Questions

narrative is ultimately a demand for freedom. Part of his arguments is explicit—what

the
character Equiano actually says to slave-holders and policy makers in support of his
demand for freedom.
Some of those explicit arguments are legal, some religious, etc. But the other part of
his arguments is
implicit in the story itself, in the overall message that he gives readers about who he
is. What are
Equiano’s explicit and implicit arguments? Your response about Equiano’s implicit
overall argument must
be tied to the elements of the story/narrative we have discussed in class
(occasionally, calling it the “inquiry
model”). Finally, without getting into too much detail with Rousseau, explain also in
what way(s)
Equiano’s arguments are fundamentally different from Rousseau’s.

Instruction
 Copy that question and paste it in bold to a new file.
The entire document should be single-spaced, and your response should be no
fewer than 400 words and no
more than 500 words.
To receive a grade of C or better on your response to the Midterm I question (or the
extra credit question), please
make sure that
 You answer the question
o Completely (i.e., all parts of the question),
o Thoroughly,
o Using plenty of illustrations from the readings, and
o Carefully connecting the illustrations with the concepts introduced and developed
in the course.
 Your response should be polished. In other words,
o I don’t want to read the first thoughts that occurred to you while you were typing. I
would like to
read ideas that demonstrate you have paid attention to the course concepts in
lectures, looked for
their application in our readings, and have weighed and carefully supported your
ideas, with
obvious objections thought through and addressed.
o I also would like to see no more than one major correctness error per 100 words.
Here are the
specific errors I will look for:
 Subject-verb disagreements, pronoun-antecedent disagreements, sentence-
boundary
errors (comma splices, run-ons, fragments), and verb tenses.
o Finally, I would like to see evidence of a credible effort for doing in-text citations
(MLA style)
correctly. If you need to brush up on how to paraphrase, summarize, or quote
directly, please visit
Owl at Purdue and the Writing Center.

Additional Notes and Advice

How much time should you spend on the midterm question?
 If you are perfectly familiar with the literary texts referenced in the questions and
the concepts we have
developed in the lectures, you should plan on spending at least two hours on the
question you choose to
answer. If you need to brush up on the texts or concepts or if you need to work on
citations, you may need
significantly more time.
How should you approach the writing of your response?
 Review the appropriate literary texts and lectures.
 Review the study guide.
 Identify the parts of the overall question to make sure you do not miss answering
some of the question
parts.
 Outline your response (your main idea or insight) for each part of the overall
question (course concepts
often show up here as part of the main idea),
 Find textual illustrations (from the literary sources) for each response, and
 Outline your explanation of each illustration (here course concepts, along with
other ideas, are often used to
support your main point by connecting the illustrations to your main point).
 Then construct your first draft without paying too much attention to word count.
 Once you are satisfied that you have answered the entire question completely,
thoroughly, with plenty of
illustrations and explanations (using course concepts), then trim your response to
 Finally polish your response in terms of citations and grammar