General Diagnostics if you did not do well on the exam:
How is your attendance? Don't expect to do well on the exam if you skip class. Even if you
have the notes from the website or from a friend.
How is your class participation? Without it, your knowledge is passive. The exam requires an
active knowledge of the material. Responding during class discussion allows you to get used
to an active response and the response of others (including me) gives you new angles on ways
to interpret discourse.
You may want to use my office hours more. Bring discourse that you are having trouble
analyzing and let me check you out.
You simply are not studying hard enough, particularly in memorizing important elements of the
course.
Try to locate what you consider the most important things in each chapter.
The website should help as will the normal clues in the books. Learn these
key ideas.
Make some flashcards with questions on one side and answers on the back. Use them to help
you master these facts.
Note that several of the multiple choice were, in fact, definitions, so follow the advice for
defining terms.
These questions get at the systems of vocabulary in the course.
Make a list of the systems of vocabulary that you need to master. Compare
this list of systems with other student's lists.
There are (1) terms, (2) definitions, and (3) examples. (Seldom will I ask
for definitions, but they will help you master the lists.) Make a chart for
each system.
System for Analyzing Audiences
Term
Definition
Example
Take a newspaper and analyze the editorial page. Use the terms and find
examples of the strategies they capture.
Study with others. One of you take a piece of discourse and analyze it using some system of
vocabulary that you have learned. Others listen and then critique the answer. Maybe someone
else tries to do the same analysis and you talk about differences.
Speak up in class when we are looking at discourse. I will respond to your analysis with
suggestions.
The key to mastering this is to look at lots of discourse.
If you had trouble with the fill-in, definitions, and short answer, but
not with multiple choice:
You are learning to recognize the right answers, but having trouble generating them from
memory.
Make yourself a list of key terms. Write out your definitions of those terms on the paper.
Compare them to the correct answers or have a classmate critique them for you.
Do a similar exercise for systems of vocabulary. Make a list of the systems you have learned
on a piece of paper. Reproduce the terminology that makes up the system. Define each of
those terms on the paper. Compare your answers with the text or have a classmate look at
them.
If you had trouble on the fill-in or short answer, but not on the
other "objective" parts of the exam:
You are mastering the terms individually, but not thinking about their relationship to each
other.
Make flash cards for each term. On one side, place the term. On the other side, place
associated terms and their relationship to the main term.
As you study each term, produce its definition, but also think about what terms associate with
it.
In your group study, do an association game. One member of the group offers a term. The
next member must give an associated term and explain the relationship. The group judges
whether they are correct or not. You can figure out a scoring system, can't you?
If you had trouble on the essay exam but not on the "objective"
exam:
You are learning to recognize the vocabulary and to define it but not to use it.
How's your attendance? When you are in class do you participate? This is a typical pattern
for people who study but do not participate in class.
You need to work with lots of discourse. Analyze the Diamondback or Washington Post
editorial page.
The Nonprint media center has some videotapes of speeches. (Using VICTOR do a word
search for "video" "great" and "speeches") Look at those speeches and analyze them using the
things you are learning.
Get a group together around a videotape or with a newspaper. Have one person analyze a
piece of discourse. Let the others critique the analysis. Have someone else try the same piece.