Comprehensive Senior Exams

 

 

Written Comprehensives

All graduating seniors must pass a written comprehensive examination and an oral examination. The procedure for writtens is as follows:

1. Seniors sign up for their written examinations. Each year, the English Department prints  

    up a reading list for these examinations. There are a total of three written exams: one

    genre exam and two period exams. The period exams are proctored blue book exams, and

    students can select which period exams they wish to take.  At least one of the period exams

    must be in a British period. To select period exams, students fill out a selection form and

    return it to the Department Chair. Fall candidates must make their selections by Monday,

    May 16, 2011. Spring candidates must make their selections by Monday, September 5,

    2011. The genre exam is a take-home exam. The assigned genre of the genre exam will

    change each year, and the genre for the upcoming year will be announced on Reading Day

    at the end of  the Spring Semester. The take-home genre exam must be 2000-2500 words

    in length.

2. Students must prepare well for their examinations; the faculty recommend that rising seniors begin reading and studying the works on the written comprehensive reading lists during the summer preceding their senior year. Students should choose period examinations corresponding to literary periods in which they have done course work or which they know well through individual reading and study.  They should prepare for the exams by expanding and deepening their knowledge of the period through their reading of the primary and secondary works on the period lists.  To prepare for the genre exam, students should not only read and study the primary and secondary works on the reading list for that exam, but should review what they have learned about the genre in question through earlier course work in the major. 

 

3. The members of the English Department will prepare examination questions and set dates for the exams. Written examinations for December candidates will be Wednesday and Thursday, September 21 and 22, 2011.  The in-class period exams will be scheduled on the first two days of the exam period. The questions for the take-home genre exam will be distributed by email on Friday, September 23, at 9:00 a.m.  The take home genre exam will be due Sunday, September 25 by 4:00 p.m.  

 

4. For May candidates written examinations will be Wednesday and Thursday, January 11 and 12, 2012.  You will need to make travel plans accordingly. For May candidates, the in-class period exams will be scheduled on the first two days of the exam period. The English department will notify seniors of the exact times and locations for the period examinations. Each written examination will be two hours long and students may have an additional half hour to complete their work. Students may bring both primary and secondary texts listed on the reading lists with them to the in-class exams. The questions for the take-home genre exam will be distributed via email at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, January 13, 2011, and it will be due in CLEo drop box no later than 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 15, 2012. Should you encounter any technical problems posting the exam to CLEo, you may send it in as an attachment by email to Pat Sorenson at sorenson@whitman.edu,  No extensions will be given. Ensure you keep a copy of your take-home genre exam as you will be using it to formulate your argument for the oral exam.

 

5. Each examination will be graded by at least two professors. Grades will be reported as "Pass with Distinction," "Pass," and "Fail." Students who fail have often not demonstrated that they have read the major works or authors in the period or have only a superficial knowledge of the period or genre. Some fail because they are unorganized or have not adequately addressed a question as it was asked. The Chair of the Department will mail the results as soon as all the results are available.

6.   Those who fail one or more of these written examinations will have an opportunity to make up these examinations at a later date--in the fall, usually during the week after Thanksgiving break; in the spring, usually the Wednesday or Thursday after spring.

 

7.   You will not be eligible to take your oral exam until you have passed your take-home genre exam.

 

 

Oral Comprehensives

Seniors must also pass an oral examination. Students are eligible to take the oral exam only after passing their written take-home genre exam. This exam will require them to engage further with the take-home genre exam reading list.

1.  About three or four weeks after the writtens exams are complete you will take an oral exam. In the first twenty minutes of this exam you will present to a committee comprised of three faculty members an argument that assesses and reconceives the argument you made in answer to  a question on the take-home genre exam. This reevaluation of your argument will involve the following process. Select one literary work on the genre reading list that you did not discuss in your written exam.  Focusing on this one literary work,  formulate an argument that  that does not merely reproduce the argument you presented in the written exam, but rather extends, supplements, or problematizes your original argument. This presentation should have a new clear and compelling thesis and supporting argument that is proven through a close reading of carefully selected passages from the selected work. Your examiners will be evaluating the originality of your presentation as well as the quality, complexity and clarity of your argument.

2. Presentations should be no more than 20 minutes long. You may use note cards or an outline and the text as a prompt but must not read a written-out paper or report from the cards. Neither should you present a memorized presentation. After the presentation, the faculty members on the committee will, for the remaining 35-40 minutes, ask questions. You might expect to be asked to defend your new argument, to discuss or further complicate your argument in your take-home exam, or to consider alternative readings. You might also be asked to answer questions based on passages from primary or secondary works from the reading list that you did not bring up in your oral presentation or written exam.

 3.  You can begin preparing for the oral exam as soon as you have completed your take-home genre exam. Please ensure you keep a copy of your submitted written exam in a safe and accessible place, as you will want to use it as a starting point for your new oral argument. Here are some strategies you might consider as you start to develop your presentation.

 a) Select a text from the genre exam reading list that you did not have time to grapple

with in the original exam. How does introducing and analyzing this work extend or

complicate your original idea?

b) Does this newly selected work allow you to consider an important idea you were not able to capture in your original argument due to the space limitations of your written exam.

 

c) Does this new work bring to light a crucial weakness in your original argument? If so, it might enable you to make an alternate argument.

 d) Keeping in mind that this is an exam focused on genre, consider how the literary form

of the newly selected work complicates or further illustrates your original idea.  Relevant

aspects of literary form include particulars relevant to the genre in question, such as the

narrative point of view of a short story, the act-structure of a drama, or the meter or

rhyme scheme of a poem; it may also be important to address the particular sub-genre of

the work: is it a sonnet or an ode, a tragedy or a comedy, a retold fairy tale or a modernist

story featuring an epiphany?

By 4:00pm on the day before your oral exam, please email the three members of your exam committee and let them know which literary work from the genre list will be the focus of your presentation.

Here are a few technical details that you may find helpful to know in advance:

• The orals are held in seminar rooms, and faculty sit around the table; you may choose either to sit or stand for your presentation and for the Q&A period. Do whatever makes you most comfortable.
• The presentation should be around 20 minutes in length; the Q&A will last for around 30 minutes. At that point, you'll be asked to step outside the room for a few minutes while the faculty members discuss your performance; please don't leave the vicinity, as we will emerge shortly.
• Please remember not to read your presentation from a prepared script and please do not memorize a prepared presentation.

4.  Grades given on the oral examination are "Pass with Distinction," "Pass," and "Fail."

5.  Students will likely pass this examination if they:

 

3.  
   • Show an ability to assess succinctly and effectively their own work in light of new information and to use this ability to generate new insights on literature.
   • Give an informed, original in-depth interpretation of a selected work from the genre reading list that insightfully evaluates and goes beyond the argument in the written exam.
   • Acknowledge critics from the genre reading list that are found to be useful, but do not rely excessively on secondary texts.
   • Successfully illustrate close reading practices, making sure they refer to textual details (lines, sections) as evidence for a larger argument (not just going through works line by line or section by section picking out various interesting things).
   • Speak naturally and fluently, with confidence, using the note cards only as prompts and making good use of the 20 minutes allowed for the presentation.
   • Address difficult parts of the texts they are discussing, show that they've looked up words if applicable, and demonstrate clear familiarity with the work under discussion in all its detail.
   • Show an ability to bring various works on the reading list into a fruitful conversation with one another.
   • Demonstrate a solid understanding of the literary genre at the center of the exam, and show an ability to discuss its different manifestations in variations of the genre.
   • Show a willingness to consider ideas not addressed in the presentation and an ability to think on their feet about the works discussed.  (It's also legitimate to qualify or reconsider an argument; indeed, discussion will often lead students to do this.)

6. The Department urges all students to practice their presentations out loud in front of their peers or in front of anybody who will listen. Serious problems occur when students do not know what they are going to say, do not know how long it will take, and expect to improvise from notes they have thrown together at the last minute. 

7. Oral examinations for December candidates normally occur late September to early October. Examinations for May candidates normally occur late January to mid-February

8. Students who fail the oral examination will be given a new topic and will take another oral examination no sooner than four weeks after the original exam (later for December candidates). This exam will require them to respond to a literary work on the genre reading list that they did not respond to either in the written exam or in the failed oral exam.. The members of the examining committee normally will be different from those on the original committee.

If the faculty makes any modifications to the exam format described above, they will be posted on the Department Webpage and announced on CLEo no later than July 1, 2011.

Distinction in Major Study:

Students who receive Distinction on both their written and oral examinations will be granted Distinction in Major Study, an achievement recorded on their transcripts as "Major Exam Passed with Distinction."

 

Honors in Major Study

The College Catalog lists the grade point requirements and deadlines for those seeking "Honors in Major Study." To achieve "Honors in Major Study" a student must have at least a 3.3 on all credits earned at Whitman and at least 3.5 in the major. The primary task is the preparation of a thesis--conceived, researched, and written at a level worthy of honor (at least A- level) and prepared exclusively for the satisfaction of this program--on a topic of genuine interest to the student. Students considering honors in major study should ask themselves what significant topic, author(s), or text(s) they sincerely want to explore in depth. They should consult with a member of the Department whom they would like to act as their supervising professor and reader of the thesis. The topic must be approved by the English department, which will then assign a second reader, although the final grade will be determined by the supervisor. The sooner students consult, the better; initial discussions during the second semester of the junior year can lead to profitable summer reading and to a smoother beginning in the busy fall semester of the senior year.

Candidates for "Honors in Major Study" must pass all four of the senior assessment examinations (three written exams and one oral exam), earning distinction on at least two of these examinations. If these hurdles are not passed, then students who are significantly along in the writing of their thesis may choose to complete it, earning credit for Thesis (English 497), or they may decide to abandon the thesis (if they otherwise have sufficient credits for graduation). Either option requires filing a form with the Registrar’s office.

The application process and deadlines established by the College follow:

• Discuss your ideas for an honors thesis with an English department professor who agrees to act as your supervisor.
• Prepare a written application (form available from the Registrar’s web site) describing the thesis project. Include a title, a description of the project, and a bibliography of primary and secondary works. This application must be approved by your supervising professor, your major advisor, and the English Department, so you should begin to prepare the description well before the deadline and submit it to your supervising professor no later than Monday, September 19, 2011, for those graduating in May. Note that this deadline is earlier than the College deadline. After receiving these approvals, submit the application to the Registrar’s office.
• Write your thesis so as to allow your faculty member sufficient time to read it and to suggest any necessary revisions. Establish with your supervisor such things as number of drafts, deadlines, etc.
• Meet the English department's deadline for submission of the thesis to the adviser by Friday, April 13, 2012.
• Submit the final copy of the thesis to the adviser by Friday, April 27, 2012.
• Submit the final copy of the thesis to Penrose Library by Reading Day, Wednesday, May 9, 2012.