MIDTERM REVIEW
2011-2012
During the exam, you may use:
• “The Crisis”
• “Speech to the Virginia Convention”
• “The Autobiography”/”Poor Richard’s
Almanack”
• “Stride Toward Freedom”
• “Necessary to Protect Ourselves”
• MIDTERM- Prewriting
• Note card (provided by Miss S)
During the exam:
• Follow the steps in the writing process
1. Analyze the prompt
2. Prewrite - select your quotes and organize your
thoughts before you begin
3. Draft – write the essay
4. Edit and revise – proofread, review the rubric,
and make necessary corrections
How you will be graded
Parts of the Rubric
STRONG INTRODUCTION
• Broad to narrow
• Effective thesis
• TAG
– Since you are writing about several pieces, you do not
necessarily need to list EVERY title, author, and genre
in the introduction. You will give the title, author, and
genre of every piece you use at some point within the
essay. Use your judgment to decide what information
should be in the introduction and what information
fits better elsewhere.
BODY PARAGRAPHS(2)
•
•
•
•
•
Accurate text details
Ideas and content tie to the thesis
Strong and appropriate topic sentences
Engaging concluding sentences
Quotes! (MINIMUM of four quotes throughout
the paper-two per body paragraph)
• Use the appropriate selection and amount of
quotes to clearly prove your thesis
CONCLUSION
• Summarize ideas
• Restate thesis
• Tie back to the introduction (use both broad
and narrow elements)
• Provide closure
SANDWICHING
• Excellent lead ins
• Strong analysis
• FLOW!!!!
To properly sandwich and discuss
these pieces…
• You should know some information about
each piece and each author
• Some information to consider:
– Who wrote each piece
– What type of literature each piece is (speech,
pamphlet, portion of a book, etc)
– Author’s purpose for writing each piece
– When/where the piece was presented
Sandwiching nonfiction
• With The Postman and The Crucible, you used the
lead in to “set the scene” for the quote by
providing necessary plot details.
• With nonfiction, you can still “set the scene” by
providing the necessary information about the
context in which your quote appeared.
– Perhaps it was in a speech given to convince
politicians to go to war…
– Perhaps it was a pamphlet published during the
Revolutionary war to motivate the demoralized
troops…
For example…
• Before the Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry
explained, “Quote” (2).
• MLA REMINDER: if you use the author’s name
in the sentence, you do not need to include it
in the in-text citation.
SENTENCE VARIETY
• You must use at least THREE of the assigned
sentence structures in your essay
• Select three DIFFERENT sentence structures
• You must UNDERLINE and LABEL the three
sentence structures
Select from:
•
•
•
•
•
Two adjective beginning
Ly beginning
Ing beginning
Ing ending
Appositive (must be in the middle of the
sentence)
• Semicolon
Sentence Structures
• Two adjective beginning
– Annoyed and frustrated, Miss Sidebotham
answered a question she had already answered
five times.
Sentence Structures
• Ly beginning
– Passionately, Patrick Henry addressed the Virginia
Convention.
Sentence Structures
• Ing beginning
– Trying to motivate the tired troops, Paine
distributed “The Crisis”
Sentence Structures
• Ing ending
– Patrick Henry addressed the Virginia Convention,
hoping to gain support.
Sentence Structures
• Appositive (MUST be in the middle of the
sentence)
– Please honor Martin Luther King, Jr., a civil rights
leader, on your day off on Monday.
Sentence Structures
• Semicolon
– Midterms are next week; you should begin
preparing.
– I keep class documents on the course website;
however, most students do not take advantage of
this.
WORD CHOICE
• Use challenging and complex vocabulary
• Avoid repetition
• Avoid vague and weak words (thing, stuff, a
lot, etc)
• Use at least TWO vocabulary words in your
essay (select from Revolutionary Vocab, SAT
Lesson 1, SAT Lesson 2)
• UNDERLINE the vocab words in your essay.
MLA FORMAT
• Write the appropriate MLA heading on your
paper
• Punctuate titles appropriately
• Use in-text citations correctly