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Essay Possibilities and General Advice Link
to sample IDs:
allen/213id2.htm
Possible questions for Part III: ESSAY (35 points)
You will be asked to write a well-ordered, well-illustrated essay on one of the following topics. Be sure to read the question carefully. Remember that the main factors that determine your grade are the quality of your supporting example and your understanding of the issues inherent in the works. The essay need not be long, but it does have to address all the aspects of the question. There is no excuse for messing up this section, since you have it in advance and can prepare your answer. The primary goal of this section is to test your ability to put ideas together, synthesizing the material we have studied.
1. Beginning with what you contend are the three most important characteristics of Romanticism, discuss the ways in which Wordsworth's "Ode on Intimations of Immortality" and works by two other Romantic
era writers either display or fail to display these characteristics. (Be sure to explain why you chose those three particular characteristics as most important.)
2. Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats all talk about the search for some sort of hope in a world that sometimes seems dangerously sad and unsettling. Talk about the way each author describes the nature of the problem and the way to find reassurance, using as illustration Wordsworth’s "Ode on Intimations of Immortality," Shelley’s "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty," and something from Keats’ Odes.
3. Nearly all the Romantic writers agree that you should "let Nature be your teacher." Look at the works of at least four of the Romantic writers, and explain both why they think nature is important and what they think we learn from nature.
General advice for the ID section: Become familiar with style, issues, focus, and characters in each of these works. I will put a list of the works at the top of page 1. With the many poems in Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, I will not ask you to identify individual poems, but simply ask that you tell me whether the selection is from Innocence or Experience. Remember that only one of the five points in this section comes from identifying the work; the other points come from identifying the significance of the quotation. I realize that it is often hard to make distinctions among quotations from these works; thus, the explanation of your reasoning is going to be particularly important (since good reasoning will make it possible for me to give you credit even if your answer is wrong). This section is designed primarily to test whether you have read all assignments carefully; the best way to study is to read all assignments carefully.
Short answer questions will ask you to address an issue we discussed in class, or apply terms and ideas that we discussed. This section is designed primarily to test your understanding of class discussion; the best way to study is to review your class notes.
Because it is difficult to work Sense and Sensibility into the
essay questions, there is an excellent chance that two of your short
answer questions will deal with that novel. |
