College Composition

[dcan]

Prompt: "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Do you agree with this optimistic approach to difficult situations, or do find alternative perspective more helpful?

Prompt: Do you feel that the legalization and taxation of marijuana would reduce the incidences of drug abuse in America? Defend your position.

Prompt: "To climb the corporate ladder, you're going to get some splinters." Explain how this applies specifically to women and minorities in this century.

So, as you see, you might get a glimpse of a current event or an opportunity to share your knowledge of history/politics, but it will be all about your technically correct response. 5 paragraphs, proper grammar, solid and clear arguments, etc. In my CLEP exam (College Comp 2008) I believe I was given 2 prompts and allowed to choose- I'm not sure if the modular exam does that.

Nailed it.

I took Modular, on paper, and was not presented with options. I had two essays, back to back, and had to formulate and write an essay on each topic as it was presented.

First essay was pure opinion, second essay had two sources (brief articles/essays or extracts from books or articles or speeches etc) with full attribution and I had to "formulate an opinion on the issue discussed and defend the position, citing sources to support". So the approach is to cite the quotes that support you, but also cite the ones that don't so you can demolish those lines of argument and advance your own.