<p>I am going to be attending rutgers nb this fall. I hv heard that it is impossible to get a B+/A in expos writing. Is that true or no? What do u think I shud do to get a high grade in this class? thanks</p>
<p>My son got an A, but the first couple of papers he maybe got an F and a C. It was shocking, but they want you to write their way. If you do a search for expos on this board, you will see several posts about it. The last 3 papers are what counts towards your grade so take good advantage of those first 2 ‘practice papers’ by finding out what your teacher is looking for.</p>
<p>The crucial point is to keep up with the readings. Do them as assigned for class, not the day of, or the day after. Highlight quotes that you think is important or interesting, or that the teacher points out in class. </p>
<p>Go to class and take notes. The teacher will give you hints about the texts!!! My son would have trouble thinking of what to write about, and I would tell him to go back to his notes from class. Oh yeah…!</p>
<p>Make a list of your quotes from the various works and see how you can apply them to the writing prompt. Find things that relate to each other, as well as the writing prompt. </p>
<p>Write the required amount of pages. If teacher says 3, don’t write 2, and don’t write it at 2am the night before. Force yourself to go into detail about one of your ideas. Sometimes it may feel like you have nothing more to say, but usually, you will have too much to say and will have to find things to edit.</p>
<p>When the teacher gives you back your rough draft with notes, <strong>make the appropriate revisions</strong>. I can’t emphasize that enough. You may have to rewrite large areas of your paper, if not all of it. That is the point of this class. Once you accept that, it will be much easier. </p>
<p>Midterms and finals are essay writing in class, but they will grade you leniently.</p>
<p>Don’t summarize. </p>
<p>I don’t guarantee you an A, but if you do those things, it will be hard not to at least get a B. Most of the class will be rebelling, saying they can’t think of any more ideas, not writing the full amount, etc etc, so that makes you look better right there. </p>
<p>Teacher will give you a formula: intro to the quote, quote, explanation, close reading, repeat. Something like that. Teacher will ask, ‘how does this text support, contradict, or complicate the other text?’ Pick a view and stick with it. Sometimes it’s not all black and white though, and the teacher will appreciate if you can say, ‘although text 1 supports text 2, this feature complicates it, and makes me think…’ (write about your thoughts on the matter.) If you do what the teacher says, it’s hard to go too wrong. It’s pretty formulaic; you’re not writing a great novel.</p>
<p>It will seem tedious and repetitive at times, but that’s how you learn. It will make it easier for you to write future papers. It will become second nature.</p>
<p>I thought expos was fascinating in the way it taught my son to explain his thoughts. It really did help.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Expos is just as rualum mentioned. It’s formulaic and very confined, forcing you to write in a sort of exploratory and analytic style. If you follow what they preach, word for word, you are almost guaranteed to get a grade higher than a B, regardless of skills.</p>
<p>I didn’t succumb to the guidelines and I went my own route, which got me a B+. I told my teacher in one of our one-on-one meetings that I thought the “Expos” style was an abortion of a technique, and basically said I will continue with my ways. Needless to say, she wasn’t happy. In hindsight, I suppose I should of just accepted the terms and wrote in the style they requested, but it ended up “OK” for me. </p>
<p>So yeah, definitely stick to the program with Expos if you want an A. Also, your grade is highly variable on the teacher. My friend didn’t even have to go to class, he submitted all of his papers via Sakai, and got an easy B without trying.</p>
<p>This class will teach you how to write a paper for college, suitable for class assignments. S1 wrote papers for other classes he took after Expos and also got As on these papers. S2 used the format to write an AP English paper and got an A. So being able to write in this format is a decent skill to have.</p>