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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Anne's first suggestion about writing dialogue?
(a) Read your words out loud.
(b) Copy conversations you hear in public.
(c) Secretly record your friends talking and use their words exactly, without asking permission.
(d) Always write in dialect.

2. What do most of Anne's students assume about why well-respected writers's books turn out beautifully?
(a) They drink wine.
(b) They are subject matter experts.
(c) They analyze each character.
(d) They have outlined the plot.

3. What movie line does Anne suggest as a good one to tape to the wall of your office?
(a) "From sun up to sun down I am the best writer in town."
(b) "Climb every mountain."
(c) "Jeremiah was a bullfrog."
(d) "Hey - lighten up, Francis."

4. In Part 1, Section 6, Polaroids, who was the self-proclaimed "cool man?"
(a) Sam.
(b) A boy against a fence.
(c) A tall African American man.
(d) The referee of the basketball game.

5. What does Anne warn about doing with your characters?
(a) Placing them in an improper set.
(b) Letting them speak in dialect.
(c) Giving them only one page of description.
(d) Getting them to do something because it is convenient to the plot.

6. In Anne's opinion, who writes bad first drafts?
(a) All good writers.
(b) Reporters.
(c) She does.
(d) The birds.

7. What advice did E. L. Doctorow have about writing?
(a) "Writing a novel is like taking a horse to water, but then he does not drink."
(b) "Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."
(c) "Writing a novel is like making dinner. If you do prep work, the cooking comes easy."
(d) "Writing makes me paranoid. I don't recommend it."

8. What is Anne's second suggestion about writing dialogue?
(a) Your characters should never speak in dialect.
(b) Your characters should be identifiable by what they say.
(c) Dialogue is not a needed break from all the writing.
(d) Your characters should always speak in dialect.

9. From where did Anne's Special Olympics article start to emerge?
(a) The cool man.
(b) A Polaroid of three of the athletes.
(c) Her lunch.
(d) The girl on crutches.

10. What is Anne's response when her students ask her for the best writing advice?
(a) She twirls a flower in the air.
(b) She quotes a Buddhist disciple.
(c) She picks up a piece of paper and pantomimes writing on it.
(d) She tells them to meditate.

11. Who are the two authors that Anne says have written well about plot?
(a) John Gardner and Faulkner.
(b) Rosemary Wells and Doreen Cornin.
(c) E. M. Forester and John Gardner.
(d) Flannery O'Conner and Faulkner.

12. What is the way to hold a reader's attention?
(a) Pictures.
(b) Dialogue.
(c) Drama.
(d) Good plots.

13. What do readers want to know about characters besides their superficial values?
(a) How they smell.
(b) Their essence.
(c) What they eat.
(d) Their hair color.

14. In Anne's experience, and the experience of other writer's she knows, how easily does plot structure come?
(a) It tends to come like the development of a Polaroid.
(b) Not easily at all.
(c) It is like a Gulf stream going through a straw.
(d) Easy as pie.

15. Anne tells her students they can use paranoia as wonderful material, and then recites a poem. Who is the author of the poem?
(a) Phillip Lopate.
(b) She is.
(c) C. S. Lewis.
(d) Buster Brown.

Short Answer Questions

1. Aside from talking to people, what are other ways to gather ideas for set design?

2. When talking with a subject expert about kitchens, what are good questions to ask about the kitchen?

3. What was Vonnegut's comment on writing?

4. What did Anne's father tell his students to read?

5. The school lunches writing assignment combines which two pieces of writing advice from Anne?

(see the answer keys)

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