In a well-organized essay, discuss what your own and others' apparel
tells you about yourself and about the society of which you are a part.
Support your views with details from your observations, your experience,
and your academic studies.
PROMPT #2: Recently, many cities and counties have passed legislation
limiting smoking in places of business and in public buildings.
In a well-organized essay to be read by faculty, discuss the arguments
both for and against limiting smoking in such places as private business
offices, public buildings, and airplanes. Explain your position on this
issue. What kind of law makes sense to you? Support your viewpoint with
examples and details drawn from your observations, your experience, and
your academic studies.
PROMPT #3: Census reports indicate that at least 98% of Americans
have daily access to television. Needless to say, then, television plays
a significant part in the life of our culture. In the frequent discussions
about the power the television industry exercises over us, there is considerable
disagreement over whether television is a constructive or a destructive
force in American life.
Decide what side you take in the debate. In a well-organized essay, discuss
how television affects our lives and reflects our American values, supporting
your viewpoint with examples and details from your observation, your experience,
and your academic studies.
The prompt (the discussion question) for each exam will call on you
to use general knowledge; it is introduced in such a way as to stimulate
your thinking on a topic, and then you are directed to write an essay dealing
with some aspect of the topic.
Though you may find it easier to generate illustrations and examples
for topics you have researched in the past, the readers do not expect you
to demonstrate mastery of the subject. They do expect you to have the knowledge
of a well-informed adult. They do expect you to present a coherent and
well- organized argument in clear prose.
To get practice, use these questions to practice for the exam. Simulate
the UWR by:
- observing a total writing time of only one hour, but trying to use
the whole hour productively, rather than stopping after finishing your
draft;
- using only a dictionary and a writing handbook for assistance;
- limiting your writing to a maximum of three eight and a half by eleven
inch pages.
- getting feedback at the Writing Center or elsewhere.
The UWR Advisory Committee selects prompts for the writing requirement essays.
The primary concern is to provide prompts that will be of interest for both
students and faculty readers and that will encourage effective written discussion
by students of diverse backgrounds and abilities.
While attempting to provide fair prompts that give each student an equal opportunity
to demonstrate writing competence, the committee bases decisions on the following
considerations:
- Topics will be appropriate to the knowledge, interests, and experience
of college students who have earned sixty hours.
- Topics and prompts will avoid age, sex, and cultural bias in language
and context. The language of the prompt will avoid terms which could be
considered unique to the dominant American culture.
- Prompts that require cultural analysis will recognize the diversity of
cultures within EKU's student population.
- Emotionally-charged issues that could influence grading fairness will
be avoided.
EKU | College
| Department
| Courses | Writing
Center
URL: http://www.english.eku.edu/uwr/info/info11.htm
Maintained by: Sherry Robinson
Last updated: 19 October 2004