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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. When does King begin to submit stories to magazines?

2. What is one of King's last jobs before becoming a full-time writer?

3. What happens to the person(s) on whom King bases Carrie while they were in high school?

4. If a reader does not see an image the same way as the writer, how has the image changed?

5. Whom does King meet while in college?

Short Essay Questions

1. One of King's babysitters was particularly cruel. How might she have affected his later writings?

2. What conclusions can you draw from King's comparison of writing as a career versus writing as a passion? Explain in your own words.

3. As a child, King had many chronic ear and throat infections. How might these illnesses lead King to writing?

4. When King asks the writer to accept 'the magic of writing, but to take it seriously', what is he saying?

5. After Tabitha King's intervention in her husband's addictions, King insisted on moving his desk. How was this symbolically important to him?

6. In what way is the chapter, What Writing Is, different from the usual book on writing?

7. Why does King want his readers to put his book down if they are unable to accept that writing is magic?

8. What are some of the aspects of writing that King is not going to emphasize in the chapter, What Writing Is?

9. King was a heavy drinker and addicted to cocaine. He believed that these two elements contributed to his creativity. In terms of the chapter, C.V., do you think his belief was justified? Why or why not?

10. Based on the chapters, C.V., and What Writing Is, what ideas justify King's statement that writing is a serious job?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

King has been called a hack. He defends himself by saying that throughout history, other who were called hacks, are now considered important writers. How would you evaluate King's body of work, especially the book, On Writing?

Essay Topic 2

What factors in King's childhood and young adulthood influenced his writing? Was King's brother Dave an important influence in King's writing career? Which factors determined the type of writing he does? Give specific examples from the book to support your claims.

Essay Topic 3

King mentions many elements as being important to good writing: limiting the use of adverbs, writing in the active voice instead of the passive voice, the use of speaker attributes other than said, and paragraph length. How would you prioritize these elements and why?

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