Final Exam Format: In-Class Essays

The Final Exam format will include two essays to be written in class. You can use your dictionary, and you can bring a vocabulary list (for words we've learned in class that you want to try to use in the final exam) and a set of notes. (Your notes should fit on one side of one page of notebook paper. Do not write part of your essay as your notes.) The essay has to be written in class, though.

--You should plan to write for an hour for each essay, but you have all three hours to complete the exam. There will be an extra credit in-class essay for those who have the time and inclination to write one.

Here is the first exam prompt: Music

Earlier, you were asked to describe a piece of music or a type of music that you enjoy as part of your oral exam. Now, you will write about a piece of music or type of music that you enjoy. Preferably, you should write about music with lyrics, but if you prefer classical music or do not care at all about lyrics, you can write just about the music.

Your paper should concentrate on the power of the lyrics: why are the song lyrics good? What metaphors and images do they use? You will need to talk about the lyrics in English, but the song does not have to be in English. You may translate the song at home and bring a translation of the song lyrics to the final exam.

If you don't want to write about lyrics, your paper should follow a similar format as the second oral exam: describe what the music sounds like, and describe what effect the music has on you and how it creates that effect.


Second Paper Exam Prompt: Media

Choose one of the following prompts
1. Although The Simpsons is a cartoon, it is surprisingly vulgar. A lot of the jokes on the TV show are about taboo issues such as sex, death, drug use, etc. Does the type of humor used in The Simpsons reflect a fundamental difference between American and Taiwanese cultures? Can Taiwanese television and cinema use similar types of humor? If American and Taiwanese culture are very different, how are you able to understand the jokes on The Simpsons and enjoy them?

To write this paper, describe some of your favorite jokes or events from the Simpsons episodes that we watched this semester. Describe an episode that you thought was funny, or describe a set of jokes over several episodes that you thought were funny.

After these descriptions, answer some more abstract, difficult questions: Why did you enjoy these things? What about the show reflected some truths about American culture or the differences between Taiwanese and American culture?

--Try your best to answer all of these questions. Your score depends on how clearly you write, how well you describe the aspects of The Simpsons that you enjoyed, and how well you answer the more abstract questions. You can still get a very good score if you are able to describe what you liked but don't have the time or language skills to answer the more abstract questions.

2. Yi Yi
Write a clearly structured (Intro, Body, Conclusion) brief essay about the film Yi Yi. You can follow any of the questions that I asked in the course handout, you can continue with some of the thoughts that you had at the third oral exam, or you can discuss something new. You may talk about the film, or you might compare the film to another Taiwanese film or book or television show that addresses similar issues (family, maturity, regret, death, etc.). Decide what you will write about before class, bring an outline of the essay to the final, and write the essay.

--Your score depends on how clearly you write and how thoroughly you describe your ideas and observations about the movie.

Conclusion

Over the next week, I will post some Simpsons vocabulary and some short paragraphs and essays on the course website. The paragraphs and essays can be used for reading practice or to give you some ideas about what to write at the final exam; you are free to ignore these if you want.