ENGL 201: World Literature
Professor Taylor
Sample Preliminary Examination Sheet
This is what the instructions to section two of your examination will look like:
II. Choose five of the following passages (I will count your best four). For each, first identify the author and the work. Then, in a paragraph, examine fully one significant aspect of the passage as it relates to the work of literature from which it is taken. (NB—summarizing the plot will not suffice!) Superior paragraphs will have strong topic sentences that indicate a clear analytical or exegetical purpose, and they will directly quote relevant words and phrases from the passage in support of the main idea. Grammar and mechanics do, indeed, “count,” so try to allow time for at least one proof-reading of your responses. (10 points each; 40 points total)
A sample passage might be something like the following (I will only include passages discussed in class):
Here the Tyrians / Were hard at work: laying courses for walls, / Rolling up stones to build the citadel, / While others picked out building sites and plowed / A boundary furrow. Laws were being enacted, / Magistrates and a sacred senate chosen. / Here men were dredging harbors, / there they laid / The deep foundation of a theater. . . . ______ said: “How fortunate these are / Whose city walls are rising here and now.”
1. First Objective: Identify the author and work. In this case, “Virgil, The Aeneid” is just fine. Then start your paragraph.
2. Second Objective: Give yourself a topic sentence.
a. This is NOT a useful topic sentence: “Here, Aeneas is looking at the Tyrians building their city.” This is a true statement, but it sets you up for plot summary. In other words, no one who has read this passage could have missed this fact of the text—indeed, one could know this much by reading only this passage.
b. This is a valuable topic sentence: “Here, Aeneas comes face to face with just how far he has to go before he reaches his destiny.” In this case, the sentence makes a claim about the significance of the passage to a more full understanding of the work as a whole; unless you’ve read all (or at least key parts) of The Aeneid, you can’t possibly understand why this sentence might be true. The job of your paragraph, then, is to justify and exemplify the claim your topic sentence makes about the meaning of this passage.
3. Third Objective: Quote key words and phrases of the passage in support of your claim.
a. See the guidelines provided on my website.
b. But just in case—the following are solid examples of proper quotation.
i. Here, Aeneas comes face to face with just how far he has to go before he reaches his destiny. Everything he will one day have to build from scratch is on full display in Tyre: a “citadel” for protection, “laws” and “a sacred senate” for effective government, “harbours” for trade, even a “theater” for entertaining the people.
ii. Here, Aeneas comes face to face with just how far he has to go before he reaches his destiny. While the people of Tyre are already far along in constructing their own great city, he has not yet managed even to land in Italy. How long will it be before his destined people will be “hard at work” building walls for protection? When will his people choose a “sacred senate” to enact laws, or construct their own “theater” for entertainment?
4. Fourth Objective: Connect the passage to an understanding of the work as a whole. When appropriate, use terminology unique to the work in question. For example:
Virgil, The Aeneid.
Here, Aeneas comes face to face with just how far he has to go before he reaches his destiny. While the people of Tyre are already far along in constructing their own great city, he has not yet managed even to land in Italy. How long will it be before his destined people will be “hard at work” building walls for protection? When will his people choose a “sacred senate” to enact laws, or construct their own “theater” for entertainment? Aeneas has good reason to view the success of the Tyrians with envy. Their “good fortune” has eluded him for years, and will never quite be his—neither within the space of Virgil’s epic poem nor, as Aeneas himself has been assured, in his own lifetime.
What you just read is an “A” paragraph (it has six sentences and weighs in at 124 words, fyi). It identifies the author and work, makes a defensible claim about the significance of the passage in a clearly stated topic sentence, supports it with direct textual quotations, connects the importance of the passage to the work as a whole, and uses terminology associated with the work in question (it’s an “epic poem” we are told in the final sentence).
Now you try. Take 10-13 minutes and write a paragraph following the above instructions for the passage below. Feel free to email your paragraph to me for some feedback prior to the exam:
And Achilles close in / Like the helmeted God of War himself, / The ash-wood spear above his right shoulder / Rocking in the light that played from his bronze / In gleams of fire and the rising sun. / And when Hector saw it he lost his nerve, / Panicked, and ran, leaving the gates behind, / With Achilles on his tail. / You have seen a falcon / In a long, smooth dive / Attack a fluttering dove / Far below in the hills. / The falcon screams, / Swoops, and plunges / In its lust for prey. / So Achilles swooped and Hector trembled / In the shadow of Troy's wall.
Professor Taylor
Sample Preliminary Examination Sheet
This is what the instructions to section two of your examination will look like:
II. Choose five of the following passages (I will count your best four). For each, first identify the author and the work. Then, in a paragraph, examine fully one significant aspect of the passage as it relates to the work of literature from which it is taken. (NB—summarizing the plot will not suffice!) Superior paragraphs will have strong topic sentences that indicate a clear analytical or exegetical purpose, and they will directly quote relevant words and phrases from the passage in support of the main idea. Grammar and mechanics do, indeed, “count,” so try to allow time for at least one proof-reading of your responses. (10 points each; 40 points total)
A sample passage might be something like the following (I will only include passages discussed in class):
Here the Tyrians / Were hard at work: laying courses for walls, / Rolling up stones to build the citadel, / While others picked out building sites and plowed / A boundary furrow. Laws were being enacted, / Magistrates and a sacred senate chosen. / Here men were dredging harbors, / there they laid / The deep foundation of a theater. . . . ______ said: “How fortunate these are / Whose city walls are rising here and now.”
1. First Objective: Identify the author and work. In this case, “Virgil, The Aeneid” is just fine. Then start your paragraph.
2. Second Objective: Give yourself a topic sentence.
a. This is NOT a useful topic sentence: “Here, Aeneas is looking at the Tyrians building their city.” This is a true statement, but it sets you up for plot summary. In other words, no one who has read this passage could have missed this fact of the text—indeed, one could know this much by reading only this passage.
b. This is a valuable topic sentence: “Here, Aeneas comes face to face with just how far he has to go before he reaches his destiny.” In this case, the sentence makes a claim about the significance of the passage to a more full understanding of the work as a whole; unless you’ve read all (or at least key parts) of The Aeneid, you can’t possibly understand why this sentence might be true. The job of your paragraph, then, is to justify and exemplify the claim your topic sentence makes about the meaning of this passage.
3. Third Objective: Quote key words and phrases of the passage in support of your claim.
a. See the guidelines provided on my website.
b. But just in case—the following are solid examples of proper quotation.
i. Here, Aeneas comes face to face with just how far he has to go before he reaches his destiny. Everything he will one day have to build from scratch is on full display in Tyre: a “citadel” for protection, “laws” and “a sacred senate” for effective government, “harbours” for trade, even a “theater” for entertaining the people.
ii. Here, Aeneas comes face to face with just how far he has to go before he reaches his destiny. While the people of Tyre are already far along in constructing their own great city, he has not yet managed even to land in Italy. How long will it be before his destined people will be “hard at work” building walls for protection? When will his people choose a “sacred senate” to enact laws, or construct their own “theater” for entertainment?
4. Fourth Objective: Connect the passage to an understanding of the work as a whole. When appropriate, use terminology unique to the work in question. For example:
Virgil, The Aeneid.
Here, Aeneas comes face to face with just how far he has to go before he reaches his destiny. While the people of Tyre are already far along in constructing their own great city, he has not yet managed even to land in Italy. How long will it be before his destined people will be “hard at work” building walls for protection? When will his people choose a “sacred senate” to enact laws, or construct their own “theater” for entertainment? Aeneas has good reason to view the success of the Tyrians with envy. Their “good fortune” has eluded him for years, and will never quite be his—neither within the space of Virgil’s epic poem nor, as Aeneas himself has been assured, in his own lifetime.
What you just read is an “A” paragraph (it has six sentences and weighs in at 124 words, fyi). It identifies the author and work, makes a defensible claim about the significance of the passage in a clearly stated topic sentence, supports it with direct textual quotations, connects the importance of the passage to the work as a whole, and uses terminology associated with the work in question (it’s an “epic poem” we are told in the final sentence).
Now you try. Take 10-13 minutes and write a paragraph following the above instructions for the passage below. Feel free to email your paragraph to me for some feedback prior to the exam:
And Achilles close in / Like the helmeted God of War himself, / The ash-wood spear above his right shoulder / Rocking in the light that played from his bronze / In gleams of fire and the rising sun. / And when Hector saw it he lost his nerve, / Panicked, and ran, leaving the gates behind, / With Achilles on his tail. / You have seen a falcon / In a long, smooth dive / Attack a fluttering dove / Far below in the hills. / The falcon screams, / Swoops, and plunges / In its lust for prey. / So Achilles swooped and Hector trembled / In the shadow of Troy's wall.