1. Writing for the AP Literature and Composition Exam
Style Analysis
Writing for the AP Literature and Composition Exam
Your exam is Wednesday,
May 4
8:00 a.m.

2. Independent REading
. Wednesday’s log: What’s the title of your book? What is the significance of this title?
Example: The title The Goldfinch represents the name of a famous painting the main character has stolen from an art museum when the museum is bombed during a terrorist attack. It’s significant because Theo spends twenty years of his life feeling guilty but not knowing how to return the painting without getting arrested. I think the tiny yellow goldfinch, the subject of the painting, may also be symbolic, but I’m not sure yet how.
You may add this week’s logs to the last 4 that you have not turned in yet:
What’s an emerging symbol or motif in your book? Form a hypothesis about its significance.
What’s something surprising your character has done? To what gain or loss?
When has your character done something for which he/she feels guilty? Describe the situation and explain how this guilt affected them. If your character carries no guilt, think of another character in literature you can write about today.
A foil character is one who opposes the main character and keeps him/her from achieving a goal. Make a t-chart and on 1 side list dominant character traits of the main character and on the other side list traits of a foil character in your novel

3. Homecoming days next week
Announcements
Homecoming days next week
Monday: PJ Day
Tuesday: Zombie Day
Wednesday: Princess/superhero day
Thursday: Toga Day
Friday: Black out Day
Powder Puff game Friday, Oct :30 $3
Halloween in the Halls: Monday, Oct. 26

4. What the Lit and Comp test looks like
3 hours long with two parts
55-60 multiple choice questions 45% of your grade
3 free response questions
55% of your grade

5. Multiple Choice section
1 hour long
4-5 passages from poetry, drama, fiction, and, occasionally, nonfiction
each piece followed by questions

6. Sample Multiple Choice Question
The tone in this poem is one of
condescension and contempt
respect and admiration
jealousy and envy
deference and humility
wistfulness and nostalgia

7. Free Response Section 2 hours long 3 essays (40 minutes each)
2 on a specific passage or poem that is provided
1 is open-ended and allows you to select the work of literature and write to a designated prompt

8. Sample Free Response Question
Where passage is provided:
This is a selection from the Preface of an early British novel. Read the passage carefully. In a well- organized essay discuss how the author’s calculating style attempts to manipulate the reader’s curiosity in order to lure him or her into reading the book itself. Pay particular attention to such stylistic devices as diction, imagery, and inference.

9. Sample Free Response Question
Where passage is not provided Often in literature, situations reach a “point of no return,” a point after which the life of a character can never be the same. Choose a novel or play in which a character reaches this point and write an essay explaining the situation and its effect on the character, the other characters, and the theme. You may choose a work from the list below or another novel or full-length play of literary merit. As I Lay Dying Othello Catch-22 The Sound and the Fury The Crucible The Turn of the Screw Hamlet Gulliver’s Travels 1984 Jane Eyre

10. What it all comes down to is . . .
Learning to think like a writer as you analyze the author’s craft (writing style).

11. Parts of a Whole
Analysis requires dividing the whole into parts to better understand the whole.
A mechanic has to understand how individual parts of a car work so he/she can understand how they contribute to the overall performance of the car.
A writer has to understand how an author uses individual rhetorical devices so he/she can understand how the author develops meaning.

12. The key word is Parts
This is a selection from the Preface of an early British novel. Read the passage carefully. In a well- organized essay discuss how the author’s calculating style attempts to manipulate the reader’s curiosity in order to lure him or her into reading the book itself. Pay particular attention to such stylistic devices as diction, imagery, and inference.
Think small units in analysis
With each small unit ask “What’s important about that unit?”
At the end put it all back together for the meaning of the work

13. 10 Go-to rhetorical devices
Tone
Diction (word choice)
Figurative language
Detail
Imagery
Point-of-view
Organization (of paragraphs, sentences, stanzas, etc.)
Irony
Syntax (sentence structure)
Mood
Create a mnemonic device (memory tool)
Write the sentence down 3 times
Draw a picture that helps you visualize your sentence
Recite your sentence to a neighbor
Mnemonic Device
Too many fuzzy details don’t shape our instantly intelligent plan.

14. Diction
One of the most powerful elements of style because it creates tone. All words have denotations (dictionary definitions) Many words also have connotations (implied or suggested meaning; the emotional tag that accompanies a word)

15. Denotation vs connotation
plump
obese
Denotation – overweight
Connotation –
plump – pleasantly fat, almost cutely overweight
Obese – often used by medical personnel, more technical or scientific

16. Analyzing Diction
Copy the following sentence. Underline words that have strong connotative meaning.
The boy surveyed the class, congratulating himself for snatching the highest grade on the test.

17. Write a sentence of analysis for the word snatching.
Analyzing Diction
The boy surveyed the class, congratulating himself for snatching the highest grade on the test. Once you identify an author’s diction, you must analyze it. Your analysis shows the reaction the reader has to the word choice and the emotional response it brings out in the reader. Example: The use of the word surveyed suggests the boy is looking around as if he were a king looking down on lowly subjects or a god on Mt. Olympus, sitting with other gods and looking down on lesser mortals.
You try it!
Write a sentence of analysis for the word snatching.

18. The Rattler Read “The Rattler” aloud.
Circle, highlight, or underline any examples of diction or figurative language that have a strong connotative effect on you.
After reading, create a list of connotative words from the passage and their suggested meanings.

19. Word from “The Rattler”
Analyzing Diction
Word from “The Rattler”
Denotative Meaning
Connotative Meaning
Savory
Pleasant
Mouthwatering, intense smell
Copy this literary term
Synesthesia – mixing of the senses; combination of sensations
Examples: describing colors as “loud” or smells as “savory”

20. Analyzing diction
Compare your connotative interpretations with other’s interpretations.
Choose 1 of the words and write a sentence that embeds 1-2 pieces of evidence from the test and one sentence of analysis about that evidence. Speak about the word(s) in the context of what’s happening in the text.
Example: The “savory odors” of the desert’s vegetation have helped establish a scene of tranquility as the evening “light is thinning” and the air is cooling. The author’s use of synesthesia to describe a smell that is so sweet it is mouthwatering, creates a sharp contrast to the abrupt intrusion he/she is about to encounter.
Notice how the quote from the text is embedded or incorporated in your original sentence. It doesn’t stand alone and it doesn’t include the phrase “the following quote means “

21. Creating a “Chunk” of evidence and analysis
Evidence: The “savory odors” of the desert’s vegetation have helped establish a scene of tranquility as the evening “light is thinning” and the air is cooling. Analysis: The author’s use of synesthesia to describe a smell that is so sweet it is mouthwatering, creates a sharp contrast to the abrupt intrusion the narrator is about to encounter. Analysis: A second contrast can be found in the image of the thinning light, as the dying day contrasts with the “blazing hours” of daylight in the desert.
Write a 2nd sentence of analysis about this evidence

22. Structure for body paragraphs in a literary analysis
Sentence 1: claim statement
Sentence 2: 1st piece of evidence – sentence that incorporates 2-3 words/ phrases from the passage
Sentence 3: 1st piece of analysis for sentence 2
Sentence 4: 2nd piece of analysis for sentence 2
Sentence 5: 2nd piece of evidence – another sentence that incorporates 2-3 different words/phrases from the passage
Sentence 6: 1st piece of analysis for sentence 5
Sentence 7: 2nd piece of analysis for sentence 5
Sentence 8: Concluding sentence

23. Structure for Body Paragraphs in a Literary Analysis
Claim statement
1st piece of evidence that uses 2-3 words/phrases from text
1st piece of analysis
2nd piece of analysis
2nd piece of evidence that uses 2-3 words/phrases from text
Concluding sentence
Structure for Body Paragraphs in a Literary Analysis

24. This is your 2nd evidence/analysis “chunk”
Analyzing Diction
Write a 2nd sentence of evidence that incorporates 2-3 quotes from the passage “The Rattler.”
Write 2 sentences of analysis that discuss the reader’s response to this evidence.
This is your 2nd evidence/analysis “chunk”

25. Topping it off and wrapping it up
You now have 6 sentences of evidence and analysis
Add a claim statement
Add a concluding sentence
You will have an 8-sentence body paragraph that analyzes diction!

26. Sample starter and closer sentences
Sample claim statement for a paragraph that analyzes diction: The author’s diction heightens the power and force behind the snake as it responds to the man and the man’s reluctance to take the life of the snake. Sample concluding sentence for a paragraph that analyzes diction: All involved recognize the strength of both the man and the almost-human snake, but know that responsibility and duty to others make the killing necessary.