Guide to Exam 1
English/Women Studies 245: LGBT Studies
Spring 2015
Professor: Jeanine Ruhsam
General Notes:
1. Both exams have three component sections: Passages, Identifications and an
Essay. They are explained in detail below.
2. You will have a choice in each section, so you’ll be able to skip at least one
question and concentrate on the ones that you are most conversant with.
3. Please bring a Blue Book, available inexpensively in the bookstore, for each exam.
You will enter all your work into it.
4. Each exam will take one class period, which is 50 minutes. You’ll want every
minute of that period, so be on time, watch the clock, and work efficiently.
1. Passages.
The passages will be composed of quotations taken from books you have read. You must
identify the book and its author, name the speaker and in what context the passage occurs, and
then explain the significance of the passage to the book and its argument. This calls on your
skill to write a descriptive paragraph that explains why the passage is important to the course
goals and to connect it to larger themes, issues and interpretations.
For this exam, passages will be excerpted from The Well of Loneliness and Rubyfruit Jungle.
2. Identifications.
You will be asked to make connect and locate key words and terms that are essential to our
course work. None will surprise you, and you should be familiar with them by exam time. In
the exam, you’ll need to clearly describe the terms meaning and also explain its significance in
the context of our course. Here, brevity is not awarded: the more detailed responses that
connect the term to more than one concept, event or situation reveal the depth of your
understanding and will result in a higher score. If you are unsure, do your best- you have been
in the class, participated in discussions and read the texts, so any effort you make that
demonstrates your comprehension will be rewarded with some credit.
An Identification Example:
Term: Stonewall Inn
Answer 1: “A bar in New York City.”
Remarks: This is simply unsatisfactory. How does this relate to the context of the course,
which is LGBT Studies? It does not begin to explain the significance of the bar to the LGBT
movement. Nonetheless, it might get a point or two credit as it is not factually incorrect (as
would be the response, “Stonewall Jackson slept there during the Civil War.”)
Answer 2: “The Stonewall Inn is a bar in New York City where gay, lesbian and transgender
people were involved in a riot with the Police.”
Remarks: Better, certainly! This answer connects the Stonewall in with the LGBT movement,
locates it, and describes the significant event that occurred there for which it is remembered. It
will garner credit because the respondent has given some details. Yet, the answer has fallen
short: it does not explain the significance of the event, and begs for more detail.
Answer 3: “The Stonewall Inn was a bar in New York City that was an underground mecca for
gay, lesbian and transgender people in the late 1960s. Then, it was illegal to be homosexual or
to cross-dress. Stonewall was owned and operated by the Mafia, who paid bribes to the NYPD
to allow these activities by the LGBT patrons. One night in 1969 the bar was raided by the
NYPD, who roughed up and began to arrest the patrons. That night the persecuted LGBT
people gained courage and successfully fought back, believing that they had the right to be who
they were. That event is often credited as the birth of the LGBT civil rights movement.”
Remarks: The exam taker’s hand might be cramped from writing so much- but, they earned
full credit!
3. Essay.
The essay will ask you to apply the knowledge you have gained from your reading and class
participation in your own original, creative analysis. Your challenge is to theorize an answer to
the question posed and then to support it with examples taken from our course work. Don’t
write this for me- write it for someone to who might not know the course material. Don’t offer
up terms and concepts assuming that the reader knows their meaning- rather, demonstrate
your thorough knowledge of the subject. Understand that there many ways to argue your
response; what matters is that you argue well. Express your thesis clearly and support it. Refer
to your writing assignment guide, which is posted on ANGEL. Realize this essay is an
abbreviated writing assignment, and all those parameters apply. In short:
 Outline your response on scratch paper; that will help you organize your answers and
supporting evidence/examples.
 Use an introduction to answer the question.
 Follow with your paragraphs that support your answer.
 Conclude by tying your supporting evidence to your answer.
An Essay Example:
Again, we’ll use Stonewall as an example, so you can see how the topic is expanded into an
essay from an ID.
In a short (about 350 words) essay, explain the significance of Stonewall in context of the
American LGBT movement.
Response: “The riots that took place at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in the
summer of 1969 sparked the beginning of the gay liberation movement in America. The
Stonewall Inn was a bar that catered to homosexuals in the 1960’s. Owned by the Mafia,
it was very popular because it was the only establishment that allowed dancing for gay
people. The New York City Police Department raided the Stonewall Inn frequently to
enforce laws that prohibited homosexuality and cross-dressing. Management and clients
of Stonewall were used to this; through mutual agreement between the mafia and the
NYPD, the bar was notified in advance of a raid, so they were usually peaceful, short and
resulted in few arrests. The raid that occurred the night of June 27 was different,
though: a large force of NYPD officers and detectives raided the bar without notice and
began arresting and dragging patrons to paddy wagons parked outside. A large, angry
crowd began to form outside the bar as the raid continued. Participants in the riot relate
the rapid escalation of events and that followed in the film Stonewall Uprising. When
police began roughing up some of the people they had handcuffed, the crowd exploded
in protest, throwing objects at police, attacking officers and cars and setting fires as they
tried to free those arrested. Police took refuge inside the bar, but the crowd broke in.
When NYPD reinforcements arrived, the crowd managed to outflank them and thwart
their effectiveness. Eventually the crowd dispersed and the police departed, leaving the
streets littered, the Inn broken and vandalized but, miraculously, no one killed or
seriously injured. As the smoke cleared, both the NYPD and the LGBT community knew
they had witnessed a remarkable event: gay people had stood up to their abusers for the
first time and declared they would no longer be singled out for discrimination on the
basis of their sexuality. As Leila Rupp notes in A Desired Past, this event symbolized
self-acceptance, pride and resistance in contrast to the assimilationist attitude that
prevailed beforehand. For this reason, the Stonewall Inn is considered the birthplace of
the LGBT rights movement.” (345 words)
Remarks: This short essay draws from assigned sources to answer the question in
detail. The introduction and thesis statement are met immediately. The quality of the
argument is very good: the problem statement is identified at the beginning, is
supported by an engaging, fact-filled dialogue and is returned to and reinforced in the
conclusion. The quality of the writing is error free. The sentences are grammatically
correct and they state their intended point clearly. The essay addresses the assignment
by drawing on specific information from assigned texts and relevant lectures.