Two essays

ESSAY 1

DIRECTIONS:

*Attempt only two questions.
*Question # 1, Section A, is compulsory.
*Choose one more question from Section B.
*Keep your answers clear, concise and analytical.
*Address your responses to the specific demands of each question.
*Illustrate your answers with apt references, and cite key sources used.
*Limit your responses to four, double-spaced, 12 pitch font pages per question.(There are two questions, so totally 8 pages)
*No excuses, late papers or haphazard submission of papers would be accepted.
*Your answer scripts must include questions chosen, your name, and be in MLA format.

QUESTIONS:

SECTION A

1) Explore the complexities of the term, ‘Black Literature’, and discuss how they, critically, engage certain social experiences, literary traditions, canons, racial and cultural politics.

SECTION B

2) With attention to each story’s social milieu, examine the nuanced relationships between racism and gender politics in Going to Meet the Man and Sometimes, a Motherless Child.

3) Analyze, with focus on subtleties, the critical significance of gender, childhood, community, coming-of-age and unnamed protagonists in The Hammer Man, and No Beating Like Dis One.

4) Discuss how the narrative threads of Red Hot Peppers, with regard to forms of inequalities, violations, and resistance, pose questions about identities, gender, social and power relations.

GOOD LUCK!

EXAM GRADING CRITERIA

‘A’ GRADE RANGE = 90%-100%
* Answered all aspects of the questions.
* Cogent application of lectures and readings.
* Cited other relevant materials appropriately.
* Identified characters, authors and situations aptly.
* Clear, engaging, scholarly and logical analyses.
* Avoided pointless summaries of texts.
* Hardly any spelling or grammatical errors.
* No colloquialisms (slangs and informal language).
* Kept responses within specified page limits.
* No attempts to ‘stretch’ paper, unduly (through creative pagination, font sizes, etc)

Further, to enhance your performance, it would be good to:

1. Make sure, during the exam, that you understand a question well, even the seemingly easiest of all,  before choosing it.  Some people perform below their potentials or expectations not out of ignorance but because their answers do not address the specific demands of the question!

2. Again, you may use outside sources, where such would enhance your responses, and, crucially, there are NO specifications about how many sources MUST be cited. In brief, assigned reading materials (The Reader) and, if pertinent, any other scholarly sources that support your arguments would do.

3. Qualify your responses, where necessary, to demonstrate polished understandings of the issues. Good scholarship refrains from sweeping generalizations, bad grammar, haphazard organization, and trite political posturing. While most would agree that racism is bad, you will NOT gain points by merely ‘dissing’ it but by deftly showing how the authors have creatively engaged its problematic features in their respective works.

4. Your papers will be graded for depth and logical flow; particularly, as they integrate assigned readings and other credible sources. So, overall, qualify your responses, where necessary, to demonstrate finespun understandings of the issues.

5. Often, in exams, details and nuances constitute the distinguishing markers between passable and outstanding papers. On a related note, if you have been ‘skipping’ lectures find some solace in an African proverb which says: “It is little by little that the bird builds its nest.” This proverb teaches about purposefulness and the virtues of perseverance (even in the face of daunting odds). So, what to do? Calm down, and get to work…!

6. To be sure, you may use ALL available, authentic, scholarly, resources (from and outside of class) in writing your exam but must, as a  matter of academic integrity, acknowledge them in your bibliography. Be mindful of plagiarism, very wary of non-academic web sources and, especially, please, keep away from WIKIPEDIA as citations from it are  null and void for this class..

7. Please, be advised, also, that the preceding helpful hints are to ensure that all are, literally, on the same page and, crucially, do not relieve you of the need for due diligence. As you may have noticed, each question is tied to specific reading assignments but, often, in exams, details and nuances constitute the distinguishing features of outstanding papers. So, further inquiries for ‘explanations or clarifications’ would NOT be addressed, once the actual exam has been given.. 

Essay 2

For the term paper, you may study a (Black) national literature, distinguished writer, text or

any group of works that present a coherent framework for analysis. Focus on under-researched

areas, like Black writing in Latin America are, especially encouraged. Critical analysis of a work,

for example, may explore such issues as race, gender, class, identity, form, style, culture,

characterization or the interplay of such elements in the narrative or meaning construction

process. Since this is not a ‘literature appreciation’ class, whether you like or dislike a particular

work or writer, for example, is peripheral. Pay attention, therefore, to substantive issues as they

are raised in or by each text. The term paper and exams must be solely authored, just as all

assignments must be completed to pass this course.

The caucus presentations are opportunities for you to apply or critically evaluate all assigned

materials and, preferably, initiate debate. As such, aim for insightfully chosen issues and be

prepared to take questions afterwards (as the class is expected to critique or evaluate your

presentation). You may, also, illustrate certain critical issues or apply materials pertinent to the

class, in skits, for example, to stimulate further critical reflection. Overall, your presentations

would be judged on content, perceptiveness, and contributions to prevailing issues or materials.

I also need a paragraph term paper proposal. A couple articulate sentences may, even, be sufficient.must be 8 pages total, typed in 12-point Times New Roman fonts and double-spaced, with one inch margins. All term-papers must have titles.