Week 5 — Quiz (auto-graded) · Narrative & Expository Writing

Course: English Composition (ENGL 1A) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Lindgren
Objective tested: Objective 4 — narration & exposition; showing vs. telling; concrete detail; organization; significance.
Points: 10 (1 each) · Assignment group: Quizzes (10% of grade) · Due: end of Module 5. AI is not permitted on quizzes.

This is the human-readable quiz with its vetted answer key and feedback. The import-ready Classic QTI is in F-quiz-week-05-qti.xml (generated by a validated script — parses with 10 items, every single-answer item exactly one correct). The Canvas placement block is at the bottom of this file. No free-response items — all auto-gradable (MC / multiple-answer / matching / true-false).

Blueprint

No trick questions; distractors target the Week 5 misconceptions named in the lecture outline. Every example sentence is the instructor's own illustration, attributed to no one.

Questions, key, and feedback

Q1 (MC). Which sentence is doing narration (telling a true story to make a point) rather than exposition (explaining/informing)?
- A. "A compost bin works by letting bacteria break down food scraps into soil."
- B. "The morning my grandmother taught me to make tortillas, I finally understood why she never measured anything." ✅
- C. "There are three federal student-loan types."
- D. "To change a tire, first loosen the lug nuts while the car is still on the ground."
Feedback: Narration recounts a moment over time and points toward a meaning (B). A, C, and D explain how something works, what something is, or the steps in a process — that's exposition.

Q2 (MC). Which sentence is showing rather than telling?
- A. "I was really, really nervous before the interview."
- B. "The interview was a very stressful experience."
- C. "I read the same line of my résumé four times and still couldn't tell you what it said." ✅
- D. "It was an extremely tense morning."
Feedback: Showing gives concrete, sensory evidence so the reader feels it without the label (C). A, B, and D tell — they name the feeling ("nervous," "stressful," "tense") and ask the reader to take your word for it.

Q3 (MC). Which word is concrete (something a camera or microphone could catch) rather than abstract?
- A. freedom
- B. success
- C. the screen door banging ✅
- D. happiness
Feedback: Concrete detail names things you could see or hear (C). Freedom, success, and happiness are abstract — ideas you can't point a camera at. Showing runs on concrete detail.

Q4 (MC). What most clearly turns "a true story" into a narrative essay?
- A. Using as many adjectives and adverbs as possible
- B. Avoiding the word "I" everywhere
- C. A point or significance — a "so what?" the events add up to (even if it's implied) ✅
- D. Making it as long as the assignment allows
Feedback: A narrative essay tells a story because it means something — it has a point/"so what?" (C). The point can be implied, but a story with no meaning is a list of events, not an essay. Length, adjective-count, and avoiding "I" don't supply a point.

Q5 (Matching). Match each detail type to the example that fits it.
| Detail type | Correct example |
|---|---|
| Sight (concrete, visual) | The cracked screen glowing in a dark room |
| Sound (concrete, auditory) | The hallway clock ticking too loudly |
| Abstract feeling (telling) | A deep sense of disappointment |
| Process step (sequential) | "First, preheat the oven to 375°." |
Feedback: Sight and sound are concrete sensory details (showing); "a deep sense of disappointment" names a feeling (telling, abstract); and "First, preheat…" is a process step in sequence. Watch the classic mix-up: an abstract feeling tells; a concrete sight/sound shows.

Q6 (MC). You're writing a piece that explains, step by step, how to brew a cup of coffee. Which organization fits best?
- A. Chronological order of a personal story's events
- B. Process (sequential) order — the steps in the order you do them ✅
- C. Order from most to least important opinion
- D. Alphabetical order
Feedback: Explaining how to do something runs by process/sequential order — the steps in sequence, signaled by first, next, once that's done, finally (B). Chronological order organizes a story's events; neither opinion-ranking nor alphabetizing fits a how-to.

Q7 (MC). In this course, "show, don't tell" most nearly means —
- A. give specific, concrete sensory evidence so the reader reaches the feeling themselves ✅
- B. add as many vivid adjectives and adverbs as you can
- C. always state the emotion directly so there's no confusion
- D. write longer sentences
Feedback: Showing = concrete sensory evidence (A). It is not piling on adjectives (B) — "very, very angry" is just telling with extra words. Stating the emotion directly (C) is telling. Sentence length (D) is unrelated.

Q8 (True / False). "A narrative essay is simply a record of what happened, so it does not need a point or thesis."
- True
- False ✅
Feedback: False. A narrative essay still needs a point / significance — a "so what?" the events add up to (it can be implied rather than stated outright). (This is the highest-value idea of the week: a story with no point is a diary entry, not an essay.)

Q9 (MC). Expository writing is best described as writing that —
- A. explains or informs — laying out a process, an idea, or information clearly so a reader understands it ✅
- B. argues that one side of a debate is right and the other is wrong
- C. is always fictional and made up
- D. must never use any concrete examples
Feedback: Exposition explains or informs (A); its job is clarity and accuracy. Arguing a side (B) is argument (Week 7) — exposition is not opinion. Exposition is nonfiction and welcomes concrete examples.

Q10 (Multiple answer — select all that apply). Which of the following describe an effective narrative / "showing" in college writing?
- A. Concrete sensory detail the reader can see, hear, or feel ✅
- B. A clear point or significance the events add up to ✅
- C. Piling on adjectives and adverbs to sound more "literary"
- D. A clear order in time (chronology) with transitions like then and by the time ✅
- E. Overwritten, cliché-stuffed sentences ("a whirlwind of emotions cascaded through my soul")
Feedback: Effective narrative uses concrete sensory detail (A), has a point (B), and follows a clear time order (D). Stacking adjectives (C) and purple prose (E) are the over-writing trap — detail is selective, not maximal.

Answer key (quick reference)

Quality gate (self-checked): each single-answer item (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q6, Q7, Q9, and the T/F Q8) has exactly one correct option; the multiple-answer item (Q10) keys A, B, D (and requires C and E left unselected); the matching item (Q5) pairs four detail types to four distinct examples one-to-one. No quotations from real authors, sources, or citations appear in this quiz — a personal narrative needs none, and every example sentence (and the "First, preheat the oven to 375°" process step) is the instructor's own illustration, attributed to no one — so there is nothing to mis-quote or misattribute. No computation in this quiz. No free-response items. The grammar/usage in every option is correct. Citation-integrity + correct-conventions gate: PASS.

Item-bank entries (for variants + the midterm/final)

All ten items are tagged course=ENGL1A · week=5 · objective=4 · topic=narration-exposition-showing-significance and deposited in Item Bank: Week 5 — Narrative & Expository Writing. The midterm (Week 8) and the per-term variant updates draw fresh items from this bank. (Tags: q1 narration-vs-exposition, q2 showing-vs-telling, q3 concrete-vs-abstract, q4 significance, q5 detail-type-match, q6 chronology-vs-process, q7 showing-not-adjectives, q8 narrative-needs-point, q9 exposition-defined, q10 effective-narrative-features.)

Canvas placement block

canvas_object   = Quizzes::Quiz
title           = "Week 5 Quiz — Narrative & Expository Writing"
assignment_group = "Quizzes"
points_possible = 10
grading_type    = points
due_offset_days = 6        # 6 days after module start
published       = true
shuffle_answers = true
ai_permitted    = false    # AI is not permitted on quizzes
provenance      = "~ Prof. Lindgren's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"