Online World Literature Exam Guidelines
Go to the Exams area in Blackboard to access the exam materials. In regular semester courses, you will have one week to complete and submit the three portions of each exam (but note that the first part is timed, and cannot be retaken). (In summer courses you will have 24 hours to complete each exam.) Each exam will consist of three parts:
(1) Multiple choice (20 points). This portion of the exam consists of twenty multiple choice questions. You will have thirty minutes to take this portion of the exam, and you will have to complete it in a single continuous session. So please make sure you have a reliable internet connection and are not disturbed when you take it. Although I cannot prevent you from using your books and notes during this portion of the exam, it is designed to be taken in a short amount of time in order to prevent this. A sound knowledge of the readings and our discussion of the readings will make it easier for you to complete this portion of the exam in the allotted time.
(2) Quotation analysis (30 points). You will be given four quotations from our readings, and you will choose three to analyze. The quotations will all be related to themes and ideas we have talked about in the discussion area. Your analysis should relate each quotation to one or more of these themes, but it should also attend to the literary or poetic aspects of the quotations. You may want to print out my poetry explication checklist to use as a guide. Other suggestions for writing about literature are available on the Handouts section of my web page. You should devote about 150-250 words to each quotation. Please do not not consult any research materials, including Internet resources, as you work on this portion of the exam.
(3) Essay (50 points). You will be given a choice of three essay topics related to themes we attended to in the discussion area. Your essay should be focused, unified, and thorough, and each paragraph should contain at least two specific examples or details that serve as the basis for your analysis. You should use specific quotations from the text (feel free to use your books) to support your argument, and your examples should be discussed with as much attention to detail as possible. It is not enough simply to provide quotations and examples—you must also analyze those examples by explaining their meaning, significance, or relation to other examples or to other aspects of the literary work. Please make sure you begin each body paragraph with a strong topic sentence. (“Another example of nature imagery in the Iliad is . . .” is not a strong topic sentence.) Your essay should be a minimum of five paragraphs, including an introduction and conclusion. You may use your copies of our texts as you write your essay, but you should not consult any research materials, including Internet resources, as you work on the exam.
Parts (2) and (3) of the exam should be word processed using MS Word, Corel WordPerfect, or Sun OpenOffice and submitted as a single file to the Exam Assignment page in Blackboard before the closing date and time of the exam. You can also submit these parts of the exam in Adobe Acrobat format.
Please do not discuss the exam content or questions with other students in the class while you are working on the exam. Doing so will be considered a violation of the Longwood Honor Code. Please include the Longwood Honor pledge on the final page of your submitted exam materials.