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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the question Anne's students always ask?

2. According to Anne, what is one thing that can make a book very tiring to read?

3. What image does Anne use to help her gather dialog for characters?

4. What advice did Anne's father give her brother when he was overwhelmed at writing a report on birds?

5. What is on Anne's desk that reminds her of short assignments?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the one-inch picture frame on Anne's desk put her in the mind to write a short assignment?

2. Plot is the main part of your story. How does the plot best grow organically, according to Anne?

3. What does Anne suggest can help when you sit down to write dialogue?

4. How does Anne say perfectionism affects writing?

5. How does Anne compare writing a first draft to watching a Polaroid develop?

6. According to Anne, how does knowledge of a character develop?

7. Readers need a sense that an important character, such as a narrator, is reliable. How does Anne suggest that writers accomplish this?

8. How did having a mother and father who read, and a father who was a writer, affect Anne's life?

9. Where does Anne find out something about false starts?

10. What was Natalie Goldberg's response when asked for the best possible writing advice she had to offer? How true is this advice?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Part 2, The Writing Frame of Mind, Section 1, Looking Around, Anne says that writing is about "learning to pay attention and communicate what is going on."

Part 1) Anne's father taught the prisoners of San Quentin to pay attention and write down their thoughts. At this time Anne was a young child, and thought it easier for her to write down what was going on. Why was it easier for her?

Part 2) How is the writer like the cheese in "The Farmer in the Dell?"

Part 3) As a writer, how should we look at the people around us in order to honestly recognize who they are?

Essay Topic 2

Anne starts off the last chapter by again encouraging her students to write about their childhood. Why does she place so much emphasis on writing about your childhood? How did we look at the world when we were children? What do you have to gain emotionally from writing about your childhood? What do you have to gain for your future work?

Essay Topic 3

In Part 4, Publication and Other Reasons to Write, Section 1, Writing a Present, Toni Morrison is quoted as saying, "The function of freedom is to free someone else." How can writing free another person, such as the reader? In what ways does writing affect the writer?

(see the answer keys)

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