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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. As explained by Dillard in Chapter 1, what must be done to a piece of writing after the first draft is finished?
(a) It must be mercilessly edited.
(b) You must strike it with a hammer.
(c) Nothing; it is done.
(d) Delete just a few sentences.

2. What animal, according to Dillard, is an analogy for characters in a writer's book "taking over"?
(a) A shark.
(b) The caterpillar.
(c) The lion.
(d) The sea star.

3. When a writer is stuck while writing a book, what does Dillard think he should do?
(a) Write, no matter what.
(b) Do crosswords to stimulate the brain.
(c) Read books that are similar.
(d) Nothing but think about it.

4. When Dillard relays a story about a cabdriver singing a boring song, why did the driver sing it twice?
(a) It had taken him a long time to get it right.
(b) It was a throw-away song.
(c) He wanted to bore the author.
(d) He was stalling for time.

5. Dillard refers to writing as changing "..from an expression of your notions to an epistemological tool." What does epistemological mean?
(a) Surgical incision of the perineum during childbirth.
(b) Bacterial DNA that is extrachromosomal.
(c) Greek knowledge.
(d) A philosophy concerned with the nature and origin of knowledge.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who said a long poem takes between five and ten years to write?

2. Who once said, "Which is the work in which he hasn't surrendered, under dire difficulty, the best thing he meant to have kept"?

3. Which insect is discussed in the book as part of an entomological experiment?

4. According to Dillard, how do painters work as opposed to writers?

5. What is needed in the world more than another excellent manuscript, as far as Dillard is concerned?

(see the answer key)

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