The first part of the examination will be this Wednesday, as I explained in the last class. Just to remind you, I expect to see that you have chosen a question from the list of questions (see the last post), that you have done some independent research (you can show me your notes to demonstrate this), that you have brainstormed to generate diverse ideas (again, I expect to see notes to show this), that you have chosen a central claim for your essay and that you have begun to plan it.

In order to be very clear then, what you need to show me in the class on Wednesday is the following. Please bring everything to class. You do not need to hand it in, but I want to see it and to discuss it with each one of you.

• evidence of research (notes, statistics, web addresses, etc.)
• evidence of brainstorming (lists of ideas, diagrams, flow charts, etc.)
• your planned central claim (the ‘thesis statement’ that will form the basis of your argument - this should be one sentence)
• an outline plan of the essay (a list of paragraphs with notes on the content)

You do not need to write the essays for this week. I want to talk through your plans with you before you write the final draft.

 OK - good luck! If you have any questions, please post them here.