Germanic (Linguistics of a Language Family)

I was to answer 2 of the following:

1. Early Germanic languages are generally subdivided into three major groups, namely East Germanic, North Germanic, and West Germanic. Discuss the criteria used to establish these subgroups, including innovations particular to each group. In cases of dispute, state opposing views.

2. Argue for a particular explanation of the class VII strong preterites of North and West Germanic. If you think they are innovations, are they parallel or historically shared, and if the latter, are they useful for subgrouping of the family?

3. Consider the forms of the nominal classes illustrated by the paradigms of Gothic dags, harjis, and hairdeis and the comparable paradigms in other early Germanic languages. Deal with the forms to be reconstructed for Proto-Germanic and their possible antecedents in Proto-Indo-European, and include a discussion of the changes to be posited in accounting for the correspondences.

4. Describe and contrast the "verb-second" rules of Old English and the continental West Germanic languages in terms of their structure, applicability, and effect on surface word order. What other factors have an effect on surface word order in West Germanic languages? Are those factors uniform across the subgroup, and if not, how do they differ from language to language?