by Judy Joyce

Created on: August 14, 2009   Last Updated: August 15, 2009

In the past, a well-known Catholic University in St. Louis, Missouri espoused the value of the essay examination to such an extent that no member of the student body could pass from Freshman year to Sophomore year without passing its Exit Exam. The theory behind this intense attention to this three hour essay exam process was a philosophy that embraced education itself. Simply put, it is of little service to the student, the university, or the society at large when a student cannot competently communicate in writing of the English language, that which the student has learned. To its credit, the university taught the entire Freshman class how to approach an essay exam and survive the rigor this communication skill demands.

CHOOSING THE TOPIC

In the example of the Exit Exam, the topic may be chosen by the examiner in a generic sense but this particular exam did allow a bit of nuance for the student as well. The students were informed what the generic topic would be. In one case, it was Greek Classics. So, the university required as a Freshman course that all students take Greek Literature. One or more of those literary examples that are the basis for Western Civilization would do more than prepare the student to be able to tackle any essay, no matter how obscure, it would also train the student about the tradition of Western culture in the process.

While initially a quite daunting thought to any student just out of High School with limited knowledge of Greek culture at all or at least very little, the university was cleverly doing more than demonstrating but actually requiring everyone to participate in the notion that a well educated person can write competently about anything at all after learning basic skills.

BASIC SKILLS

The basic skill of essay writing is to create a topic sentence. This is so true, the Greek Literature instructors would practice students on acquiring just such a competence. This went a long way toward giving the student experientially what the student knew to be facing then in the exit exam. Practicing creating topic sentences is a valuable skill. The entire essay is intended to revolve around the topic sentence. Soon, students learned that they would be given the choice of six topic sentences come Exit Exam time. The student would be expected to choose one of the six about Greek Classics and write about that for three hours on exam day.

SPELLING AND GRAMMAR

Choosing a topic sentence then leads the student to consider what to write

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