Tuesday, November 8, 2011

In Absentia

Good Day College Writers:

Today, unless Gary Canter steals you away, you have a straight-up writing assignment. I'm attaching an AP sample exam (an example of the kinds of essay you would be assignme in a freshman writing composition class) with three questions. You'll do the first question today, start the second, finish it and do the third on Thursday. Please print a copy for yourself as soon as you get this e-mail. Yes, it's (Eeek!) 12 pages.

The assigned time is 40 minutes, but you may break up the time as you wish, given that we have a total of three hours over two days instead of the two required by the AP examiners.

I will grade this as classwork--in other words a quiz grade--and the rubric is contained in the instructions. So I know that you know the details of the instructions/rubric, you will underline or highlight all the instructions that pertain to the readers' expectations. As usual, though I expect a more sophisticated effort from the seniors, that's no reason for the junior to rest on his laurels.

All three questions are interesting topics and you can do them in any order you like.

I'll forward a copy of this e-mail to Kate, whom I believe is monitoring the class this afternoon.

Have fun.

Update: to reach the assignment from here, click here, then click on the top 2011 Free-Response Questions Link for a pdf download.