Midterm Exam Spring 2009

Midterm Exam Instructions

 

General Directions

• All answers must be written in blue books.  Be sure to write your name on each blue book.
• Your handwriting must be legible.  If necessary, skip lines.
• You have until the clock in classroom says it is 11:35 am for this examination.
• There are two parts to this test. The identification portion will be worth 55% of the grade, and the essay/outline portion will be worth 45% of the grade.

   

Part One: Identification

Choose six of the seven passages below. Characters’ names have been replaced with XXX and YYY if they appear in a passage. For each passage you choose, write a four-part answer.

    a)  The author of the passage.  (2 points)

    b)  The title of the work in which the passage appears.  (2 points)

    c) The approximate date of initial publication (within five years) of the work.  (1 point)

    d)  A brief, but substantive discussion (3-4 sentences) the significance of the passage to

     the larger work.  (5 points)

 

Part Two: Essay Outline

You will write a thesis statement and an outline for an essay that responds to the prompt below. A good answer will draw on more than one work we have read this semester, and will discuss concrete examples from our texts. 

 

Your thesis statement should be 1-3 sentences and should outline the thrust of your argument. The thesis statement must be written in full sentences.

 

Your outline need not be in strict outline form, but it must be detailed. By detailed, I mean that you should make specific points as large headings (think, perhaps, of topic sentences from paragraphs) and that should include specific, concrete details from the works we have read this semester to help establish your points. For example, you should not simply write “Contrast A with B”; instead, make sub-headings that indicate which passages/episodes you are contrasting and to what end.

 

Please see this example of a detailed outline.