The Voice of Chaos

Weight: 30% of final grade
Time allotted: 3 hours
Delivery: online
Exam Format: written response

The Final Examination is to be taken after you have completed Chapter 14 and received grades for all ten chapter quizzes and the four assignments. The Final Examination is a closed-book examination that covers material from the entire course. There are no multiple choice or true/false questions on the examination. The examination consists of the following five parts, each worth 20 marks.

• Part One: Routine Memo
• Part Two: Routine Letter
• Part Three: Persuasive Message
• Part Four: Negative Message
• Part Five: Business Report
  

Given various scenarios, you will use the 3-X-3 Writing Process to revise and write examples of business communication.

To prepare for this examination, ensure that you have a thorough knowledge of the main forms of business communication you have studied in this course. Remember to follow the 3-X-3 Writing Process, as well as the specific strategies for each different form of business communication. If you complete all the quizzes and assignments, review the feedback you received on your assignments, and if you can achieve the learning objectives and successfully answer all the post-tests, you should be well prepared for the examination.

To pass the course, you must obtain a grade of “D” (50%) or better on the Final Examination and a composite course grade of at least “D” (50%).

Ok thats it NO multiple choice !!!

I have spent this entire class ensuring that NO ONE proof read any work that I handed in it was all done by me and handed in. So far I am getting a B in my English class. This exam TERIFIES ME!

Will there be spell check ? Can I bring a dictionary. I am regretting not checking the little learning disability box. I know I have been diagnosed with one but I KNOW the diagnoses is wrong. I know that in the end I likely was not dislexic and did not have ADHD its just the I was responding negatively to an enviroment. My exam enviroment is quiet and I am in a room by myself – there will be no negative response.

I know my terrible writing is due to not learning a lot of this as a kid and strucggling now as an adult trying to pay attention and learn the rules.

30% of my mark and NO multiple choice.

The exam still terrifies me – I remember my English 12 exam. I worked VERY VERY VERY hard in that class. Harder then I ever worked before in English. I had 49% in the class when I went into the final exam. That 49% was obtained through many hours of struggling to learn the basics I missed and got by with out for SO long. I had proof readers, English instructors who marked only on my ability to construct a tale, or a poem. English teachers who only made 10% of the mark grammar and spelling. I can analyze a poem and a book and give an oral presentation like you wouldn’t believe – so I was a C  english student – getting by on my ability to pad my grade with creativity and accepting I would loose marks for spelling and grammar.

Ok I got ahead of myself there. My english 12 teacher had a pretty strict and very well constructed class. We as students would pass our provincial exams if it was the last thing we did. Her and I were a great fit – but I hated her for it at the time. She was hard on me never letting up once – would not feed me an inch for effort only for results.  Never even moved an inch on my grade. Marked me NOT on my creativity and infact flat out told me that if I thought I was going to get away with handing in garbage or something some one else proof read – she would fail me.  I needed to pass grade 12 English. She spent hours with me prepping me for the LPI exam (knowing I needed a back up if I wanted to get into university). A small percentage of our mark came from creativity and style. The rest was how well I did on those weekly god awful practice exams. Did I learn anything from the last time was always the main focus.

I do not know how many of those exams I failed – but it was a lot.

She however was the greatest english teacher I have ever had. As long as I wanted to pass she would work with me and try and get me to a level I would. 49% was my english grade going into the exam. She wouldn’t even throw me the 1% for participation or something – I tried. I recieved a mark of 79% on my English 12 provincial exam! I just about fell out of my chair.

Now those of you who think my writing is terrible now – and those of you who thought it was terrible 10 years ago – just imagine what it must have looked like  before that class.

Ok so what am I saying – I am giving myself a pep talk I guess. I am remebering that I CAN learn this stuff and I can improve. Keep writing, write as much as I can. Critize my own writing. Look it over days later and see my errors. Note them, learn from them. Look up rules I do not understand. Things like affect and effect still get me. I have to too and two mastered almost. It is almost second nature for me to correct that when I see it.

Take the entire 3 hours for my exam. I did this with English 12 I never left until I was out of time. I focused and I would stand up stretch move around and then come back to it. I took the exam in a separate room. it was the only exam I chose that option for. No one but me and the exam.
My horse training instructor said ” You will always go back to your worst habits during an exam, so make the right way the only way you do it.”

It was great advise. I think its good to try and make that a goal. Make the correct way to write the only way I write. Drill the rules into myself.

I think once I am done it the next chance I get I will select a writing course as an elective. This is a skill I need to keep attempting to advance any way I can.

I should treat writing like a hobby, emerge myself in the rules of language and learn how to structure things correctly. Learn it so it’s second nature. Never stop practicing it and never ever ever avoid it again.