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Core 269-A Final Examination Instruction Sheet

Fall, 2017 1

Core 269-A: War in the Christian Tradition Fall, 2017

Final Examination Instruction Sheet

The final examination accounts for 25% of your course grade. Your examination must be submitted

as a single MS Word™ or pdf document via Moodle no later than 12:05 AM Monday, December 11.

If you foresee being unable to meet this deadline, you must speak to me before the end of class on

Thursday, November 28 about the possibility of an extension. Except in cases of dire, verifiable

emergencies, the submission deadline is otherwise absolute. Early submissions are most welcome

and may be made any time after 7:00 AM on Wednesday, December 6. As always, be sure to save

an electronic copy of your work in the unlikely event there is a problem with the network or I

somehow manage to lose track of your file.

The examination consists of three questions. You are to answer any one of them in a well-crafted

essay of about 4-6 pages. Your responses should be typed in a 12-point font and should be double-

spaced with one inch margins. Here are some important things to keep in mind as you prepare your

examination:

 Carefully read these instructions, and then read each of the questions. Be sure that you write clearly and precisely, and that you directly and completely respond to the prompt or

question being asked. Each question asks you to do a particular thing, so attend especially

to the verbs in the prompts/questions, such as “explain,” “defend,” “apply,” or “analyze.”

 The examination questions are “synthetic,” meaning they ask you to think broadly about the course and to make connections from across the entire semester. You must craft your

answers with sufficient detail to show me that you know the relevant course material. Every

semester, students write responses that are vague, superficial, and lacking in necessary

detail (the technical term for this is “half-assing”), and every semester, students are

unpleasantly surprised when they see that their course grade is lower than they anticipated.

Don’t let this be you.

 The examination is open-book and open-note, and you are free to use any of the assigned (required or recommended) readings, including material we may not have covered directly

in class. If there is something you’ve read or learned in another course (or on your own) that

you feel will be helpful in writing your answer, you may use it pending my approval. If there

are words in a question that you do not understand, you may use the Oxford English

Dictionary to learn their meaning. Unless otherwise noted in a particular question, you

should not use any other sources without approval, including sources from the internet, to

formulate your answers.

o Do use relevant course materials—that is, the assigned readings—in the service of your thesis.

o Do not simply throw information from random texts at me. Use relevant materials. o Do not rely strictly on the PowerPoint slides. If the only knowledge you can marshal

is parroted from the slides, you will likely receive a mediocre grade.

Core 269-A Final Examination Instruction Sheet

Fall, 2017 2

 Read the posted grading rubric to get a more precise sense of what I’ll be looking for as I read your examination.

 Make every effort to avoid all forms of plagiarism. If you quote or paraphrase published material, be certain to cite it (including page numbers) using any of the accepted forms of

academic citation (You do not need to cite my lectures, but if you quote any of the PPt

slides—which you should do sparingly—you do need to cite quotations from other authors).

A bibliography/works cited page is unnecessary. If I discover that you have plagiarized on

your examination, you will receive a grade of zero on the examination and I will refer you to

the academic integrity officer.

 Although I will not deduct points from your grade simply for errors of grammar, punctuation, or spelling, you should still do your best to write clearly and precisely. If I cannot understand

what you are trying to say, I cannot give your answer full credit. Just so, you are free to utilize

the services of the Writing Center or ask a friend who is not a member of the class to listen

to your writing. By all means, proofread your work before submitting it.

 Given the nature of this exercise, I will not review drafts before submission. I will, however, try to answer questions of clarification about anything you may not understand fully.

 Format your examination as follows:

 If you have questions or encounter difficulties along the way, feel free to contact me via email or office telephone. Please remember that I will be in the hospital and unavailable

from early morning on Monday, December 4 until at least the late afternoon of Wednesday,

December 6. I you email me during that time, you may have to wait until Thursday or Friday

for a response, depending on how much pain medication I am taking.

Your name

Core 269-A

Question X (let ‘X’ designate the number of the question you have chosen to answer)

Please use a standard, 12-point font and double space your essays. Keep a running footer with your

last name on the left and the page number on the right.