Your final is a take-home activity. You can and should use all of the resources from the course as you work on your exam.

For your final exam, you will write a performance review that evaluates your work in the course. You will propose the grade you should receive, using information from your Labor Log to support your recommendation. In the workplace, this report would be similar to a annual self-evaluation.

Note: there is no grace period for this assignment.  If you do not submit your exam on time (or do not submit it at all), your grade in the course will be lowered.

The Final Exam Assignment

Step 1: Familiarize yourself with the characteristics and features of performance reviews.
The following articles offer advice on writing self-evaluations:

• Guidelines for Writing Your Employee Self-Assessment (PDF) from UC-Santa Barbara Human Resources
• How to Handle the Self-Evaluation Component of Your Performance Assessment from Monster.com
• Evaluation Resource Central: Peter Elbow from Evergreen State College
• What is a Self-Assessment? (PDF) from the Ohio National Guard
• Tracking Performance Accomplishments and Writing Self‐Assessments (PDF) from the USDA
• Self-appraisal Examples to Use as Guidance or Inspiration (several included) from Talent Space
• How to Write a Negative Review in a Positive Way from AZCentral

You can also review the videos in this Lynda.com Playlist: Final Exam Resources on Performance Reviews

Step 2: Review your work in the course and gather your data.
You need to collect the data on your work in the class. You should find much of what you need in your Labor Log. Be sure that you examine your work individually, with your writing group, and with the class as a whole as you consider these questions:

• What have you done to work consistently during the entire term?
• Which document demonstrates your highest quality work? Why?
• What demonstrates that you invested your best effort in the course?
• How have you supported members of your writing group and others in the class?
• Did you explain any issues that came up that harmed your participation (such as illness)?

If you are working toward a grade higher than a B, also look for evidence of the following:

• Providing an ongoing leadership role.
• Helping to teach the class new things.
• Significantly adding support to the writing community.
• Completing the SPOT survey to provide feedback on the course.

Find more details on grades higher than B on the Requirements page.

Using the information you have, gather the relevant numbers, links to examples, and pull out quotations or other evidence from your work. Remember that you are focusing on your work in the entire course, following the definition of labor on the Requirements page and in your Labor Log instructions.

Step 3: Compare your findings to the course expectations.
Once you have gathered your findings about your labor in the course, compare them to the expectations and conclude how well you did. The following areas, explained the Requirements page, count as labor in this course:

• Reading, Listening, and Viewing
• Writing
• Providing & Responding to Feedback
• Reflecting
• Collaborating

Be sure that you consider your work in the entire course, and if relevant, be honest about where you fell short.

Step 4: Pay attention to the expectations for the final exam.
To meet the requirements of the final exam assignment, your performance review should include the following sections and information:

• details on your overall work in the course, which addresses the following:
  • the time you invested
  • the intensity you brought to various aspects of your work
  • your consistency
  • your collaboration and collegiality
• a comparison of your accomplishments to the course expectations for labor in the course
• a conclusion of the grade you should receive for the course.

Your performance review should be specific and detailed, since I will go by the information in your report as I determine your grade. If you do not provide adequate, specific details, your course grade may be effected.

Step 5: Compose your final exam.
Once you have gathered all of your information and drawn conclusions about your performance in the course, write your review in your word processor. Explain your findings, present your evidence, and include an indication of how your work in the course compares to the expectations. Your report should be professional, and avoid any whining, begging, or the like.

Use what you know about layout and design to create a report that is clear and easy to read. If it’s also fun and interesting, that’s great too. Think about how you might include graphs, tables, and other visual aids. Be sure to include information-rich headings.

Since the report focuses on your grade in the course, you do not need to share your draft with your writing group. Your grade in the course is private and personal, and any assignment to share details about your grade would be a FERPA violation.

Step 6. Review your exam for design and basic writing errors.
Everything you write should use accurate/appropriate image editing, grammar, spelling, punctuation, mechanics, linking, and formatting. These are important basic writing skills that you should have developed in high school.

Also review your project, considering the layout and design of your project. Refer to the details on the course website listed in the Ten Ways to Improve Your Writing and the grammar and design Lynda.com videos included on that page.

Step 7: Submit your project in Canvas.
Upload your completed self-assessment and your project in Canvas.

Photo Credit: Typing II by OER Africa on Flickr, used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.