How Can People Do IT?!!! Tell me please!

[Mr Mahmoud]

Hi everybody. I wish you're very well people!

Ok..Well, let's start.

I want to know, in practical steps, how can I answer this exam question:

Define the following terms and apply them to the texts you've studied:
For example, intertxtuality, feminism, ideology, spaciotemporality, identity crisis and so on

The examiner did not tell us how to do this, so here are some of my nagging inquieries:
1- Is there any particular "introduction" for answering this question?
2- How can we deal with the intertextuality in the text? Is there any specific statements, words, idioms to use?
3- How can we talk about the author's "ideology" in some text? I already know that there must be some idea, concept, vision, attitude, behaviour that the author/man-of-letters/imaginative writer is trying to get across behind his text. By "text", I mean everything that can be read as a text, say, a photo, an advert, a portrait, a building, a stage and the stage directions, etc ....etc
So, how can I interject my final paper with these elements?
4- How can we detect feminism approach in some text and how can we treat the themes as a whole?

Actually, I need a quick review because the time of the exam is just one hour and of course this makes me write under great pressure.

Thanks in advance

[milktea]

I hope this doesn't come across as rude, but isn't the purpose of the exam to measure how much you have learned in class? At least that's how they did things when I was in uni.

Perhaps you should review your notes in the remaining time that you have?

Good luck!

[Mr Mahmoud]

Of course Milktea you're right, but I just want some "linguistic" help, how to introduce my answer and how to develop my statements. That's all.
In regards to the purpose of the exam, I don't know because we are never told how will be examined. Teaching the course was very "missy" and they just want us to buy some expensive books. That's what happens in our "third-world" country! Even the texts I'm going to be examined in are never hinted at! But apart from this, I wanna know how I can do the job and that's why I posed my above questions. I know they may seem silly in the eyes of some people but I don't like to make-believe. I just need an answer or some advice, nothing else.

[milktea]

Well in that case here's my advice:

If I were you I'd do as the exam instructs and introduce my paper by defining the terms, and then I'd try applying them to the texts which I would have read.

Again, best of luck.

[Babak Movahed]

Study harder and throughly review those terms.

[billl]

For ideology, you might want to point to things that the author focuses on in more than one place (more than one book?). By choosing certain subjects/concerns repeatedly, or by mentioning things mostly unnecessary to the story, you might be able to argue that the author's ideology is shaping (or even distracting from) the work. An important point is whether the author's ideology is revealed through the books you've been studying, or if you learned a bit about it from the instructor or in some other way. If it is coming from the books exclusively, look for repetition, or some lack of balance in the presentation maybe...

I think a lot of this depends on what books and authors you guys have been studying. Good luck, it sounds like it wasn't a very good class, at least not for you.

[Mr Mahmoud]

Thanks very much, Bill. You've touched upon the sensitive spot. It wasn't really a very good class for all of us, not only for me! I think that helps alot.

[Mr Mahmoud]

Isn't there anyone here to try their "hands" in this issue? Waiting for some expert help.

[kelby_lake]

I'll have a go:

1- Maybe identify which studies are most relevant to your particular text? For example, if it's The Handmaid's Tale, a feminist approach would be more appropriate but one could also take a Marxist approach.

2- An idiom is part of colloquial speech (sayings like 'a stitch in time saves nine' and 'waste not want not'). Don't use colloquial everyday speech in essays. Just use general literary terminology (you can find a list somewhere- things like allusions, motifs, etc.)

3- Look at the symbols they use. Look at the characters they've created. If the book has a load of loud offensive male characters and no women, the ideology is probably going to be centred around masculine dynamics. Look at the themes they've used in the text. In short, what impression do you get from it?

4- Books which are centred on female experience can have a feminist approach. Basically, any female characters which can be studied you could take a feminist approach with.

[JBI]

First paragraph: introduce the term(s), and then introduce texts in which you will be looking at. Assuming you are looking at 3 terms or three texts, those will make the body paragraphs of your essay. In conclusion sum it all up; make sure you compare and use many examples. The language used in the essay should reflect the texts and material covered in the text; define the terms briefly when you first mention them so as to give the reader an idea as to where you are coming from.

Hope that helps.

[milktea]

This is an exam--an English exam. The approach to writing the paper is (no small) part of the exam.

Mr Mahmoud is cheating.

For the experts here who (I can assume) have perused Aesop's fables, the irony is that you are flapping your wings and cawing on a thread related to not learning from what one reads.

Mr. Mahmoud, the netizens who proved they could DO IT in the Ethics Network Forums last semester did you a disservice.

Okay, okay... I know, before someone else says it: milktea shutup.

[JBI]

This is an exam--an English exam. The approach to writing the paper is (no small) part of the exam.

Mr Mahmoud is cheating.

For the experts here who (I can assume) have perused Aesop's fables, the irony is that you are flapping your wings and cawing on a thread related to not learning from what one reads.

Mr. Mahmoud, the netizens who proved they could DO IT in the Ethics Network Forums last semester did you a disservice.

Okay, okay... I know, before someone else says it: milktea shutup.

Don't worry, nobody will give him an answer that his professors will enjoy, as nobody knows his professors but him. I have no problem having my answers fail him. It's not as bad as the time I got my response stolen word for word in a presentation in class the next day.

[Mr Mahmoud]

Don't worry, nobody will give him an answer that his professors will enjoy, as nobody knows his professors but him. I have no problem having my answers fail him. It's not as bad as the time I got my response stolen word for word in a presentation in class the next day.

Well, Guys. I'm not some lunatic asking for readymade answers. And I think someone is distorting my words. I said "I need some help," not an answer that I'll be going to "copy" and "paste" in the exam paper. No, I have never "stolen" anyone's answers, or claimed someone's work to be mine. My professors personally know that very well, and they are familiar with this website, if you want to know. The point is that I deliberately haven't included the texts at issue, and therefore any intention to "cheat" must be negated. Were I to cheat, I would "photocopy" some of my colleagues' assignments, and simply "copy" them in my answer. As far as I know, this is called "plagiarism" and we are not allowed to do so.

However, after all, I got much benefit from reading the replies above. And thanks for all those who shared their views.

[JBI]

Well, Guys. I'm not some lunatic asking for readymade answers. And I think someone is distorting my words. I said "I need some help," not an answer that I'll be going to "copy" and "paste" in the exam paper. No, I have never "stolen" anyone's answers, or claimed someone's work to be mine. My professors personally know that very well, and they are familiar with this website, if you want to know. The point is that I deliberately haven't included the texts at issue, and therefore any intention to "cheat" must be negated. Were I to cheat, I would "photocopy" some of my colleagues' assignments, and simply "copy" them in my answer. As far as I know, this is called "plagiarism" and we are not allowed to do so.

However, after all, I got much benefit from reading the replies above. And thanks for all those who shared their views.

Technically, to be not cheating, you would need to footnote almost everything from here. Seeing as how you don't have my name, I am worried that you will simply paraphrase and steal, which is plausible, given that that is what pretty much all posters coming here asking for long-winded help on their homework do.

The truth is, you asked for help defining these terms. Had you grabbed definitions from a Literary terms encyclopedia, or other sources, you would most certainly be required to footnote; it isn't really possible to footnote this website.

[billl]

JBI, I have seen some cases where people could steal from online "help" threads, and I agree that it would be wrong. I don't see anywhere in this thread that would need footnotes, though. There are some general definitions of common literary terms, there's your summary of "How to write an essay," and not much else, really. Just some general strategies. Regarding the help given in the posts in this particular thread, I think that to require footnoting of this site sort of suggests some other students in the class might need to provide footnotes referencing lectures by some previous high school teacher, or a dictionary in a library of the city they lived in last year, etc.

So far, I think we've done a good job of "helping" without giving answers.

[mystery_spell]

I would suggest that you do exactly as the directions advise you to do. Simply define and apply. I hope this doesn't come off as rude, but it seems quite straight forward and simple. Define and apply.