SYNTHESIZING WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED IN THE TROY COURSE

Exam 3 will ask you to select three or more major texts that you have read during the course, state an interesting question that connects them, and write an essay about that connection, supporting your ideas with examples from the selected texts. Although you have been able to select various background articles and web sites to study along the way, they will not count for this exam, except as the background material they are.

If you have selected a non-fiction book instead of a novel for your modern Troy choice, then that can be one of the three texts. Otherwise, all three texts need to be literary ones--plays, epic poems (not short poems), or novels. This exam should demonstrate your comprehension and mastery of the body of Troy materials you have been studying over the entire semester.

See below for a few suggestions. If you wish, you may send me a note about your choices and question at: Diane Thompson. I can be helpful at this stage, so wait until I respond to your note before you take the exam.

---

Your exam 3 essay should look like this:

1. List the texts you intend to discuss; there must be at least three; there may be more.

2. Write a clear introductory paragraph, briefly explaining what the point of your comparison is. For example, you might want to compare:

• the roles of women in the Iliad, a Greek play, and Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
• different conceptions of the hero in Homer, Virgil and Shakespeare
• the character and role of Iphigenia in the plays of Euripides, Racine, Goethe and/or Tepper's 
  "Iphigenia in Ilium" in The Gate to Women's Country
• the development of Troilus and Cressida's story from Chaucer to Henryson to Shakespeare
• various kinds of powerful women, such as goddesses (Athena in the Odyssey is a good example), queens such as Clytemnestra (Agamemnon) and Dido (Aeneid), and one of the powerful women in a contemporary Troy novel, such as Kassandra in the Firebrand or Margot in The Gate to Women's Country
• Amazons: Camilla in Virgil's Aeneid and the Amazons in the Firebrand, plus an analysis based on one of the goddess books listed on the Goddess web page
• roles of the gods in three or more Troy stories, such as Zeus in the Iliad, Jupiter in the Aeneid, and the God of Love in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
• some other group of characters/issues that interests you.

3. Now develop your essay, using plenty of specific examples from at least three texts to support your ideas. There is no length limit, but if you have trouble writing at least 800 words or more, it means you have not developed your ideas and/or supported them adequately.

4. End with a paragraph or two to sum up your main points.

5. Finally, proofread for sloppy English, spelling, and mechanical errors.

---

Exam 3 Grading Criteria:

The overview is clear, compares at least three substantial literary texts (or two substantial literary texts plus a modern non-fiction book), and has a relevant point.

The body of the essay is well developed, including plenty of supporting examples from each of the texts to prove your point.

The essay ends with a summary of the main point and its relevance to the texts.

The essay demonstrates your understanding of some of the continuities and changes of Troy stories over time.

The entire essay is written in clear, college-level English.

Exam 3 is worth up to 200 points.

To fill out a short online survey about the course, click here.