Final Exam Essay Information
CP English 10
INTRODUCTION
Before reviewing the specific information about the final, please read this schedule and highlight/circle/mark when your class is assigned to complete it:
Period 2: Monday, June 2, periods 1 & 2
Period 3: Thursday, May 29, periods 2 & 3
Period 4: Tuesday, June 3, periods 3 & 4
Period 7: Thursday, May 29, periods 7 & 8
Period 8: Wednesday, May 28, periods 8 & 9
Your final exam will be in the form of a typed essay. It will be similar to the essay that you completed for your mid-term, only it will call for a different approach.
TOPIC
Your assignment will be to type a one-page metacognitive essay. “Metacognition” is the awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes and learning. While it seems simple at first, the approach can become a bit confusing, so be sure to read this entire handout.
You will be discussing something that you have learned this year in CP English 10. This means that you will be able to choose almost anything that was covered this year in class and write about your experiences with it. The primary guideline is that you choose a major concept that was covered. Below you will find a list of the major units covered to remind you of some of your options.
APPROACH
There are five major areas that need to be addressed throughout this essay:
As your introduction, describe the topic that you are choosing to work with for this assignment.
Next, describe the reason(s) why this topic was your most successful this year. Discuss the methods that you used to learn the material.
Discuss the major success(es) that you experienced throughout the unit.
These may be the moments when you really felt you accomplished academic success by learning something, figuring something out, etc. These were your
“A-ha” moments. Discuss the techniques you used to help yourself reach these points.

Discuss the major setback(s) that you experienced throughout the unit.
These may be the moments when you struggled the most (perhaps before your “A-ha” moments). Discuss the techniques you used to overcome these difficult moments.
Finally, explain how you see yourself expanding on this knowledge in the future. How will your understanding of what does and does not help you learn affect your future academic experiences?
Keep in mind that at no point are you being asked to summarize the material that you have learned. While you may find yourself mentioning some new information that you gathered from that unit, you should do this in support of a discussion about your successes, failures, experiences, and so forth.
STYLE
The essay may use first- and third-person points-of-view; you may not use secondperson. Aside from this, you should follow all of the other rules of writing that we covered.
The essay needs to be at least one page (typed) in length. At most, your paper should not exceed two pages. There will be a fifteen-point deduction for failing to meet or surpassing these established limits. This means that your final essay should aim for about 400-600 words. If you find yourself going too long, take something out. If you find yourself falling short, elaborate on something.
PROCESS
While this is not a take-home exam, you may start your writing at home between now and the date of your exam.
When you come into the room for your exam, you will be allowed to enter with a hardcopy rough draft of your paper, which you may then type during the exam period. The final draft of the essay must be typed during the exam period. This means that you will need to format, type, and proofread your final essay in about ninety minutes.
Because of this time constraint, it is probably in your best interest to walk in with a rough draft in hand, or at least some notes jotted down about what you are going to write. Starting this from scratch on the day of the exam will make completing it very difficult.
You will be required to submit the final copy before you leave the exam session.
Similar to the midterm, you may not type it on Google Drive and copy-and-paste it into a Word document in class. You must type the final draft during your exam period.

UNITS
Here are the major units that were covered throughout the year:
- This I Believe
- Short stories
- Writing conventions (3MD)
- The Contender
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven
- Antigone
- Research unit
- Julius Caesar
I am open to other topics, so long as they were fairly major parts of class. If you want to write about something other than what is listed here, please see me before starting.
GRADING
The assignment will be out of 65 points. It will be graded based on the following:
Content : How deep your knowledge on the topic is - 20 points
Focus & Organization : How on-topic and well-organized your writing is - 10 points
Style : How well you say what you want to say – 10 points
Conventions : How strong your mechanics and conventions are – 20 points
Format : How accurately you can properly format your paper - 5 points
A NOTE ON CHEATING
This type of assignment may tempt you to cheat by copying ideas from a friend or the
Internet while writing your rough draft. Keep in mind that this single assignment is worth 10% of your course grade, and for some of you it may be the difference between passing and failing the course. If you are caught cheating, you will receive a zero with no opportunity to rewrite the assignment. 