Study Guide

I.

  • Write a proper MLA Works Cited entry for the following book by a single author:

The Bird House by Susan Johnson published in 1985 by Random House.

  • Write a parenthetical citation to quote a sentence that was found on page 37 of Susan Johnson’s book.
  • What is a primary source? Name one good example.
  • What is a secondary source? Name one good example.
  • Give a definition of paraphrasing.
  • Paraphrase lines 19-34 of the “Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales from the textbook.

II.

  • Define each of the following terms and give an original example.
  • Personification
  • Simile
  • Metaphor
  • Hyperbole
  • Onomatopoeia
  • Allusion
  • Alliteration

III.

  • What is an elegy?
  • What is a ballad?
  • What is the difference between a biography and an autobiography?
  • How many lines are in a sonnet?
  • What is the difference between a Shakespearean sonnet and a Petrarchan sonnet?
  • What is a couplet? What is a quatrain?
  • What is iambic pentameter? Write one original line of iambic pentameter.
  • What is blank verse?
  • What is rhyme scheme? What was the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet?
  • Tell the difference between end rhyme and internal rhyme.

IV.

  • What is a soliloquy? What is the difference between a soliloquy and a monologue?
  • What is a tragic flaw?
  • What is the difference between a tragedy and a comedy?
  • What defines a tragic hero?
  • Is Macbeth a comedy or a tragedy? Why?
  • What are at least three characteristics of the period known as Romanticism?
  • What is a kenning? Give one original example.
  • What is a caesura? What was its purpose?
  • What is the difference between a theme and a moral?

V.

  • Insert the correct punctuation (quotation marks, period, comma) in the following sentence.
  • Joe said We aren’t waiting for the revolution to begin (Marx 176)
  • Make the following run-on sentence into a complete sentence by separating the two clauses with a semicolon.
  • The party was never intended to be as big as it was Joan still felt left out since she wasn’t invited.
  • Insert a colon into the proper place in the following sentence.
  • We discussed many topics before the test sonnets, plays, novels, and poems.
  • Do poem titles get quotation marks or italics?
  • Do long plays get quotation marks or italics?
  • Do novels get quotation marks or italics?