The Preparation:

In the article "New Elitism: The College Class,” author Bettijane Levine presents some of society’s views about people who do not have a college degree. She begins her article by explaining how society embraces the idea of a college education. She states that parents want their children to have a college education in order to be successful.  Many corporations use the “diploma test” to gauge potential employees. However, critics of this attitude (that a college degree is necessary) say that “education need not be synonymous with college: You can be an educated person without a degree.”

Sample Writing Assignment:

For your two to four page essay, evaluate some of the ideas in Levine’s article. Many of the people quoted in the article have various opinions about the true value of a college degree.

In order to develop your essay, you can explore several facets of the article. You might agree with parts of the reading and disagree with other parts; in other words you could find merit to both sides of the issue. Regardless of how you choose to develop your essay, you must use clear, specific examples to support what you mean.  Your examples should be detailed and should reflect your understanding of the topic. In addition, the essay should be effectively organized and easy to follow. It is important, too, that you give credit to the article when you use ideas from it.

Evaluation Criteria:  The readers will use the following criteria in order to evaluate your essay.  Asking yourself these questions will help you meet the standards for this exam.

1.Does my essay present a clear thesis?
2. Are all of my points developed with clear support?
3.Is my essay logical?  Does it make sense, and are my ideas reasonable?
4.Have I given credit to the article when I used ideas from it?
5.Is my paper organized effectively, both overall, and within each discussion section?
6. Is my paper focused on the topic?  Have I stayed on topic throughout the essay?
7. Are my grammar, spelling, and word usage up to the standards needed for a writing exit exam?