety and complexity when appropriate. Replace passive voice with active, taking care to rid your paper of excessive expletives as well.  Finally, double-check the effectiveness of your thesis statement and topic sentences, and give your title a final look.  (At the conclusion of this document, you’ll find a checklist of writing characteristics you may wish to review in advance of writing the final.)

ADDITIONAL WRITING STRATEGIES

The following writing strategies should help you write a successful final in the allotted two-hour time frame.  They require your efforts in first reviewing the writing suggestions in your textbook along with the grammar and usage exercises in your handbook.  After all, you have devoted much of your time this semester studying paragraph development and organization along with the basic characteristics of standard grammar, usage, and punctuation.

Because you cannot revisit all of the semester’s lessons, at least review those areas continuing to cause you writing difficulties.  Finally, plan not only on purchasing your blue book and pens early (if you're in a traditional, not computer, classroom)  but also on arriving a few minutes early for some deep, relaxing breathing.  (You should also bring a dictionary, thesaurus, and unmarked scratch paper to the final.)  Your instructors, after all, want you to succeed!

• Avoid writing any sentence (including the thesis statement) that announces your intention (“In this paper I plan to . . .”).  Let your writing, not your pronouncement of it, do the talking.
   
  
• Avoid using “you,” “your,” “I,” “my,” “me,” and “myself” in your response unless the writing prompt instructs you otherwise.  You may use the editorial “we” in their place (“We Americans fail to protect our right to vote“; “Tourists like us especially enjoy Fort Worth’s diversity and recommend it as the best vacation spot in Texas”; “Politicians may believe we young students are too lazy to vote, often ignoring us until election time rolls around”).  Of course, you may always choose writing in third person, a more formal method.
   
• Avoid shifting your main subject from singular to plural and back again to singular.  Should you get a prompt that allows you, say, to write about the qualities of “a” successful student, use a plural noun from the outset.  In this way, you’ll avoid the “he or she,” “him or her” dilemma of pronoun references.  Simply put, by starting your composition with “students,” you’re able maintain a consistent use of the pronoun references “they,” “them,” and “their” throughout your composition.
   
• Avoid concluding each paragraph with a concluding sentence; instead, save your ideas for the concluding paragraph.
   
• Avoid empty phrases (such as “in today’s society,”), wordiness (such as “due to the fact that”), and the excessive use of expletives (“there is,” “there will be,” et cetera).
   
• Avoid writing on both sides of the blue book pages.  In fact, if you skip lines as you write, you’ll not only find re-reading your essay easier, but also you’ll have room for corrections.
   
• When writing, do not stop to correct errors, real or imagined.  You can put a checkmark in the margin as a reminder to check the area later for errors.  Getting your main points down in rough fashion enables sufficient revising time.
   

 

CHECKLIST OF WRITING BASICS
(Check areas requiring your review)
 

Introduction _____            
 Thesis statement  _____                                           

Organization _____                                                   

Evidence of Preparation _____                                  

Conclusion _____                                                         

Paragraph development _____                                  

Specificity _____                                                           

Use of transitions _____                                              

Clarity _____                                                               

Sentence variety _____                                               

Usage _____                                                                

Diction (choice of words, style) _____                       

Syntax _____                                                              

Voice (excessive passive) _____                                  

Wordiness and/or clutter _____                                

Use of weak intensifiers/expletives _____                

Repetition of ideas _____                                             

Excessive summary versus analysis _____                 

 

Grammatical errors:

comma splice ____ fragment ____ run-on ____

modification ____ agreement _____pronoun use ____

parallelism ____ shifts in tense or voice ____articles ____

comparison ____ predication ____ misc. ____

 

Mechanical errors:

Comma _____                                                          

Semicolon _____                                                  

Apostrophe _____                                                  

Spelling  _____                                                     

 

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(Developed by Joyce Marie Miller, Collin College English Department, November 2004)
Last update: December 2005