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English 10-1

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The literary essay

Ten questions of mixed difficulty, covering The literary essay. Print it, or work through it on screen — the answer key starts on its own page.

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The literary essay

English 10-1 · maddyhelps.com

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Circle the best answer for each question. Show your work in the space provided.

  1. An essay that proves its thesis but only retells events in between fails mainly because

    1. a) the tense is wrong
    2. b) the thesis was too narrow
    3. c) summary is not analysis, so the thesis is asserted rather than shown
    4. d) it is too long

  2. Evidence in a literary essay comes from

    1. a) the author's life
    2. b) personal experience
    3. c) the text itself
    4. d) other students' essays

  3. Novel and play titles are written

    1. a) underlined and quoted
    2. b) in quotation marks
    3. c) in italics
    4. d) in capitals

  4. Of these, the strongest thesis is

    1. a) This essay will discuss ambition
    2. b) Macbeth was written around 1606
    3. c) Macbeth is a play about ambition
    4. d) Ambition in Macbeth becomes destructive once it is severed from conscience

  5. A quotation is best integrated when it is

    1. a) given as its own sentence
    2. b) embedded in your own sentence and punctuated as part of it
    3. c) paraphrased instead
    4. d) presented as a long block

  6. A literary essay discusses a text

    1. a) in the past tense
    2. b) in any tense
    3. c) in the future tense
    4. d) in the present tense

  7. A body paragraph is strongest when it

    1. a) retells a chapter
    2. b) makes one point, supports it and explains the support
    3. c) covers several points
    4. d) is mostly quotation

  8. After giving a quotation, the next thing to write is

    1. a) a plot summary
    2. b) another quotation
    3. c) the next paragraph
    4. d) an explanation of what it shows and how it supports the point

  9. Raising a reasonable counter-argument usually

    1. a) strengthens the essay, if it is then answered
    2. b) weakens it by admitting doubt
    3. c) should replace the thesis
    4. d) is not permitted

  10. A thesis statement is

    1. a) a statement of topic
    2. b) an arguable claim the essay sets out to prove
    3. c) a question
    4. d) a summary of the plot

Answer key · The literary essay

English 10-1 · maddyhelps.com

  1. c) summary is not analysis, so the thesis is asserted rather than shown — Retelling shows what happens; analysis shows what it means and why the writer arranged it that way. This is the single most common weakness in essays at this level.
  2. c) the text itself — A literary essay is an argument about a text, supported from that text. Personal experience belongs in the personal response, which has different rules.
  3. c) in italics — Short stories and poems take quotation marks. It is a small convention, it is checked, and getting it right signals that you know how literary writing works.
  4. d) Ambition in Macbeth becomes destructive once it is severed from conscience — The first makes a claim that needs proving and points at the evidence that would prove it. The second is a topic, the third announces rather than argues, and the fourth is a fact.
  5. b) embedded in your own sentence and punctuated as part of it — Embedding forces you to state the point the quotation supports. A quotation standing alone leaves the marker to guess why it is there.
  6. d) in the present tense — Literary present treats the text as always happening: Macbeth kills Duncan, rather than killed. Slipping between tenses mid-paragraph is among the most common correctness errors.
  7. b) makes one point, supports it and explains the support — One point per paragraph keeps the argument traceable. If a paragraph needs two topic sentences, it is really two paragraphs.
  8. d) an explanation of what it shows and how it supports the point — The explanation is where the marks are. A paragraph of stacked quotations shows you can find them; the analysis shows you understand what they do.
  9. a) strengthens the essay, if it is then answered — A concession only helps when it is answered. Raising an objection and leaving it standing hands the reader a reason to disagree with you.
  10. b) an arguable claim the essay sets out to prove — If nobody could reasonably disagree, there is nothing to prove and the essay becomes a summary. A topic is what you write about; a thesis is what you say about it.