Please NO AI CHATGPT OR PLAGIARISM USED TO COMPLETE THIS ASSIGNMENT PLEASE PROVIDE PROOF WHEN DONE
Directions
FORMAT: This final exam requires you to write two short essays. Each essay should be about 600 words each.
WHATS BEING ASSESSED: This exam is testing your knowledge of the course material and your level of intellectual engagement with the course material. You should edit and proofread all essays, making sure your writing is clear. However, your focus should be on demonstrating your knowledge and engagement with the course content, not just your writing skill. While these two things are related, its important that you write in your own personal voice and demonstrate what you learned by citing details from the texts and lectures.
GRADING / ASSESSMENT: Your exam will be graded based on a 16-point rubric assessing your engagement and writing across four categories: topic development, writing conventions, engagement with historical and cultural context, and analysis and close reading skills. Grading both essays togetheras a single examprovides us with a more accurate assessment of your engagement with the course material across two different questions. The final exam is worth 16 points. If you submit only one question, the highest score you can receive is 8 out of 16. Make sure that you answer both questions in their entirety.
ESSAY FOCUS / REQUIREMENTS: Please read the instructions for each essay carefully. Also, please note that you may not overlap in terms of the primary texts or units you discuss in each essay. That means that if you discuss a fairy tale in Essay #1, you cannot discuss a fairy tale in Essay #2. No overlap of texts or units. In total, youll need to discuss at least 3-4 separate literary works from 3-4 separate units.
ORGANIZATION: Both essays should have a very short introduction that mentions the texts youll discuss and articulates your argument / the content of the essay in specific terms. After that, you should write two or three body paragraphs. (No need for a conclusion.) Remember that the goal of these essays is to demonstrate your knowledge and insight, not just writing skill.
DUE DATE / EXTENSIONS: You can complete this exam any time in the exam windowthat is, any time before 5/7 at 11:59 p.m. The submission portal for the exam will close on 5/7. If you have an emergency / crisis, please be in touch. But since the exam window is open for four weeks, no last-minute extensions will be granted.
EXAM SUBMISSION: You will submit this final exam on Canvas through Turnitin; the portal will open on 4/2. In your final exam document, make sure that you clearly label each essay question. Please upload a single document that includes both essay questions together.
AI PROHIBITION: AI is not permitted at any stage in this exami.e. at the brainstorming stage, writing stage, or editing stage. (As with all assignments in the course, prohibited AI platforms include editing extensions that rewrite / polish your writing.) Please note that you will submit your exams through Turnitin, and exams may be run through additional AI-detection software. If you are found to have used AI at any stage in the process for any essay answer, you will receive a 0 on the entire exam. Please note that it is better to leave a question blank or to write a short essay than to ask AI to write it for you. A few typos and grammatical errors are okay; using AI to edit your writing is prohibited.
SOURCES / OUTSIDE SOURCES: Please make use of all course material while taking this exam (specifically course texts, your notes, and the Video Assignment videos), but do not use ANY outside sources while taking and writing this exam.
CITATIONS: All quotations and direct references to texts, lectures, and videos should include an in-text citation with page number, time stamp, etc. A Works Cited page is not required. Please use whatever citation format you wish; we wont deduct points for improper citation, but we will deduct points for not including page numbers, lecture titles, etc.
WRITING CENTER: All students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the Writing Center to plan, develop, write, and revise their essays. The is a friendly space that provides individualized feedback and support to help Southern Miss students succeed with writing assignments for any class. The Centers offer one-to-one consultations for any stage of the process, including brainstorming, creating an outline, revising, editing strategies, and more. In-person and online appointments are available. To make an appointment, visit and create an account.
EXAM QUESTIONS
Reminder: you must complete both essays
Please upload a single document that includes both essay questions.
ESSAY 1: HISTORICAL & CULTURAL CONTEXT
A primary purpose of the Video Assignments was to demonstrate how understanding cultural and historical contexts can deepen our appreciation of literature. Literature isnt produced in a vacuum and understanding the context of a work is key to effective reading and analysis.
The Video Assignments allowed us to askand begin to answervarious questions: How can understanding Zen Buddhism allow us to appreciate details in Bashos haiku poetry? How can we trace the transformation of gender codes in fairy tales? How can understanding ancient samurai allow us to appreciate In a Bamboo Grove? How can understanding the history of writing help us to appreciate the tablets and narrative of Gilgamesh? How can understanding Western beliefs about the Orient help us to read The Arabian Nights more closely?
Think back to a video assignment that, by offering historical or cultural context, allows us to reassess or more deeply understand the assigned reading from that unit. The ideal choice will be a video that, by offering historical or cultural context, helps to explain an aspect of a text that otherwise might not make sense or otherwise might not seem important.
In 600-650 words, discuss the cultural / historical context addressed in your chosen video, and explain how that context allows us to better understand the assigned literature from that unit. You will focus on one specific text or perhaps two texts for those units in which multiple texts were featured (i.e., fairy tales, the Black Atlantic, etc.).
In your discussion you must:
- Include an introduction in which you briefly mention the video and text youll discuss and summarize the argument youll make about how the video helps us to better understand the assigned reading from that unit.
- Follow the introduction with 2-3 body paragraphs in which you analyze and flesh out your argument
- Integrate a quote from your chosen video, including a video reference and time reference (e.g. At 12:48 in VIDEO TITLE HERE, X explains).
- Specifically, and thoughtfully, discuss the literary work that the video allows us to understand more deeply, explaining how specific information in the video can impact, expand, or challenge our interpretation of the text.
- Include 1-2 short quotes from the literary text under discussion. Make sure to cite page numbers and to incorporate your quotes into your own writing, using them to illustrate how the video deepens your understanding of the text.
Additional Notes:
- Your essay must focus on a different text and different unit than Essay #2.
- You may choose a video by Dr. Carey or one of the videos included in the Video Assignments that were produced by outside sources.
ESSAY 2: GENRE & FORMAL ANALYSIS
Another primary purpose of the Video Assignments was to demonstrate how analyzing different genres, forms, and techniques can deepen our appreciation of literature and storytelling. Think about the variety of different genres that we covered: parables, paradoxes, serial narratives, short stories, fairy tales, epic narrative, comics, graphic novels, haiku, haibun, poetry, satire, Greek drama, Greek mythology, interactive fiction, algorithmic literature, and science fiction, among others. And these are just the genres. We also discovered that genres utilize different forms and techniquescliff hangers, Greek chorus, panel transitions, worldbuilding, etc.
In this essay, select two literary texts from the course and think about the relationship between their form and contentbetween what they are about and how they are written. In terms of genre, style, and structure, which texts were most memorable to you, and why? Did you find any text especially confusing or thought-provoking on a purely formal levelthat is, as a way of expressing and communicating its message?
In 600650 words, discuss the formal dimensions of two different literary texts, and explain and analyze how specific formal features were utilized in these texts to express a specific meaning, story, emotion, idea, or perspective. As always, the key here is to be specific.
In your discussion you must:
- Include a short introduction in which you briefly mention the texts that youll discuss and the argument youll make about how each utilizes different formal features.
- Follow the introduction with 2-3 body paragraphs (likely one for each text, but you can organize the essay however you wish).
- Include specific analysis of your chosen formal features, explaining in detail why you think they are significant to understanding how the text works and expresses meaning. Successful essays will focus on just a few formal features, rather than listing a bunch of them.
- Given how much Dr. Carey discussed matters of form, you are strongly encouraged to include a specific reference to Video Assignment material. If you do so, please cite the moment that you engage with or respond to (e.g. At 12:48 in VIDEO TITLE HERE, X explains). You may cite one of Dr. Careys lecture videos or any other video included in the Video Assignments.
Additional Notes:
- Your essay must focus on a different unit and different literary texts than Essay #1.
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