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Essay Possibilities and General Advice
There will be a quotation identification section, a short answer question, and an essay section. ID section: answer 7 of 8 for 35 points. Short answer: 3 at 10 points each. Essay is worth 35 points.
On your test, you will find ONE of the following questions:
1. Discuss the following question in four of the following five authors: Wycherley (The Country Wife), Swift (Gulliver's Travels), Pope ("An Essay on Man"), Johnson ("The Vanity of Human Wishes"), Goldsmith (She Stoops to Conquer): Discuss whether you think these three authors provide an essentially optimistic or essentially pessimistic view of mankind's potential. Support your answer with specific example, and when appropriate acknowledge the possibility of an alternative interpretation. The best answers will be those that show evidence of your independent thinking.
2. Nearly all of the works we have read so far this semester look at the issue of the sin of pride. Discuss the way four authors of your choice address the issue of pride. For each, answer these questions: What is wrong with pride? What is the proper alternative? In your conclusion, discuss briefly the ways in which these three authors are similar or different.
3. The primary literary mode of this time period is satire, which attempts to reform society through ridicule. Choose satiric works by four authors and compare/contrast 1) the focus of their satire (what personal/social failing are they attacking in your example?) and 2) the method of their satire (how do they try to get the audience to have the response they intend?)
Description of my grading process: the discussion of each author is worth 8 points; the overall unity and completeness of the answer is judged in the remaining 3 points. Within each 8-point unit, I subdivide the grade if appropriate (in question 2, for instance, there would be 5 points for what is wrong with pride for each author, and five points for what is the proper alternative). Thus, the key to doing well is to read the question carefully and answer all sections of the question. Think about your answer ahead of time, and have evidence clearly established in your mind before you sit down to write your essay.
Essays are not judged by length; they are judged by their effectiveness in answering the question. If you want to get a good grade, give me good, clear insightful thinking supported by effective use of evidence. I do not appreciate BS, and I've been around long enough to smell it when it’s in front of me.
General Advice
DO NOT spend an inordinate amount of time on any single section of the test. Each section should take no more than 20 minutes; you should be able to finish the first two sections more quickly than that, if you know the works and the material well.
On the short answer questions: be sure to answer the question I ask. Good support is important, but don't write more than a good solid brief paragraph in response to the question. It can be tempting to write too much, especially when you KNOW the answer. Keep your eye on the clock.
On the ID questions: you must identify the work to which the passage/character/term relates, but that's only ONE out of the five points. The most important element is your explanation of the significance of the passage/character/term. If your answer is logical and well-supported, you may well get credit even if the answer is wrong. DO NOT leave ANY question blank. Even a "stupid" guess is better than no answer at all. Often guesses aren't guesses at all; they are the result of the analytical process this class is designed to promote. Here is a basic hint on how to narrow down the possibilities when identifying a passage: take note of whether the quotation you are asked to identify is in POETRY or PROSE. If it is in POETRY, it CANNOT be from The Country Wife, Gulliver’s Travels, "A Modest Proposal," or She Stoops to Conquer, for instance. Unfortunately, nearly all the poetry is in the same format, but "Elegy..." isn’t, so identifying it should be a no-brainer.
Sample ID questions...click
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