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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is cited as the head of the writing program at Johns Hopkins and favors new and strange styles?
(a) Max Apple.
(b) John Barth.
(c) Kurt Vonnegut.
(d) William Glass.

2. What is one of the most important things for a young writer to have, according to Gardner in Chapter 2?
(a) Community.
(b) Family.
(c) Religion.
(d) Ego.

3. Who does Gardner suggest writing to for information on reliable agents?
(a) DRAA.
(b) AFJI.
(c) NROP.
(d) ILAA.

4. What is the name of the writer's conference where Gardner has frequently worked with writing assistants?
(a) Silver Mountain.
(b) Peabody.
(c) Last Dinner.
(d) Bread Loaf.

5. What was William Gass publishing at New American Library?
(a) The Wreckage of Agathon.
(b) Omensetter's Luck.
(c) Grendel.
(d) The Sunlight Dialogues.

6. Which is one of the great graduate programs for writers that Gardner refers to in Chapter 2?
(a) Stanford.
(b) Oxford.
(c) Carnegie Mellon.
(d) NYU.

7. Gardner states in Chapter 2 that the first value of a writer's workshop is that it makes the young writer feel not abnormal but what?
(a) Accepted.
(b) Virtuous.
(c) Enlightened.
(d) Smart.

8. Where did David Segal go after New American Library?
(a) Collins.
(b) Simon and Schuster.
(c) Penguin.
(d) Harper.

9. What does M.F.A. stand for?
(a) Master of Formal Academy.
(b) Master of Fulton Academy.
(c) Master of Fine Arts.
(d) Master of Formal Architecture.

10. The main commitment of famous writers as teachers is what?
(a) Their own work.
(b) The star students.
(c) Their students.
(d) The poor students.

11. What author responded to the question of why she wrote fiction, "Because I'm good at it"?
(a) Flannery O'Connor.
(b) Edith Wharton.
(c) Joyce Carol Oates.
(d) Sylvia Plath.

12. In Chapter 3, Gardner writes, "One hears the complaint that conferences lead to a kind of writer ____."
(a) Incest.
(b) Promotion.
(c) Ego-stroking.
(d) Sniveling.

13. The study of what can give the young writer a clear sense of why our age is so troubled?
(a) Philosophy.
(b) Drama.
(c) English.
(d) Philology.

14. In Chapter 2, Gardner writes that the "true young novelist has the stamina, patience, and single-mindedness of a" what?
(a) Mule.
(b) Elephant.
(c) Draft horse.
(d) Mother.

15. One of the favorite survival jobs of writers has in recent years been what?
(a) Night auditing.
(b) High school teaching.
(c) College teaching.
(d) Office clerks.

Short Answer Questions

1. Gardner states in Chapter 3 that one should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of whom?

2. What word does Gardner use to describe that teaching which tends to emphasize theme and design over feeling and authentic narrative?

3. Gardner states in Chapter 3 that a writer has to go far out of his way to turn his what against him?

4. Which writer, although thought of as a solitary genius, spent time working in close community with Ford Maddox Ford?

5. Where does the manuscript go after the literary editor is finished with it?

(see the answer keys)

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