1. Writing Under Time Pressure
Writing the AP Essay
Writing Under Time Pressure
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2. What Makes a Good AP Essay?
A good AP essay looks a lot like a good English literary analysis essay written under non-testing circumstances.
An AP essay should be a literary argument—a thesis you support with evidence.
But . . .
It may be shorter than the essays you have prepared for your English class.
And . . .
The readers forgive some errors they wouldn’t accept in a take- home assignment.
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Nevertheless. . .
Even though timed writing may contain a few minor errors in spelling, punctuation, idioms, syntax, or grammar, the resulting essay still needs to demonstrate control of these issues.
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4. How Many Errors are Too Many?
The AP readers work from a rubric.
Scores of 8 and 9 need not be error-free, but these essays contain only one or two errors.
Scores of 6 and 7 may contain a few errors but not so many as to call attention to themselves.
Essays that receive a 5 likely demonstrate basic control of language but may be peppered with errors.
Essays that receive a 3 or 4 contain quite a few errors—too many to ignore.
The scores of 1 and 2 go to essays with so many errors that they distract the reader from the content of the writing.
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Who Are These Readers?
The AP readers are college and high school teachers from around the United States and, indeed, the globe.
They assemble for a week and read the AP essays in large meeting rooms where the scoring is carefully monitored and supervised.
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6. What Are They Looking For?
The AP readers are looking for good reading and good writing. It’s that simple.
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Good Reading?
A “good reading” means a valid and insightful analysis, or interpretation.
Can I interpret a passage as I choose?
Good readers understand that there may be more than one way to interpret a literary passage or even a whole novel or play.
But there are also limits to interpretation.
Huckleberry Finn is not a car mechanic, a college drop-out, or a rap singer.
You may feel pretty sure that you’d never make such outrageous interpretations—and you probably wouldn’t— but there are still good, better, and best readings of a text.
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Like What?
Let’s work with Emily Dickenson’s short poem “My life closed twice before its close.” Read the poem on page 1064 of your text.
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A Good Reading
Dickinson relates that she has experienced loss twice before. She realizes she may suffer a third loss in the future. This third loss could be huge, and she can hardly conceive it. She then says that parting through loss, or probably death, is hell.
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A Better Reading
The speaker plays on the word “close.” First she means “shut down,” and second, she means “death.” Twice she has suffered loss. She thinks that Immortality, or perhaps God, like a magician behind a magic curtain, may whisk back the veil and reveal a third loss she will have to endure. The thought gives her pain, as these earlier losses have seemed huge, and she feels herself hopeless to prevent this third loss. Furthermore, just imagining this additional loss leads to to a thudding conclusion—that while we must die to enter heaven, parting from loved ones is as painful as hell must be.
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What’s the Difference?
The first reading shows a solid, literal understanding of the poem.
The second reading goes beyond the first reading by acknowledging the dual meanings as well as the metaphor implicit in “close,” by seeing the metaphor in “unveil,” by interpreting “Immortality,” and by seeing that the final couplet is the conclusion reached after considering the pain of loss.
The second is a “better” reading.
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12. What Else Besides “Good Reading” and Not Too Many Errors?
There’s more to good writing than the elimination of errors.
Good writing is
Clear
Organized
Coherent
Interesting in its use of language
Ideas should be
Accurate
Well-developed
Well-supported
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13. How Can I Write Well Under Time Pressure?
1. Don’t rush in. Spend at least five minutes gathering ideas, recalling facts, and organizing an essay plan. Take the preparatory time to develop a thesis that responds directly to the prompt. 2. Keep your introduction lean so that you can spend your time developing the ideas in the body of your essay. 3. Get in the habit of writing idea “sandwiches” to ensure that you are arguing a point and relating your ideas to your central thesis.
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Sandwiches?
You will be engaged in the act of literary argument
In literary argument, you propose your analysis of the text and supporting your analysis with details.
To argue well:
State the idea you want to prove or show. This is called “making your claim.”
Provide the evidence that illustrates or shows that your claim is true.
Explain how that evidence connects to further your claim.
These three steps make an “Evidence Sandwich”—
Claim/Evidence/Connection
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15. Example of a Three-Part Evidence Sandwich
Dickinson sees God or Fate as a person who holds a curtain that can be pulled back.
(This is the idea, the claim that you are making.)
She calls God “Immortality” and she personifies this deity with the word “unveil,” as though God were a magician behind a curtain.
(This sentence gives the quotations from the text to support the claim.)
She feels like the victim of a kind of trick, which leads to her desperate conclusion about the pain of death.
(This sentence ties sentence two to sentence one, and it tells us the significance of the claim in the text.)
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16. Let’s See It All Together
An Evidence Sandwich:
Dickinson sees God or Fate as a person who holds a curtain that can be pulled back. She calls God “Immortality” and she personifies this deity with the word “unveil,” as though God were a magician behind a curtain. She feels like the victim of a kind of trick, which leads to her desperate conclusion about the pain of death.
Writing in “Evidence Sandwiches” will keep your analysis on track.
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17. Why Should I Make These Sandwiches?
If you get in the habit of following each assertion with evidence and then relating the evidence to your topic or task, you’ll always be writing literary argument.
You can compose paragraphs made of one or two or even three of these little sandwiches and be sure that you are always engaged in analysis and not just summarizing or narrating.
This will lead to good writing on the AP exam.
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The Bottom Line
Read (or, for the Open Question, recall) the text under discussion as carefully and as fully as you can.
Write literary argument—assertions supported by evidence and analyzed in light of a thesis.
Avoid mistakes in spelling, grammar, and usage.
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