IFEP Writing skill model Question paper

END SEMESTER EXAMINATION APRIL - 2007

II SEMESTER

Model Question Paper

Course: BA Marks: 50

Subject: Introduction to Writing Skills Time: 2 Hours

I. In the following paragraphs identify the topic sentence, the supporting sentences, and the concluding sentence. (5 x 2=10)

1. In times gone by, lions lived in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. Humans killed hundreds of lions either out of fear or for sport. When areas were cleared to make towns and villages, lions and other animals were killed in large numbers. Now there are no lions left in the Middle East or Northern Africa. Lions can be found in Asia and the Eastern part of Central Africa. They are mostly found in zoos or national parks.

2. In these modern times we live a fast-paced life. We speed on highways that never end, take jet planes to travel faster. Fast food restaurants save us time. Our machines are working faster than ever, and we can enjoy more leisure time. Then, in our leisure time, we grumble because things move too slowly.

II. Write a paragraph each for the following types. (2x5=10)

(Evaluation criteria: Knowledge of paragraph type, paragraph structure, spelling, grammar)

1. Cause and effect
2. Argumentative
3. Process
4. Descriptive
5. Narrative

III. Read the following passages and identify paragraph type. Do not rewrite the passage.

(2x5=10)

1. The old store lightened by 360 watts bulbs, smelled of coal oil and baking bread. In the middle of the rectangular room, where the oak flow sagged a little, stood an iron stove. To the right was a wooden table with an unfinished game of checkers and a stool made from an apple – tree stump. On shelves around the walls sat earthen jugs with corncob stoppers, a few canned goods and some of the 2000 old clocks and clock works Thurmond watts owned. Only one was ticking; the others he just looked at.

2. The young man started out to look for wood. It was not long before he saw wood that would make a beautiful warm fire, and he began to busy himself gathering the wood. Suddenly he felt the presence of the owl. The owl reached down and put the young man in its ear. The young man strung his bow and fitted one of his arrows, letting it fly from his bow deep into the ear of the owl. And the young man was free.

3. You enter with a violin and prepare to play some lovely music. Taking out a pocket handkerchief you fold it carefully and place it on your shoulder as a violin rest. You then put the violin under your chin on your left shoulder ( or vice versa if you are left handed). Drawing the bow back on the strings, you suddenly send the bow flying offstage into the wings like an arrow! Dismayed, you produce a second a bow and repeat the action, launching the bow offstage as well. You investigate the violin and discover the elastic strings, reacting with either embarrassment and delight.

4. The great increase in the free black population in America came after the Revolutionary War. In appreciation of the service of some 5000 blacks in the War for independence and as a result of the libertarian and egalitarian spirit that the declaration of independence and the war inspired, many masters, especially Northerners, freed their slaves. Soon individual states in the North decreed the gradual abolition of the institutions, beginning with Vermont’s action in 1777. In 1776 the population of United States was about two and a half million, more than 500,000 back slaves and approximately 40,000 free blacks. More than one half of these free blacks lived in the south. The revolutionary leaders, including Washington and Jefferson anticipated a constitution of the trend toward emancipation until eventually slavery would disappear from the land. This expectation was to be drowned, almost literally, by the whirring noise of Eli Whiney’s cotton gin. The invention of this native of Massachusetts made cotton production increasingly profitable and caused rapid and substantial increases in the slave population, so that on the eve of Civil War they were four million black slaves in the South.

5. To begin with, dinosaurs fell into two groups: the bird-hipped ones or ornithischians, and the reptile-hipped ones, saurischians. The bird-hipped dinosaurs were almost all herbivorous or plant-eaters, while the reptile-hippped group contained both meat eaters and plant eaters.

IV. Write an essay on any ONE of the following topics in about 600 words. (10x1=10)

(Evaluation criteria: Knowledge of essay structure, paragraph structure, spelling, grammar, punctuation, development of ideas, language)

1. A sound knowledge of political science, sociology and economics is crucial to become a competent journalist/media person.
2. Students of humanities and social sciences are more important for an inclusive and humanistic growth of societies.
3. Social evils like caste and gender discriminations do not disappear; they only change forms.
4. Indian society in 2020.
5. Bollywood films and the Indian Diaspora

V. Prepare a bibliography of the following books and articles using recent MLA or APA styles. (Evaluation criteria: Knowledge bibliography formats) (1x5=5)

1. Benedict Anderson. Book: Imagined Communities. Published in London by Verso in 1991
2. Bill Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin. Editors. Book: The Post Colonial Reader. Published in London/New York by Routledge in 1995.
3. Felix Wilfred. Article: ‘Publishing History of the Bible’. Published in the The Hindu. on 02 Oct. 2001
4. John J Kenndy, Abhaya, Anil Pinto, Shaila Gaur, Sudhamshu. Book: Perspectives Published by Oxford in Banglore in 2007
5. Mrinalini Sebastian. Article Understadning culture. Updated on 7 Febraury 2006. Accessed on 5 February 2007. URL: http://cscsarchive.org/courses/ugdip05/paper1/mod1/

VI Prepare a research proposal on any ONE of the following topics. In about 150-200 words (5x1-5)

(Evaluation criteria: Knowledge of proposal format, quality of research areas identified and formulated, grammar, spelling, punctuation)

1. The impact of mobile phones on communication among youth
2. Communicative English syllabus
3. Impact of Rang De Basanti on politics in India
4. Multilingualism and contemporary media in Bangalore
5. Impact of autonomy in education in the college
6. TV viewing habits among college going students
7. Impact of Harry Potter on school children
8. Use of library by students
9. Emerging trends in FM radio
10. Elite academic institutions and their attitude towards student from slums