Sports | Ethics | Literature
Final Exam Guide – 15% of final grade
The final exam for #PSUsel is cumulative and consists of three parts. In part one, you will answer
eight out of ten short answer questions, worth four points each (there will be partial credit). These
questions will draw upon readings, class discussions, and class notes. Answer to these questions
should be roughly three sentences long. In part two, you will identify and explain short passages—
what work they came from, who is speaking (if there is a character speaking), and how the quote fits
into larger discussions of the work or the course. You must respond to 12 of 15 passages. Finally,
there will be two 16-point take-home essays you must answer in part three. Partial credit is available.
You must answer the first question, then you have your choice of questions 2-4.
Works This Exam May Draw From
Elaine Scarry, “Poetry Changed the World”
A. E. Housman, “To An Athlete Dying Young”
James Wright, “Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio”
Peter Berg, Friday Night Lights
Claudia Rankine, Citizen
David Foster Wallace, “How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart”
Brian Phillips, “The Sun Never Sets: On Roger Federer, Wimbledon, and Endings”
Brian Phillips, “Serena Williams’s Moment, Forever”
John Dahl, Rounders
Colson Whitehead, The Noble Hustle
Paul Beatty, White Boy Shuffle
Steve James, No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson
Robert Coover, Universal Baseball Association
Joseph O’Neill, Netherland
Ron Smith, Wounded Lions
Amir Bar-Lev, Happy Valley
Eric Porterfield, 365 Days: A Year in Happy Valley
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Sample Short Answer Questions
According to Allen Guttmann, what are four values associated with “modern” sports?
According to Elaine Scarry in “Poetry Changed the World,” what are the three qualities of
poetry that “diminish acts of injuring” in the world? For you, which is most important?
Sample Passage Identification
“In the quest for equality, black folks have tried everything. We’ve begged, revolted,
entertained, intermarried, and are still treated like shit. Nothing works, so why suffer the
slow deaths of toxic addiction and the American work ethic when the immediate
gratification of suicide awaits?”
#PSUsel Final Exam, Part III – Essay Section
Essay responses should be roughly four to five paragraphs long, convey an arguable thesis, and cite relevant quotes and
sources from throughout our semester together. You must answer question one and choose one of question 2-4.
Each essay is worth 16 points, with partial credit available.
1) During the semester, we examined the metaphorical implications of treating the world as
though it were the particular sport we were studying: What if the world is like cricket? What
if the world is like football? Like No Limit Texas Hold ’Em? Etc. Your task in this essay is
twofold. First, explain what sport the world is most like, and cite at least one work that we’ve
watched or read as justification for your position. Second, get more idealistic: Explain what
sport the world should be like and why. How does the world currently fail to meet the ideals
of the sport? This essay should include a combination of works that we’ve discussed and
personal experience.
2) One of the central themes of this course is that sports offers an important cultural site for
the examination of racial relations and racial identity. Drawing upon at least three works that
we’ve read or watched this semester, defend one of the following common claims:
a. Sports is a reflection or a mirror of racial relations in the United States.
b. Sports is an arena for racial equality and racial progress in the United States.
c. Black athletes do not make good political activists.
You may draw upon personal experience, but your examples from real life must be
secondary and only complementary to evidence that you pull from our readings and class
discussions.
3) We haven’t discussed this enough, but one of the implicit themes of this course is that, as
Lyla Garrity tells Tim Riggins, “It’s different for girls,” inside and around the world of
sports. Using at least three works that we’ve read or watched this semester, explain and
describe three central ways that girls and women experience the world of sports differently
than boys and men. You may draw upon personal experience, but your examples from real
life should be secondary and only complementary to evidence that you pull from our
readings and class discussions.
4) Look at the description and the goals of our two major projects in this course, the Athletic
Identity Project and the Documenting Penn State Project. Using these projects as guides for
what the course may have done well and could do better, design a new major project for the
Sports|Ethics|Literature course. Consider what its learning objectives should be, how the
project will be assessed, and whether it will supplement or replace an existing project.