View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Gardner compares Melville's Moby Dick with what in Chapter 1?

2. Which title does Raymond Carver say is the only one he recalls of John Gardner's manuscripts in the Forward?

3. What does Gardner say that good fiction starts off in the reader's head?

4. Gardner states that in the works of Shakespeare, language always serves character and what?

5. Who wrote Finnegan's Wake?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where did Gardner learn his method of writing?

2. What does Gardner suggest as ways to understand the psychology of characters unlike themselves?

3. What does Gardner write of Nabokov in Chapter 1?

4. What does Gardner remark about theme in Chapter 1?

5. What essential things must an aspiring author understand in order to pursue writing?

6. What does Gardner assert of the author learning character through television in Chapter 1?

7. How does Gardner explain characterization and story through his hypothetical story in Chapter 1?

8. How does the young author learn technique through reading others?

9. What does Gardner relate about the "author's character" in Chapter 1? How does he describe "special intelligence?"

10. What hypothetical situation does Gardner uses as an example of plot in Chapter 1?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the qualities which make a good or a bad teacher in a fiction writing class. What are some of the "red flags" which indicate an author should leave the program?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the benefits of earning a graduate degree from a writer's workshop. In what ways can this be beneficial for the author?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the roles of plot, setting, and character in a novel. Which is the most important to Gardner? Why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 730 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample