Working the Prompt The AP English Test Essay Questions

The prompt construction  SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT  Gives you the task to analyze

SUBJECT  Refers to the given text on which both the prompt and your essay are based.  Read the following passage from...  Writers often highlight  In the follow poem, the speaker discusses  In her book the author makes the following observation about...

VERB  Specifically tells you what to do with the text  Analyze how the writer uses literary devices  Analyze how the poet uses imagery  Compare, contrast, evaluate, justify, describe, discuss, identify and explain, relate, identify and discuss,

OBJECT = GOAL  Makes clear the overall purpose of your essay.  Two conflicts within one character illumination the meaning  Revelation of character  Reveals the speaker’s response to

Recognize Key Words and Phrases  Consider such stylistic devices as: diction, imagery, syntax..  Consider formal elements such as structure, syntax, diction...  Consider such poetic elements as imagery, metaphor, rhythm,

Such as versus Must  Watch out for key words.  Such as means you choose from the list or others.  Other language will indicate that you must use the words or titles in the list

Deconstruction Time  Carefully read the following passage form George Eliot’s novel Middlemarch (1871). Then write an essay in which you characterize the narrator’s attitude toward Dorothea Brooke and analyze the literary techniques used to convey the attitude. Support your analysis with specific references to the text.

Open question  Have eight plays or novels in your literary repertoire  Discuss ideas not literary techniques  How meaning is created by  Meaning = what is set in motion

Open question  Have eight plays or novels in your literary repertoire  Discuss ideas not literary techniques  How meaning is created by  Meaning = what is set in motion

2007  In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present actions, attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a play or novel in which a character must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character’s relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

1990  Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.

1991  Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposing forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work.