Category Archives: Midterm Exam

Homework for the Midterm Exam

Rather than writing a blog post for homework this week, I ask that you spend that time preparing for the midterm by preparing your quotation sheet. This is a sheet that you will bring to the midterm. It should have your name and the quotations you will use to respond to any of the three questions that you have prepared for. It should not list the text names and authors, since you will be tested on that material in the identifications in Part 1 of the exam.

As you prepare, think about what passages from the stories best support the comparison you want to make. If you have two passages for each of the two texts for three essay topics, you might have as many as 12 quotations. Some quotations would work for more than one topic, so you might find that you don’t need 12, but instead 11 or 10. For example, you might draw on similar material to write about confinement as you do to talk about illness, so that there is overlap in the materials you have prepared for those topics.

Please make sure you have voted for your first choice among the topics–there is a poll in the sidebar of the site. I’ll take those votes into account as I choose the three of the five choices to include on the midterm exam. You will then choose one of the three topics to respond to in an essay. I may edit them to make them more consistent, but the ideas will be the same.

If you have any additional questions, please continue to add them to our discussion. Good luck with your preparation!

Preparing for the midterm exam essay

To prepare for our midterm exam, find below a draft of the essay portion. Included are five possible topics, though you’ll only find three there on the day of the exam. For our discussion, consider ONE of these topics and answer the following questions about it by Sunday night:

 

  • What does responding to this topic allow you to understand about each story?
  • How does the topic allow you to further explore the stories?
  • What does the comparison bring out about both stories?
  • What’s a draft of a thesis statement for one of these essays?

Vote for your top choice! Use the poll in the sidebar (or if you’re viewing the page from a smartphone, all of the sidebar material appears at the bottom on the screen, so scroll down).

 

Midterm exam draft:

In a well-developed essay, consider how two of the short stories we have read this semester (excluding the one you wrote about in Project #1) compare in their approach to one of the following issues, topics, or themes. Compare two examples from each story, using quotations from your quotation sheet as evidence to support for your thesis-driven essay.

  1. the significance of setting details, including their symbolic significance
  2. the intricate relationship between freedom and death
  3. Restriction or confinement as limiting or enabling
  4. Depictions of the grotesque or unnatural
  5. The treatment of Illness as transformation

Your essay should be 500-600 words—if you’re writing 5 words per line, that’s 5-6 pages in the blue book, fewer pages if you get more words per line. There’s no need to count all of the words: check to see roughly how many words you write per line on a few lines, then multiply that by 20 (lines per page) and the number of pages you have. When you include a quotation, even though it is already on your quotation sheet, I ask that you copy it into your essay. Rather than using whiteout or making a mess, when you need to make a correction, just cross out what you want to delete.

To get started, you should use the time before the exam to plan your three possible essays. On Wednesday, take time at the start of the exam to think about what you want to write, and use the blue book to write down notes before you start writing the essay. There’s no need to skip every other line, but you might want to skip a line or two between paragraphs to give yourself space to add in any additional words or sentences when you re-read your essay.

Don’t forget–there will be short-answer questions to start the exam.

If you have questions, feel free to ask them here.

Wrapping up Project #1, Working toward the midterm exam

I ask you to write me a letter addressing the following questions about your work for Project #1 in any order you like. I will then write a letter to you to provide feedback on your work.

  • What are you most proud of in Project #1?
  • What challenged you the most in Project #1?
  • If you had more time, what would you change?
  • If you could have changed the assignment, how would you have changed it?
  • Is there anything else I should know about your work or about you as a writer or as a student?

 

Describing the Midterm Exam:

Part 1:

There will be 8-10 passages from which you will choose 4-5 (I haven’t decided yet). For each, you’ll have to:

  • Identify title and author
  • Identify which concept the passage exemplifies (there will be a list from our discussion of the elements of fiction)
  • Explain why the passage exemplifies that concept
  • Although each passage and each concept can me paired in different ways, you must use each concept only once.

Part 2:

There will be 3 possible essay questions from which you will choose one to offer a comparison. This should be a well-organized essay that begins with an introductory paragraph ending in a thesis statement, followed by paragraphs that focus on evidence (in the form of quotations and paraphrasings) that support the argument you make in your thesis statement, and ending with a conclusion that not only addresses what you have written but aims to show why it matters.

In the most general terms, your essay should answer three questions: what’s up? how come? so what?

We will generate a long list of possible themes and topics for comparison that we will narrow down to 5 possibilities. You will vote on your preferences after considering these questions:

  • What does answering the question allow you to understand about each story?
  • How does the question allow you to further explore the stories?
  • What does the comparison bring out?
  • What examples and quotations would you use in your response?
  • What thesis statement would you include?

I will incorporate these questions into the discussion and homework for Week 8 so that we can continue collaborating on them.

For the exam, you will need to:

  • Study the elements of fiction
  • Review the stories we have read
  • Practice identifying significant passages in each story

 

  • Prepare for at least three of the five possible essay questions
  • Bring a quotation sheet that you can use to incorporate quotations into your essay. I will collect this with your exam. This is an important part of preparing for the exam, and of writing a successful essay.
  • Write your essay about two stories other than the one you wrote about for Project #1.

Margaret Atwood, “There Was Once” 1992

Gary Parks, “Elements of Fiction

Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” 1894

William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” 1930

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Cottagette” 1910

— “The Yellow Wall-Paper” 1899

Susan Glaspell, “A Jury of Her Peers” 1917

Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown” 1835

Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis” 1915

Thomas Wolfe, “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” 1935 (optional)

Illness in “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and “The Metamorphosis”: how people deal with unexpected situations, what that brings out in a person; we could also think about mental illness in “A Rose for Emily” as a result of the way others have treated her, shaped her; “The Story of an Hour” and heart trouble (thinking about how Josephine talks to her, peers through the keyhole–through actions and interactions, delicate treatment)

Compassion: “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” and “The Story of an Hour”: He had to understand the stranger who didn’t know Brooklyn; Mrs. Mallard wanted to be compassionate about her husband, but also to live for herself. What about “The Cottagette”: Ford had compassion for Malda in her needs and what she wants to do artistically

Think instead about women attaining freedom/ exertion of power: “The Cottagette” (good relationship) and “The Story of an Hour”; “A Jury of Her Peers” (bad marriage) Mrs. Wright ; “The Yellow Wall-Paper”; “A Rose for Emily”

how setting functions: time period: how women spoke, perceived they had to act. “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and “The Cottagette” how women spoke and felt they had to.

Discussion: Review for the Midterm Exam

As we think about the midterm exam, which will include both short-answer and long-answer responses, let’s start to put our readings from this semester in conversation with each other. To do this, let’s start to think about interesting points of comparison, and the ways in which each of our readings exemplify the elements of fiction we read about.

In the comments, write about a theme you see connecting two texts–either through a similarity or a difference, and what is significant about that connection. Consider what elements of fiction help make this connection more meaningful. I’ve added an example in a comment below.

In addition to writing your comment, reply to classmates’ comments with ideas about other texts that fit into the connection they’ve explored. This is a great way for us to work through all of the texts we’ve encountered this semester:

Margaret Atwood, “There Was Once” 1992

Gary Parks, “Elements of Fiction

Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” 1894

William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” 1930

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Cottagette” 1910

— “The Yellow Wall-Paper” 1899

Susan Glaspell, “A Jury of Her Peers” 1917

Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown” 1835

Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis” 1915

Thomas Wolfe, “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” 1935 (optional)