Tutor profile: Andrew N.

Write a clear and concise topic sentence for the following paragraph of informative text taken from the Wikipedia entry for the Great Coalition (a topic in Canadian history): The government at that time was unable to pass any legislation because of the need for a double majority. In order for a bill to pass in the Legislative Assembly, there had to be a vote in both Canada East and Canada West sections of the assembly. As the French and the English could never agree on anything, this caused political deadlock. This coalition was intended to create resolution with long-term impacts in solving some of these problems and unify Canada.

There are many possible ways to write a good topic sentence for this paragraph, but any good answer would need to include a reference to the political issues and the fact that the Great Coalition was intended to address those issues. The original topic sentence is: The Great Coalition was created to eradicate the political deadlock between Canada West and Canada East.

Pick one of the literary allusions in T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" and explain what the reader should know in order to appreciate the reference.

One possible response: In V. "What the Thunder Said," Eliot makes reference to an abandoned chapel, which is a reference to the Arthurian legend where the chapel of the Holy Grail seems to be crumbling and abandoned. There is an additional Arthurian reference in this section when Eliot mentions fishing and putting lands in order. This is a reference to the Fisher King, the guardian of the Holy Grail. These allusions evoke the despair of arriving at a goal and it seeming as if one's efforts have been wasted for nothing.

What important literary device do authors use to create tension in a story by giving readers small glimpses of something that will happen later in the story? Give an example of this literary device in action.

Foreshadowing. Examples will vary. One possible example could be: In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," Poe foreshadows that Montressor will kill Fortunato by having Fortunato say, "I shall not die of a cough," and having Montressor reply, "True, true."