Special Writing Situations

SECTION
Special Writing Situations
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LESSON
Essay Exams
LESSON SUMMARY
Does the thought of an essay exam make your palms
sweat, your heart beat fast, and your stomach upset?
This lesson will show you how to take an essay exam
without fear. You’ll learn a step-by-step approach to
tackling any essay exam.
he best thing you can do to prepare for an essay exam is to think about the purpose of the exam,
and the purpose of many essay exams is to test whether you have learned the material or not. These
are the types of exams you are likely to have in your science, history, or psychology classes. For these exams,
you will need to focus on the material you learned in class and in your textbook. In a composition class, the
purpose of an essay exam will be to test your writing skills. For this kind of essay, you should put more empha-
sis on the form and style of your writing.
Here are some types of essay exams you will
probably encounter while in school.
➧ The questions on a literature essay exam will test
whether you have read and thought about the read-
ing assignments in the class. They might ask if you
can relate the different aspects of the reading
assignments to each other or to your life. Or, you
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might be asked if you can interpret the plot and the
characters’ actions.
➧ The questions on a science essay exam will test
whether you have learned certain facts and under-
stand certain processes. Can you list relevant facts
objectively? Can you draw conclusions from given
facts?
➧ The essays on a history essay exam will expect you
to recall events and dates and interpret them. What
happened when? Why does it matter? What did it
lead to?

Although the quality of your writing is always important on
an essay exam, it can’t save you if you haven’t studied the
material covered on the exam. Knowing the material will
give you something to write about. Without that knowledge,
it will be hard to answer the questions. The main job in
preparing for an essay exam in many of your classes will
have more to do with learning the material than with
writing.
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S
TARTING THE
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EST
Before you ever start writing your response to an essay question, you need to do these things:
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Read over the entire test. Read the directions carefully, and preview all the questions on the test.
Start thinking about which question you will answer first. It’s a good idea to start with questions
that are worth the most points or questions that seem the easiest for you to answer. Don’t panic if
you don’t immediately know all the answers. As you go through the test and as you do the next few
steps, the answers will probably come to you—if you are prepared for the test.
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Budget the time you have for the test according to the questions. For example, you might want to
give more time to questions worth more points. You’ll want to make sure you have time to answer
all of the questions.
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Break down each question. Look for the direction words. A helpful list of these words is in Lesson 1.
Example: Assume you come across the following essay question on a biology exam: Compare and
contrast aerobic exercise and resistance exercise. What are the benefits of each kind of exercise? Give exam-
ples of each kind of exercise.
What do you need to do to answer this question?

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Tell how aerobic exercise and resistance exercise are alike and different
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Tell the benefits of aerobic exercise and resistance exercise
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LESSON 13 Essay Exams
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Give examples of aerobic exercises and resistance exercises
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Start thinking about your responses. You might jot down your ideas about each question or
sketch a quick outline on scratch paper. Plan your answers wisely because you will probably have
little or even no time to revise your essays. Make sure you address each part of each question.
Example: Let’s assume that you studied aerobic exercise and resistance exercise in your biology
class. In fact, there is a section in your textbook about these two kinds of exercises. Based on your
study, you might jot down the following notes.
Aerobic—jogging, swimming, cycling
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Improves body’s ability to use oxygen
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Helps heart pump more efficiently
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Leads to greater endurance
Resistance—weight-lifting, chin ups, push ups
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Increases strength
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Does not increase body’s endurance
PRACTICE

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Use the following excerpt from a business textbook to answer the questions that follow.
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The Americans with Disabilities Act
On July 26, 1990, President Bush signed the Americans with Dis-
abilities Act (ADA) into law. One of the principal aims of the
ADA is to extend the civil rights protection provided to groups
based on race, color, national origin, sex, and religion to the more
than 43 million American citizens with disabilities. The pro-
tection provided in the ADA aims to increase the wage rate and
the employment rate of disabled individuals by eliminating
employer discrimination.
Definitions of the ADA’s Terms
Title I of the ADA prohibits employers from discriminating
against qualified individuals with disabilities. It requires covered
employers to provide reasonable accommodation to the known
mental or physical limitations of a qualified person with a dis-
ability, unless doing so would create an undue hardship on the
employer. The meaning of the basic terms used to define Title
I of the ADA are discussed below.
Employer
The term employer in the ADA refers to private employers,
employment agencies, state and local governments, and labor
organizations. Covered employers do not include the United
States government, a corporation wholly owned by the United
States, or a Native American tribe.
Discrimination

Discrimination includes limiting, segregating, or classifying
a job applicant or employee in a way that adversely affects his
or her opportunities or status based on the person’s disability.
The ADA specifically covers job application procedures; hiring,
advancement, and discharge procedures; compensation and
benefit packages; and job training.
Disability
A person with a disability is defined in the ADA as an indi-
vidual who meets one of the following criteria: (1) has a phys-
ical or mental impairment, which may be apparent or hidden,
that substantially limits one or more of the individual’s major
life activities, such as walking, seeing, speaking, or the ability to
perform manual tasks; (2) has a record of such an impairment,
such as a recovery from mental illness; or (3) is regarded as having
such an impairment. An impairment does not include physical
characteristics; predisposition to illness; pregnancy; personality
traits that are not the result of a psychological disorder;
environmental, cultural, or educational disadvantages; or
advanced age.
1. Assume you come across the following essay questions on a business exam.What task does each ques-
tion require you to do?
a. What is the ADA? Who is covered by the ADA? Who is not?
b. What does the term disability mean in the ADA? Give examples of who does and does not qual-
ify as a person with a disability.
c. What are some aims of the ADA? What kinds of processes does the ADA cover?
2. Choose one of the essay questions in 1 above. Then, use the information in the excerpt to sketch a
quick outline of what you might include in your response.
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D
RAFTING

Y
OUR
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NSWER
Now it’s time to write. Most of your time should be spent on writing your essays.You know these steps already,
but here they are again.
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Write a thesis statement. A quick way to write a thesis statement is to turn an essay question into
its answer. Whatever your thesis statement, make sure it answers the question and that you can
support it. Use your outline or the notes you sketched out to help you formulate a good thesis
statement that you can support.
Example: Write a possible thesis sentence for the following essay question on a biology exam: Com-
pare and contrast aerobic exercise and resistance exercise. What are the benefits of each kind of exercise?
Give examples of each kind of exercise. Remember, you are working on a biology essay exam, so you
want to focus on objective, factual statements.You might begin with a thesis statement like this one:
Both aerobic exercise and resistance exercise benefit the body.
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Support your thesis. Again, your outline or prewriting notes should guide your writing. If new
ideas come to you as you write, include them as well.
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Conclude your essay. End your essay by restating your thesis statement. Add a take-home message
if you have time.
PRACTICE
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3. Write a thesis statement for each of the following essay questions. Refer to the excerpt of the busi-
ness textbook in the last practice set if you need to.

a. What is the ADA? Who is covered by the ADA? Who is not?
b. What does the term disability mean in the ADA? Give examples of who does and does not qual-
ify as a person with a disability.
c. What are some aims of the ADA? What kinds of processes does the ADA cover?
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R
EVIEWING
Y
OUR
A
NSWERS
If you have time, you should always try to review your answers. Usually, you will not have time to write mul-
tiple drafts of your essays on a timed exam. However, you should try to do the following things.
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Read each essay question again and make sure you have answered the question. Check that you
have answered all parts of the question, not just the first part.
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Add any ideas that you might have forgotten the first time. As you read, you might see ways to
complement your original answer. You probably won’t have time to rewrite your first essay, but
you can add to it.
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Check your essay for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage errors. You can review these
common errors in Lesson 10.
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It’s important to prepare for an essay exam. The
night before the exam, you might feel the urge
to stay up all night cramming facts into your head.

Think twice before you do this. Staying up all night
can make you tired and slow-thinking by the time of
the test. Here’s a better approach when preparing for
an essay exam.
➧ Study in advance. You’ll be more likely to understand
the material and know how to use it in your essays.
➧ Get plenty of rest, especially the night before the test.
You’ll want to be well-rested and on your toes for the
test.
➧ Eat a good breakfast the morning of the test. You’ll
need the energy for the test. You don’t want to deal
with a growling stomach throughout an essay exam.
➧ Relax. You can do it!
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