Purpose: Self-assess your understanding of the writing process, essay forms, MLA citation, and rhetorical appeals. Each question has a worked solution.
Score: 0 / 12
Topic 2.1 — Thesis & Process
Question 1
A strong analytical thesis must be:
Solution: Theses must be debatable (someone could disagree), specific (about this text, this device, this effect), and supportable (you can prove it with quoted evidence). Facts and questions are not theses.
Question 2
In the writing process, "revising" differs from "editing" because revising:
Solution: Revising = re-seeing — you may cut a paragraph, re-order sections, sharpen the thesis. Editing/proofreading = sentence-level repair (grammar, punctuation, spelling, citation format). Both are needed; revision should come first.
Question 3
Sample thesis: "This essay is going to talk about how Hamlet is sad in different ways."
Why is this thesis weak?
Solution: Strong theses make a claim, not an announcement. A revision: "Hamlet's melancholy in 1.2 expresses moral revulsion at his uncle's marriage rather than mere personal grief, framing his later inaction as ethical scruple rather than weakness."
Topic 2.2 — Essay Forms & Rhetoric
Question 4
Aristotle's three rhetorical appeals are:
Solution: Ethos appeals to the speaker's credibility/character; pathos to the audience's emotions; logos to reason, evidence, and logical structure. Effective persuasion typically blends all three.
Question 5
"Everyone is buying the new phone — you should too."
This argument commits which logical fallacy?
Solution: Bandwagon (ad populum) — claiming a thing is true/good because many people accept it. Popularity is not evidence of correctness or value.
Question 6
A persuasive essay's counter-argument paragraph should:
Solution: Strong argument writing models the steel-man, not the straw-man. State the best opposing case in good faith, then show why your view still holds (refute) or how the two perspectives can be reconciled (accommodate).
Question 7
An expository essay primarily aims to:
Solution: Exposition explains. Common patterns: definition, classification, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, process. Tone is neutral and informational, though arguments may emerge.
Topic 2.3 — MLA Citation
Question 8
In MLA 9th edition, an in-text citation for a paraphrased idea from page 47 of a book by Atwood is written as:
Solution: MLA in-text format: (Author Page) — author's last name and page, no comma, no "p." Example: (Atwood 47). When the author is named in the sentence, only the page goes in parentheses: "Atwood argues … (47)."
Question 9
Which Works Cited entry is correctly formatted (MLA 9)?
Solution: MLA core elements: Author. Title of book. Publisher, Year. Author given Last, First; book title italicised; period after title; publisher then year separated by comma; period at end.
Question 10
When citing four or more lines of poetry as a block quotation, you should:
Solution: MLA block-quote rule: 4+ lines of verse (or 4+ typed lines of prose) → start a new line, indent 0.5", no quotation marks, citation in parens AFTER the final period.
Topic 2.4 — Style & Conventions
Question 11
"In the essay 'The Death of the Moth,' Woolf shows that the moth is dying. The moth is dying. The moth's death is shown by Woolf."
The most important revision strategy for this passage is to:
Solution: The passage repeats the same fact. Strong revision combines sentences and pushes toward analysis: "In 'The Death of the Moth,' Woolf transforms the dying moth into a meditation on the futility and dignity of resistance — the creature's small body becomes the vehicle for a vision of life's losing struggle against death."
Question 12
Academic writing typically uses which point of view for literary analysis?
Solution: Most academic literary analysis uses third person to keep focus on the text and its claims rather than the writer. Some Canadian university programs accept measured first-person ("I argue") in conclusions; high-school marking still favours third person throughout.