Now that you have learned about characteristics of a strong essay and had a chance to evaluate a sample, it's time to write one of your own. Revisit the US history exam resources page and select a sample question from the free-response samples that is different from the one you evaluated. Follow the directions to write your essay, and then evaluate yourself using the scoring guidelines rubric and sample responses to the topic you selected.

Need ! of all the characters highlighted in the works included in this unit, which one did you relate to or identify with the most in terms of his or her struggles and conflicts? why? what was it about this character that made him or her affect you as he or she did? be sure to point to specific examples from the work to support your response. the characters are from "shooting an elephant", " witchcraft for sale" and marriage is a private affair.

Read the passage from sugar changed the world. sugar is different from honey. it offers a stronger sweet flavor, and like steel or plastic, it had to be invented. in the age of sugar, europeans bought a product made thousands of miles away that was less expensive than the honey from down the road. that was possible only because sugar set people in motion all across the world—millions of them as slaves, in chains; a few in search of their fortunes. a perfect taste made possible by the most brutal labor: that is the dark story of sugar. how does the comparison of sugar to honey reveal the authors’ purpose? it persuades readers that sugar tastes better than honey. it informs readers that there is a connection between slavery and sugar. it informs readers that honey had a major impact on society. it persuades readers that sugar is as important an invention as steel.

Read this passage from william faulkner's the sound and the fury: i says no i never had university advantages because at harvard they teach you how to go for a swim at night without knowing how to swim and at sewanee they dont even teach you what water is. i says you might send me to the state university; maybe i'll learn how to stop my clock with a nose spray and then you can send ben to the navy i says or to the cavalry anyway, they use geldings in the cavalry. which best describes the narrator's tone in this passage? a. bitter b. angry c. sarcastic d. all of the above