Answer the following questions from Chapter 3

Use MLA guidelines for in-text citation as you answer these questions. I have modeled this for you throughout the questions, but you should read “Strategies for Documenting Sources (MLA Format)” in the textbook (begining on page 185). Focus on the MLA in-text citation section. You don’t have to create a Works Cited for this assignment. Failure to use in-text citations will result in a zero on this assignment.

Answer the following questions from Chapter 3.

  1. Schilb and Clifford describe several reasons to study and write about literature in “Why Study Literature in a College Writing Course?” (45). What are those reasons? Explain each one in your own words.
  2. Schilb and Clifford include Jamaica Kincaid’s story, “Girl,” to use as a touchstone for their discussion of arguing about literature. Read “Girl” and answer these questions in the “Thinking about the Text” section:
    2A: Is Girl a story? What characteristics of a story come to mind as you consider this issue?
    2B: Describe the culture depicted in Girl as well as the role of females in that culture. Is either the culture or the role of females in it different from what you are familiar with? Explain.
    2C: Do you think that the instructions to this girl are all given on the same occasion? Why, or why not? Who do you suppose is giving the instructions? Would you say that the instructor is oppressive or domineering? Identify some of the assumptions behind your position.
    2D: In Girl, the title character speaks just twice, and briefly. What do you conclude about her at these moments?
    At one point, the girl is shown how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child (lines 3536). What do you think of the instructors willingness to give such advice? What do you conclude from where its positioned in the text: between how to make a good medicine for a cold (lines 3435) and how to catch a fish (line 36)?
  3. Now, complete the “Writing Exercise”: Once you have read Kincaids story, write a brief response to it. You might jot down things you especially notice about it, feelings it evoked in you, and questions you have about it. You might also note experiences of your own that the story leads you to recall. Try freewriting for ten minutes without stopping.
  4. Shilb and Clifford discuss how we must identify issues when we argue about literature, and they discuss how one issue in “Girl” might be how the mother feels about the girl in the story. Then, they make a claim that “you’re really more likely to think of questions if you consider the writer’s options (49). What do they mean by this statement?
  5. What are the ten kinds of issues that arise in literature courses, according to Schilb and Clifford?
  6. In your own words, what is an issue of fact?
  7. How do Schilb and Clifford define “theme”?
  8. In your own words, what is an issue of theme?
  9. In your own words, what is an issue of definition?
  10. In your own words, what is an issue of symbolism?
  11. In your own words, what is an issue of pattern?
  12. Issues of evaluation, according to Schilb and Clifford, can be divided into three parts. What are those three parts? Explain each one in your own words.
  13. In your own words, what are issues of historical and cultural context?
  14. In your own words, what are issues of genre?
  15. In your own words, what are issues of social policy?
  16. In your own words, what are issues of cause and effect?
  17. What is a thesis, according to Schilb and Clifford?
  18. True or false: Schilb and Clifford assert that you should assume your audience has not read the text.
  19. You’ll find four groups of readers listed on page 54: “readers you disagree with,” “hasty, superficial readers,” “puzzled readers,” and “your own divided self.” Why do Schilb and Clifford share this list? And what do each of these refer to, in your own words?
  20. What’s the best evidence in an argument about literature?
  21. What is willful selection of quotes?
  22. What do you have to do with evidence in order to support your argument?
  23. How do you know which warrants you should mention in your argument?
  24. In your own words, explain what Schilb and Clifford have to say in “Make Use of Appeals” (56).
  25. What is Ann Schumwalt’s thesis in the student essay on page 57?
  26. Why does Schumwalt refer to puzzled readers?
  27. Why does Schumwalt begin her essay with the ending of “Girl”?
  28. Give an example of where Schumwalt makes a qualification in her essay.
  29. Where does she make a concesssion?
  30. For what reason do Schilb and Clifford include “So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans” by Jimmy Santiago Baca?
  31. Why do they include Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”?
  32. Why do they include Ted Chiang’s “The Great Silence”?
  33. What about Jane Hirshfield’s “Let Them Not Say”? Why do they include this one?
  34. What about Rena Priest’s “The Index”? Why do they include it?
  35. What about “Dear Matafele Peinem” by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. Why do they include this one?

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