RUBRIC/ASSIGNMENT
MIDTERM IN-CLASS ESSAY
Written in class over two class periods (220 minutes)
10% Written In-Class Midterm– a 750+-word in-class essay in which a
student analyses critically the rhetoric of a poem.
TOPIC: “England in 1819” (Shelley) OR “On First Looking into
Chapman’s Homer” (Keats)
(two or three EC questions over anything else read or discussed in
the course)
HOW TO STUDY: Read carefully all handouts on the Learning Web as well as the
MODEL / SAMPLE “RHETORICAL ANALYSIS” ESSAYS there. Choose one
poem before the exam and analyze it carefully. You may bring in ONE NOTECARD
OF NOTES, and you may do any preliminary thinking / discussing you would like!
RUBRIC: GRADING CRITERIA FOR YOUR MIDTERM IN-CLASS ESSAY
 DOES IT contain at least 750 words? IF NOT, it’s an F
 DOES IT describe the poem’s “thesis” briefly (in just 1-2 sentences)? IF
NOT, it’s an F
 DOES IT identify and analyze AT LEAST THREE “rhetoric elements” in
that poem? IF NOT, it’s an F.
• DOES IT explain how those elements make the poem’s thesis persuasive, i.e.,
how those elements reinforce, stress, persuade of the poem’s thesis for the
poem’s readers? IF NOT, it’s no higher than a “C”
• DID YOU correct any errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.? IF
NOT, it’s no higher than a “B”