TESTS, LESSON PLANS, MISCELLANEOUS
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AP LIT AND COMP 002: A PLAN FOR ANALYZING POETRY (Language Words)
AP LIT AND COMP 005: TEN-STEP STRATEGY FOR ANALYZING AP PROSE PASSAGES
AP LIT AND COMP 006: HOW TO GET A SIX OR BETTER ON THE AP ESSAY EXAM
AP LIT AND COMP 008: 300 + TONE WORDS
AP LIT AND COMP 009: STEPS FOR CLOSE READING
AP LIT AND COMP 010: A MOMENT IN A NOVEL
AP LIT AND COMP 011: AP LITERARY TERMS
AP LIT AND COMP 201: THEATRE: UNDERSTANDING PLOT
AP LIT AND COMP 202: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EPIC HERO
AP LIT AND COMP 301: FIFTY YEARS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
State: to express in words (A general verb to begin things and much better than “says”)
· Hawthorne states in the “Customs House” section of the book that the imagination______
Express: directly, firmly and explicitly stated. (For when someone is making a strong point)
· Miller expresses his sentiments about censorship in his letters.
Indicate: to state or express briefly. (Use it when someone is being very direct and to the point.)
· Cardozo indicates his argument in a few short words: “_____________”
Declare: To make known formally and explicitly (This is for legal, religious, and governmental decrees.)
· The colonists declared in this document that no man should_____
Refer: to make mention or reference (When the writer is bringing in some outside source or event)
· King refers to many social problems in the essay.
Articulate: to express clearly (Use this when something is said clearly or as a transition.)
· The meaning here is inferred rather than articulated.
· She articulates her argument in the first paragraph. She states, “_______.”
Create: to produce through imaginative skill (“Imaginative” implies poetry, fiction, plays)
· In this poem Dickinson creates a vision of a world in which_________
· These words create in the reader a sense of_________
Conceive: to form or develop in the mind
· How Newton was able to conceive calculus simply boggles the mind.
Assemble: to fit together the parts of (To show you know how things are put together)
· Woolf has assembled her images beautifully in these prologues. She begins with _______
· At the end, O’Brien leaves the reader to assemble the meaning of these fragments.
Construct: to set in a logical order (like an essay); to make or form by combining parts
· Darwin constructs his argument carefully. He first introduces ______ and then he ______
· Conrad constructs the story in an unusual way. Instead of a chronological narrative, he ______
Presents: to bring or introduce into the presence of someone. (Use it for an argument or theory.)
· Freud presents his argument in a straightforward fashion.
Introduce: to present or announce formally and officially (New ideas for instance)
· Einstein introduced his theory of special relativity in 1906.
Establish: to make firm or stable (For a political tract, but also to qualify your own understanding)
· Machiavelli establishes his thesis quickly. In the very first line of The Prince he states, _________
· It’s difficult to establish Donne’s intentions in this second stanza. He might be ____
Affirm: to validate or confirm. (You use this to prove something.)
· This scene affirms that Lear is not yet mad. Otherwise, why would he____
· Keats' poem affirms the belief that man can__________
Reveal: to open up to view (A good verb for when you’ve discovered something in the text)
· This scene reveals several conflicts: the struggle of ______, the disagreement between ______ and_______, and the____
Disclose: to expose to view (Use when you want to imply something is difficult to figure out.)
· Plath is not about to disclose her intents here easily or quickly.
Convey: to impart or communicate by statement, suggestion, gesture or appearance. (Used when a writer is employing many different tricks to get his/her point across)
· Emerson conveys his point though statements, images and rhetorical questions.
Contrast: to compare or appraise in respect to differences (Use it to show you’ve figured out a contrast.)
· Fitzgerald contrasts Daisy with Jordan. Daisy is _______, whereas Jordan _________.
· The tone of this final stanza is in marked contrast to the opening lines.
Apply: to put into operation or effect. (Use this to show you can see some idea being applied.)
· When Godel applied his theory to quantum mechanics he ____________________
Classify: to arrange in classes (More for hard science, but could be use in social science or literature)
· Erickson classifies eight stages of identity development.
· We cannot classify this as a traditional elegy since the grief is private.
Clarify: to free of confusion. (Good when a plot problem clears up or when someone gets into a debate.)
· Tom and Huck clarify the confusion in chapter 31.
Relate: to show or establish logical casual connection between. (Very good when discussing cause and effect)
· This obviously relates to what happened earlier in the book when Pecola ________
Generate: to bring into being, give rise to. (Use it to show the power of a passage on a reader.)
· This passage generates lots of emotion in the reader. One feels both ____ and _____
· Emma’s decision generates a series of events which culminate in _________
Awaken: to cause to wake up (Use this for reaction after a moment of discovery.)
· The abrupt silence at the end of this scene awakens the reader to the fact that_______
Recall: to remember, recollect, bring to mind (When you identify a connection with some other text)
· This line recalls Romeo famous remark: ___________
Energize: to make energetic or vigorous. (Use this for writing that really gets you going.)
· The enjambment really energies the poem. The reader’s eyes rush from_______ to_______ to______.
Involve: to wrap, envelope (Use this when you’ve totally entered into the world of the writing.)
· Marquez’s remarkable story totally involves us in Florentino’s quest.
Provoke: to incite to anger (Show you know when the intent is there to anger or challenge.)
· Was Ginsburg trying to provoke people when he wrote “Howl?” I believe so.
Stir: to disturb the quiet of; to bring into notice or debate (A subtle word for feelings or ideas aroused)
· This final image stirs in us a sense of _________
Evoke: to call to mind by naming, citing or suggesting (Use it when you want to be poetic)
· These lines clearly evoke a sense of _______
· The scenes with Scout and her brother evoke a more innocent time, a time when_____
Infer: to derive as a conclusion from facts or premises (If you can show you’ve inferred something, do it)
· One can infer from these lines that Tennyson________
· It’s difficult to infer here, but I would guess Dillard believes that _________
Imply: to express or indicate indirectly (Also for showing you can read between the lines)
· This remark by Hamlet implies that Ophelia _____________
Signify: mean, denote; imply (Use it for symbols and for actions.)
· The Roman cross signifies many of things. First, ________
· What does Allie’s baseball mitt signify? It could mean a number of things.
Allude to: to make an indirect reference (Any allusions you find, use this)
· Auden alludes to Greek mythology quite often in this poem. In line 9 he______
· Darrow alludes to the situation only indirectly in his closing.
Suggest: to bring or call to mind by logic or association; to make evident indirectly. (Inference is implied here)
· In these lines Tolstoy seems to suggest that _______
· These are images that suggest both hope and desire.
VERBS FOR CONCLUDING
Realize: to make real or fulfill. (Summing up whether or not the writer succeeded)
Faulkner’s characters in As I Lay Dying are among the most fully realize in all of literature.
I believe in the end, Flaubert realizes his goal—to create a portrait of________
Produce: to give being, form or shape to. (Think of this as creating, but in a concluding sense)
This final line produces in the reader a sense of dread.
Beckett has produced here a work of uncompromising honesty.
Accomplish: to succeed in doing, to bring to pass (Use it to recognize achievement.)
Henry accomplished what he set out to do—mobilize popular sentiment against the British.
Achieve: to carry out successfully
Edison clearly achieved what he set out to do with this invention--______________
Does Gatsby achieve his dream? Obviously not
Demonstrate: to prove or make clear by reasoning or evidence (Use it when an argument has been proven.)
Currie demonstrates with this experiment that penicillin __________
Support: to uphold or defend as valid or right (Use this when statistics or evidence is present.)
Mead supports her theory with empirical evidence.
Resolve: to reduce by analysis; find an answer to. (Use this in discussing science, philosophy and literature)
Hegel was never fully able to resolve the problem of dialectics.
VERBS TO USE WHEN ANALYZING POETRY
Confer: to give, grant or bestow,
The imagery confers on the poem a sense of pathos.
Enact: to act out
Stevens enacts the idea though the use of imagery.
Refine: to make more subtle or precise
The introduction of the second voice refines the meaning
Replicate: the repeat of duplicate
Glück replicates the feeling again in the last stanza
Display: to unfold to the eye, put or spread out so as to be seen
Plath displays the whole scene of us at the end.
Mimic: to imitate in speech or action, to copy closely
Keats mimics the sound of the bird with the long “e” sounds.
Consist: to be formed or composed
The poem primarily consists of metaphor and personification.
Revert: go back in action thought or speech
The last line reverts back to the opening stanza where the…….
AP LIT AND COMP 002: A PLAN FOR ANALYZING POETRY / RYCHLEWSKI
In order to write an essay in which you analyze a poem you must do more than just identify the poetic devices. You must understand HOW these devices operate to convey the effect and meaning of the poem, and you must explain this operation in as clear and as logical a manner as the poem will allow. In short, you should ALWAYS be reading for a theme and ALL the aspects of the poem that you intend to write about should contribute to the explication of this theme. The meanings of poems, however, just don't jump out at you. It takes years of practice to read a poem and "get it" quickly. What to do then, when you have an AP poem in front of you and you have to start writing but aren't sure what the poet is saying about life? My first suggestion is to re-read the poem two or three more times, so that you do have SOME idea of a theme and can state it up front. But if you've re-read it a dozen times and it's still vague, you must begin writing. What follows are suggestions for possible paragraphs that will help you get a handle on things. This plan should in no way be considered a standard AP formula for writing on poetry because THERE IS NO STANDARD AP FORMAT FOR WRITING ON POETRY. Each well-written AP essay develops organically; that is, the writing emerges in response to the energies (form, style, content) in the poem itself. What all good essays have in common, though, is the ability to marshal proof for their thesis. As you become more comfortable with the suggestions below and begin to develop your own style and voice, you will use the elements you need, disregard some, and adapt others. Over time, of course, you will get the meaning of poems more quickly and will be able to dive immediately into the discussion of the theme. Remember: there is no quick solution to writing well on poetry. You have to reads LOTS of poems.
HERE ARE SOME POSSIBLE PARAGRAPHS:
THE TITLE: As I said, it would be best if you could explain the
theme of the poem in the first sentence or two. That way you would have a thesis
to work with throughout your essay. That's important because you don't want to
try to wander around in the forest of your words looking for a way out. Sometimes, though, students struggle with
the theme, and they have trouble articulating it as they start writing. Clearly, you
can't spend the first half-hour just trying to think about a theme. Discussing
the title offers a window into the possible meaning of the poem. Titles are as
important to a poem as any part of the text. Ask yourself, “Why this title? What does it
make me think about?” What does it suggest? Can you make out any connection or
contrast with the text of the poem. Does the title sum up the text? Is it a
small but important moment in the text? Opening sentences might look like this: “This
poem is called _________ and the title clearly
prepares the reader for what is to come.” or “(quote the title) suggests
___________, yet the text seems to offer an ironic contrast." Briefly explore these expectations in your paragraph. It can work as a clean
introduction to the essay and as a great mind clearing exercise as well. And it
may lead you down the road to the theme. This is not to imply you should fill up
the first paragraph with every possible interpretation of the title. Find a
reasonable one and offer that. Like I said, it's a good throat clearing device, and especially if
you're not sure about the theme. But again, it's better to have some big idea
about the poem BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO WRITE. And, of course, nowhere is it written
in stone that you must begin with the title or even mention the thematic
implications of the title in your essay.
PARAPHRASE: In one of the early paragraphs you might try to state what the poem is about in simple and clear language. Break down the poem into manageable units, perhaps by stanzas or through dramatic shifts in thought, then create a clear sentence for each unit. If the poem has punctuation, break it into sentences to work your way through that way. Try reading the poem as prose. Try reading it as an argument. Remember that when you paraphrase you’re also giving a brief general picture. If certain parts of the poem can’t be clearly paraphrased, perhaps there is ambiguity in meaning. If so, mention it. But don't dwell on it. The AP reader wants to see what you can figure out, not what you can't. Perhaps during the paraphrasing you will come to an understanding of the theme of the poem. If you think you have discovered it, go right ahead and mention it. Now you have a theme and you can marshal all your evidence to prove it. The AP reader won't mind if it took you two paragraphs to get to the theme. At least you're there. It's not required that you paraphrase a poem, and, frankly, poetry doesn't lend itself to easy paraphrasing. Possible sentences might be: "In brief, this poem explores (recounts, presents) ___________." or "The plot of the poem is fairly clear: ____________________"
ANTECEDENT SCENARIO: Sometimes it's good to suggest or infer what happened to to poet BEFORE they wrote the poem. Think about what is was that caused the poet to write this. In many cases it will seem obvious: the death of friend, an important historical event, the pleasure of spring, growing old, new love. Many times, though, the motives will be as complicated as the poem. You might write: "The occasion for this poem appears to be _________." or "The poet probably wrote this poem in response to__________. This is evident in stanza three where he _____________." Why did the author write it? Might something have happened? Is it obvious what happened? If you can't figure out why the poet wrote the poem, don't sweat it. But if you can, that discovery may lead you to the theme as well.
VOICE: There is always someone talking in a poem and it's foolish to assume that it's the always the poet. Sure, the poet wrote the poem, but that doesn't mean that he or she is speaking there. They could have created a persona. It's always safer to refer to the main voice as the "speaker in the poem." Of course, there can be several voices in a poem. A first way to think about this is to ask if the voice is in the first person ("I") or the third ("they"). Or a combination. Can the voice be distinguished according to the language being used? The poem might have a formal quality, like an elegy. So is this someone giving a eulogy? Or maybe the speaker will sound casual and conversational? Ask yourself why this is? Do you sense a person in real life here as opposed to some “far away poetic voice?” If so, what kind of person might it be? Is it the same person at different times in her life? Is a religion, nationality or profession evident here--Jew, Mexican, communist, uncle, teacher, nurse? Is their identity crucial to understanding this poem? Is this some sort of outside observer? Is he close to the situation but not that close? Do you believe this to be the voice poet or are you hearing or a persona? Who is there? Why? Try: “One can imagine the speaker of this poem to be ________"
CONNOTATION: Connotation means the emotional overtone of a word. But it also means the poetic devices that contribute to the meaning and effect of the poem. In short, the nuts and bolts of the poem--how it's put together. Pick out the most dramatic examples and explain what specific role they play in articulating the theme. (It is hoped by now you've got an idea what the poet is saying about life.) There is no need to try to discuss every example. Focus on the three or four most salient features. It might be the rhyme and the metaphors. Or alliteration and personification. In another case symbolism or allusion might be the key. Maybe you can explain how sound contributes to meaning.. Or maybe there are words that suggest a certain emotional feeling (the "connotation" mentioned above). What about line breaks? Enjambment and caesura are in almost every poem. Enjambment generates excitement in a reader, urging her forward. Caesura, on the other hand, cuts line in half with a pause, stopping the reader for a moment. Show you can identify some literary devices and explain what they do and how they support or convey the theme. NOTE: When you write about connotation try to avoid simplistic transitions so that it doesn't look like a 5-paragraph essay. And avoid doing one literary device at a time, it's boring to read. Moving in chronological order works well, gathering the evidence as you go along: (Ex: "In the opening paragraph the choice of words creates... Later, the emphasis is on the line breaks, which suggests...") (As opposed to the laundry list: "She uses diction in stanza 2, 5 and 6.") You might say something like: “It's obvious that two most salient poetic features here are the use of internal rhyme and enjambment. The internal rhyme allows the reader to recall the words '__________' when they echo in '___________" and the enjambment energizes the reader by __________. The elements contribute to the theme because the poet wants the reader to feel a sense of__________ and these poetic features do it." This part of the essay is EXTREMELY important. It is the PROOF for your argument. It shows you understand how the poet achieved the articulation of his theme.
TONE: This is the author’s attitude toward the subject. There are five-sub-categories to tone:
1) Diction: Ask yourself what word choices are being made and why. Why “cackle” instead of “chuckle?” Why “domicile” instead of “home?” Think like a thesaurus. What does the word choice reveal about the author’s attitude toward the subject.
2) Images: Look for any vivid descriptions or figures of speech. Or the lack of. They will reveal--very subtly--the tone. Work from a tone list back into the poem, if necessary. Consider if any of the images feel proud, shocking, poignant, angry, nostalgic, apologetic.
3) Details: Consider what is shown or said and what is not shown or said. Also, who is saying it. Again, try to get a feel for the identity of the speaker. Consider exigency here—what has motivated writer to write this poem? That may give you a door into the tone.
4) Language: This is the force or quality of the diction, images and details. Again, you might work backwards from the language list. Know those words. Use them. Is the language obtuse? Exact? Slangy? Vulgar? Detached? What does that say about the author’s attitude toward the subject?
5) Sentence Structure: The fancy name for this is “syntax.” Are the sentences long or short? Why? Are there are lot of questions? Does each sentence begin with the same pattern? Are the ideas arranged in a special way? Are strange words always juxtaposed together? How does this affect the tone?
You'll notice that TONE has five sub-categories. It is perhaps the most important and most difficult element to understand. If you fail to interpret the tone correctly you often miss the meaning of the poem. Collect a short list of tone words and work with them. Learn as many as you can and continually use them. If you understand the subtle nuances in tone, you will be able to generate a sharp reading of a poem. 2) Learn the definition of common poetic terms. It’s not that you need to whip them out to impress the AP reader, but if you can’t identify a metaphor or personification correctly, you will look foolish. 3) Study the list of language words below. You will need to know them so you can explain the force or quality of the images, the details and the diction.
SHIFT: (Progression) Almost every poem has at least one shift--a switch in the gears or the focus, if you will. Read the poem and find those shifts. You don’t need to “understand” the poem to see shifts, but recognizing them may help you figure out what’s going on. And that will lead to the theme. Ask yourself: what kind of shift is it and why? And remember, there are dozens of ways a poet can shift the emphasis in a poem. A good first way to think about shift is to read the poem AS PROSE. This can be done if there is punctuation. Is there an argument here? What is it? Where does it shift? Here are possible signposts for shifts: by stanza (but don’t expect each stanza break to be a shift); in person (I, she); in diction (words used. Ex: more flowery, more direct); in verb tense (any shift is important, ask why the poet is doing it); in logic (the repetition or variation of images; the presentation of parts in relation to a whole); in the switching of subjects (why?); in the order of speech acts (if it’s a question followed by an answer, why? If there’s narration followed by dialogue, why?); in the form (long lines, iambic pentameter, short jagged lines, occasional rhyme, some sections longer); in punctuation; in rhyme switch; in sound; in details; in images; in tone. FIND THE SHIFTS! Think about them. Do any indicated a shift in some big thematic picture? “There are several shifts in this poem. The first is in the form--___________. The second occurs with the choice of diction. At the beginning the poet uses ________, but in the third stanza switches to ___________.” Again, being able to recognize shifts. Breaking the poem into parts will really give you a window into the theme.
CONCLUSION: There is no one right way to conclude an
analysis of a poem. Clearly restating (or stating, if it's the first time) the
theme would obviously be wise. It shows you've been on task and you know what
you're talking about. But there are other and/or additional approaches. One is
to revisit the title to see if it, in fact, illuminates the poem in any new way.
(EX: "As you can see, this title does suggest..." or "The title clearly
summarizes the the tensions in the poem." Another is to offer some interesting
observations such as commenting on that type of poem, perhaps bringing other
poets and poems into play as way of reference:
An example would be: "Like _________ and _________ before home, ___________
understands the nature of love." Or discuss some historical context: "The period
of ____________ was a difficult time for ____________ and this poem truly
conveys that____________" It shows you understand the poem in a larger
context. Maybe mention the effect of the poem's personal touch (if there is
one). Or it's formal feel. Or how it's rich
detail creates some effect. Perhaps there is a moment where you were really
captured by the poet’s imagination, their use of images or diction, a final
powerful three word conclusion, their dreamy atmosphere. Whatever moment knocked
you out, let the AP reader know it. Translate your passion to them. Don't overdo
it. One or two sentences are quite enough. They won't be bothered by any of this
and, if fact, will appreciate your voice and style, AS LONG AS YOU HAVE ANALYZED
THE POEM.
FINAL REMARKS ON THEME: It's probably better, as I said, to understand what the poem is about BEFORE you write and have the theme explicated up front. This is why you read and re-read and mark up the text. But if your understanding of the theme is coming into focus during the writing or near the end, then that's when it's coming in. You may have to go back and re-write a few early sentences or cross out some comments based on this new understanding. If so, do it. But AT SOME MOMENT IN YOUR ANALYSIS YOU NEED TO EXPLICATE THE THEME. It's the big enchilada! What is the poet saying about life, experience, the human condition or the price of tomatoes in the winter? A good way to attack this is to list the subjects of the poem from the most literal to the most abstract and then try to sum up what the poet is saying about each in a simple sentence. Great poems just don't have one theme. But your job on the AP is to find one arguable theme and argue it. Themes are slippery. Very few elements in poems are as simple as they seems.
LANGUAGE WORDS
jargon pedantic poetic vulgar
euphemistic moralistic scholarly pretentious
slang insipid sensuous idiomatic
informal ordinary formal precise
exact cultured esoteric learned
picturesque connotative symbolic homespun
plain simple provincial literal
figurative trite colloquial bombastic
obscure artificial obtuse precise
detached grotesque exact emotional
biblical concrete journalistic instructional
AP LIT AND COMP 003: A CHECKLIST FOR DESCRIBING POEMS
1. Meaning: Can you paraphrase in prose the general outline of the poem?
2. Antecedent scenario: What has been happening before the poem begins? What has provoked the speaker into utterance? How has the previous equilibrium been unsettled? What is the speaker upset about?
3. Division into parts: How many? Where do the breaks come?
4. The climax. How do the other parts fall into place around it?
5. The other parts: What makes you divide the poem into these parts? Are there changes in person? In agency? In tense? In parts of speech?
6. Find the skeleton: What is the emotional curve on which the whole poem is strung? (It even helps to draw a shape--a crescendo, perhaps, or an hourglass-shape, or a sharp ascent followed by a steep decline--so you know how the poem looks to you as a whole.)
7. Games with the skeleton: How is this emotional curve made new?
8. Language: What are the contexts of diction; chains of significant relation; parts of speech emphasized; tenses; and so on?
9. Tone: Can you name the pieces of the emotional curve--the changes in tone you can hear in the speaker's voice as the poem goes along?
10. Agency and speech acts: Who is the main agent in the poem, and does the main agent change as the poem progresses?
(NOTE: agency refers to the subject/verb. The subject is the agent of the verb. In some poems, the subject may change. It is important to know who owns, by agency, each part of every poem. A poem may begin with "he," then move to "she," then move to "they," then move to the omniscient narrator.) See what the main speech act of the agent is and whether that changes. Notice oddities about agency and speech acts.
11. Roads not taken: Can you imagine the poem written in a different person, or a different tense, or with the parts rearranged, or with an additional stanza, or with one stanza left out, conjecturing by such means why the poet might have wanted these pieces in this order?
12. The imagination: What has it invented that is new, striking, memorable--in content, in genre, in analogies, in rhythm, in a speaker?
© Helen Vendler 2002
AP LIT AND COMP 004: RECOGNIZING DIFFERENT TYPES OF ESSAYS / RYCHLEWSKI
Recognizing narrative, expository, argumentative and speculative essays AND satire
1. Narrative essays tell stories and usually stimulate the reader with diction (choice of words), syntax (grammatical structure), imagery (figurative language), and tone (author’s attitude toward the subject). In a narrative essay like “Benny Paret” these tricks involve you in the story—commas to simulate the jabs, sentence length to create the ebb and flow of the fight, images of Paret going down like a large ship. When you recognize a narrative essay look for these tricks and examine their effect on the reader.
2. Expository essays explain and clarify ideas. Keep the words “explain” and “clarify” in mind as you read and try to find examples. Mention this explanation and clarification in your analysis. Think of these essays in terms of an outline--major points, supporting evidence--and mention this outline structure in your writing. EX: “He explores three distinct aspects of the problem.” Remember that there isn’t a lot of argumentation in expository essays, but there are other rhetorical strategies: process analysis, cause and effect, division and classification, extended definition. You’ve written these essays over your high school career. Look for them and recognize them on the AP.
3. Argumentative essays are almost always the same--they argue a point and provide evidence. This evidence can be factual, empirical, or anecdotal. Usually the factual evidence cites some authority. For instance, Goldsmith in his essay on Sentimental Comedy refers to Aristotle. Empirical evidence, on the other hand, may be something the writer witnessed. There is the infamous story of Kitty Genovese, who lay stabbed and dying in a street in New York, while fifty or so people walked by. These fifty would be empirical evidence that people don’t care. If it’s anecdotal evidence, the writer might cite something her Grand Ma often said. These strategies are all used for one thing--to prove a point. Recognize them when you see them. The author may also use humor, irony, or rhetorical questions. They may also use one the three major rhetorical tricks: logos (the proof in the argument of the issue itself), ethos (the proof in the good character of the writer--meaning she’s fair and well informed), and pathos (the proof in the arousing of emotions in the reader--patriotism, faith). Recognize these.
4. Speculative essays. These are essays where the author is meditating on something or exploring an idea. There will be lots of associative thinking in these essays and the thesis might not always be clear. Speculative essays are very hard essays to pin down and very hard essays to write on. You may read an essay and say, “Well, what’s the point?” This could be a key that it’s a speculative essay. AT LEAST try to find examples of this speculation, this uncertainty, these interrupted flow of thoughts and label them as such, demonstrating to the AP reader that you recognize that this is a speculative essay. Many (but not all) speculative essays have a comparison/contrast elements in them. Look for that. There may also be interruption in the flow of the essay, what we call “intercalary paragraphs.” If you see this—another narrative being inserted—then you might be reading a speculative essay. But this is not necessarily true. “Monarch Butterflies” has some speculative moments in it -- “I wondered how many more hills and houses it would have to climb before it could rest.” --but it is not generally a speculative essay. It’s more a narrative/expository essay. She describes what happens and also explains a little bit about what monarch butterflies look like and do.
5. Satire is a whole other species. Usually it is written to expose, ridicule, deride or denounce such things as vice, folly, evil or stupidity that are found in people, groups, ideas, institutions, customs, or beliefs. There are two types of satire--harsh (Juvenalian) and gentle (Horatian). Twain mocks religion in Huckleberry Finn. It’s mostly Horatian satire, but there are some Juvenalian moments. When you read satire you must think about who the audience is. Swift wanted the British Government to listen to the plight of the poor in Ireland so he proposed that the babies of the poor be eaten to eliminate the starvation. Also note what the author’s methods are. Think about the tricks the writer is using: irony, parody, reversal or inversion, hyperbole, understatement, sarcasm, wit, invective. Look especially for irony. Any opposites are to be noted. Show your AP reader that you see this is a satire. Be careful though because some very naturalistic writing may seem so sincere as to be satiric. The Grapes of Wrath is an example. (Perhaps it’s our wise-guy Onion Magazine ironic age) You have to always ask yourself: is this for real or is the author making fun of something or someone? If so, is it satire or just humor inside another rhetorical form?
AP LIT AND COMP 005: TEN-STEP STRATEGY FOR ANALYZING AP PROSE PASSAGES / RYCHLEWSKI
1) What is happening?
2) How is it happening?
3) What devices are being used to make it happen?
4) What is the effect of these devices on the reader?
5. END WITH A PUNCH. DO NOT END WITH A SUMMERY OF WHAT YOU HAVE JUST SAID. THEY KNOW WHAT YOU SAID. THEY JUST READ IT! END WITH SOME EXAMPLE FROM THE LAST PARAGRAPH THAT MAKES THE FINAL POINT. THEN BANG! YOU’RE DONE!
6. Sleep tight. You got a 6. (Maybe even a 7) (And on a sunny day, an 8)
AP LIT AND COMP 007: TEN BASIC STUDY QUESTIONS FOR AN AP TEXT / RYCHLEWSKI
Answer in complete paragraphs. Number your answers.
1.Make sure you have the title and author spelled correctly.
2.Identify, explain, and support the major themes (3 or more) with illustrating incidents.
3.Discuss major and minor characters; identify traits and incidents which illustrate their personalities (at least 5).
4.Discuss the significance and influence of the setting or fictional society.
5.Discuss the relation of the narrator to the subject and the author.
6.Define and explain the moral or ethical problems explored.
7.Select 5 quotations (with page numbers) which illustrate the effectiveness of the writer's craft. Identify each:
mood/tone, imagery, symbolism, characterization, and whatever else seems appropriate.
8.Discuss the historical background or perspective.
9.Discuss the relevance of the work to the present time.
10.Discuss the role of fate in the work.
AP LIT AND COMP 008: 300 + TONE WORDS
|
abashed
allusive
apologetic audacious
bantering
boring
burlesque
childish
clinical conceited |
concerned
conciliatory
didactic
disdainful dramatic
dreamy enthusiastic
eulogistic
|
evasive
exhausted
fanciful
frivolous
generous
giddy
hollow
horrific inflammatory |
informal informative insecure insipid
insistent
joking mock-heroic mock-horrific mock-imploring mock-inquisitive
mock-serious
moralistic
paranoid |
passionate
pathetic
peaceful petty
petulant
pitiful
provocative
restrained
seductive sexy
shocking simple |
sinister
skeptical
sweet
taunting
tired
turgid vexed
vibrant
|
AP LIT AND COMP 009: STEPS FOR CLOSE READING
An explication de texte (cf. Latin explicare, to unfold, to fold out, or to make clear the meaning of) is a finely detailed, very specific examination of a short poem or short selected passage from a longer work, in order to find the focus or design of the work, either in its entirety in the case of the shorter poem or, in the case of the selected passage, the meaning of the microcosm, containing or signaling the meaning of the macrocosm (the longer work of which it is a part). To this end "close" reading calls attention to all dynamic tensions, polarities, or problems in the imagery, style, literal content, diction, etc. By examining and thinking about opening up the way the poem or work is perceived, writers establish a central pattern, a design that orders the narrative and that will, in turn, order the organization of any essay about the work. Coleridge knew about this method when he referred to the "germ" of a work of literature (see Biographia Literaria). Very often, the language creates a visual dynamic as well as verbal coherence.
Close Reading or Explication de texte operates on the premise that literature, as artifice, will be more fully understood and appreciated to the extent that the nature and interrelations of its parts are perceived, and that that understanding will take the form of insight into the theme of the work in question. This kind of work must be done before you can begin to appropriate any theoretical or specific literary approach. Follow these instructions so you don't follow what Mrs. Arable says about the magical web of Charlotte's in Charlotte's Web, "I don't understand it, and I don't like what I don't understand."
Follow these steps before you begin writing. These are pre-writing steps, procedures to follow, questions to consider before you commence actual writing. Remember that the knowledge you gain from completing each of the steps is cumulative. There may be some information that overlaps, but do not take shortcuts. In selecting one passage from a short story, poem, or novel, limit your selection to a short paragraph (4-5 sentences), but certainly no more than one paragraph. When one passage, scene, or chapter of a larger work is the subject for explication, that explication will show how its focused-upon subject serves as a macrocosm of the entire work—a means of finding in a small sample patterns which fit the whole work.
If you follow these 12
steps to literary awareness, you will find a new and exciting world.
Do not be concerned if you do not have all the answers to the questions in this
section. Keep asking questions; keep your intellectual eyes open to new
possibilities.
Conclusion.
Now, and only now are you ready to begin your actual writing. If you find
that what you had thought might be the theme of the work, and it doesn't "fit,"
you must then go back to step one and start over. This is a trial and error
exercise. You learn by doing. Finally, the explication de texte should
be a means to see the complexities and ambiguities in a given work of
literature, not for finding solutions and/or didactic truisms.
© http://theliterarylink.com/closereading.html
PURPOSE: To allow you to demonstrate your ability to do a close, critical reading of a section of a novel. To identify and examine a part of a novel to the whole of a novel.
ASSIGNMENT: Pick and important novel and examine one moment in, provide a close reading of that moment, and explain how it resonates with meaning that would not have been apparent to a casual reader.
CONSIDERATIONS: There are several important points you need to consider as you think about the assignment and prepare your proposal.
PROPOSAL: In your proposal, you must include the following:
SPECIFICS: You final paper will be no more than three pages double spaces in length.
Be prepared to rewrite both your proposal and your draft.
© Cathy D’Agostino
AP LIT AND COMP 011: AP LITERARY TERMS
ALLEGORY story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other
people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities.
EXAMPLE: Animal Farm; Dante’s Inferno; Lord of the Flies
ALLITERATION repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are
close together.
EXAMPLE: “When the two youths turned with the flag they saw that much of the
regiment had crumbled away, and the dejected remnant was coming slowly
back.” –Stephen Crane (Note how regiment and remnant are being used; the
regiment is gone, a remnant remains…)
ALLUSION reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature,
religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference to
something (usually from literature, etc.).
AMBIGUITY deliberately suggesting two or more different, and sometimes conflicting,
meanings in a work. An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way-
- this is done on purpose by the author, when it is not done on purpose, it is vagueness,
and detracts from the work.
ANALOGY Comparison made between two things to show how they are alike
ANAPHORA Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more
sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer’s
point more coherent.
ANASTROPHE Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a
sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. It is a fancy word for inversion.
ANECDOTE Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something,
often shows character of an individual
ANTAGONIST Opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero, or protagonist, in a
story.
ANTIMETABOLE Repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical
order.
Moliere: “One should eat to live, not live to eat.” In poetry, this is called chiasmus.
ANTITHESIS Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by
means of grammatical structure.
Literary Terms page 2
ANTIHERO Central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with
heroes. may lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples.
ANTHROPOMORPHISM attributing human characteristics to an animal or inanimate
object (Personification)
APHORISM brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life,
or of a principle or accepted general truth. Also called maxim, epigram.
APOSTROPHE calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or
thing, or a personified abstract idea. If the character is asking a god or goddess for
inspiration it is called an invocation.
Josiah Holland ---“Loacöon! Thou great embodiment/ Of human life and human history!”
APPOSITION Placing in immediately succeeding order of two or more coordinate
elements, the latter of which is an explanation, qualification, or modification of the first
(often set off by a colon). Paine: “These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer
soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country;
but he that stands it Now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
ASSONANCE the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant
sounds especially in words that are together.
ASYNDETON Commas used without conjunction to separate a series of words, thus
emphasizing the parts equally: instead of X, Y, and Z... the writer uses X,Y,Z.... see
polysyndeton.
BALANCE Constructing a sentence so that both halves are about the same length and
importance. Sentences can be unbalanced to serve a special effect as well.
CHARACTERIZATION the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a
character.
INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION the author reveals to the reader what the
character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the
reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character’s private thoughts
and feelings, by revealing the characters effect on other people (showing how
other characters feel or behave toward the character), or by showing the character
in action. Common in modern literature
DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION the author tells us directly what the
character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on. Romantic style
literature relied more heavily on this form.
STATIC CHARACTER is one who does not change much in the course of a
story.
Literary Terms page 3
DYNAMIC CHARACTER is one who changes in some important way as a
result of the story’s action.
FLAT CHARACTER has only one or two personality traits. They are one
dimensional, like a piece of cardboard. They can be summed up in one phrase.
ROUND CHARACTER has more dimensions to their personalities---they are
complex, just a real people are.
CHIASMUS In poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is
syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed. Coleridge: “Flowers
are lovely, love is flowerlike.” In prose this is called antimetabole.
CLICHE is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because
of overuse. Avoid clichés like the plague. (That cliché is intended.)
COLLOQUIALISM a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal
writing but is inappropriate for formal situations.
Example: “He’s out of his head if he thinks I’m gonna go for such a stupid idea.
COMEDY in general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by
the main character or characters.
CONCEIT an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different.
Often an extended metaphor.
CONFESSIONAL POETRY a twentieth century term used to describe poetry that uses
intimate material from the poet’s life.
CONFLICT the struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story.
EXTERNAL CONFLICT conflicts can exist between two people, between a
person and nature or a machine or between a person a whole society.
INTERNAL CONFLICT a conflict can be internal, involving opposing
forces within a person’s mind.
CONNOTATION the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached
to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition.
COUPLET two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry.
DIALECT a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the
inhabitants of a certain geographical area.
Literary Terms page 4
DICTION a speaker or writer’s choice of words.
DIDACTIC form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or
provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.
ELEGY a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died. A Eulogy is great
praise or commendation, a laudatory speech, often about someone who has died.
EPANALEPSIS device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or
phrase) is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of the line, clause, or sentence.
Voltaire: “Common sense is not so common.”
EPIC a long narrative poem, written in heightened language , which recounts the deeds
of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society.
EPIGRAPH a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of
the theme.
EPISTROPHE Device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or
phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences (it is the opposite
of anaphora).
EPITHET an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently
used to emphasize a characteristic quality. “Father of our country” and “the great
Emancipator” are examples. A Homeric epithet is a compound adjective used with a
person or thing: “swift-footed Achilles”; “rosy-fingered dawn.”
ESSAY a short piece of nonfiction prose in which the writer discusses some aspect of a
subject.
ESSAY TYPES TO KNOW:
ARGUMENTATION one of the four forms of discourse which uses logic,
ethics, and emotional appeals (logos, ethos, pathos) to develop an effective means
to convince the reader to think or act in a certain way.
PERSUASION relies more on emotional appeals than on facts
ARGUMENT form of persuasion that appeals to reason instead of
emotion to convince an audience to think or act in a certain way.
CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP Form of argumentation in which the writer
claims that one thing results from another, often used as part of a logical
argument.
Literary Terms page 5
DESCRIPTION a form of discourse that uses language to create a mood or
emotion.
EXPOSITION one of the four major forms of discourse, in which something
is explained or “set forth.”
NARRATIVE the form of discourse that tells about a series of events.
EXPLICATION act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text, usually
involves close reading and special attention to figurative language.
FABLE a very short story told in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson about
how to succeed in life.
FARCE a type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are
involved in silly, far-fetched situations.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE Words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but
are used to describe. Similes and metaphors are common forms.
FLASHBACK a scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a
story to depict something that happened at an earlier time.
FOIL A character who acts as contrast to another character. Often a funny side kick to
the dashing hero, or a villain contrasting the hero.
FORESHADOWING the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a
plot.
FREE VERSE poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme.
HYPERBOLE a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement,
for effect. “If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times….”
HYPOTACTIC sentence marked by the use of connecting words between clauses or
sentences, explicitly showing the logical or other relationships between them. (Use of
such syntactic subordination of just one clause to another is known as hypotaxis).
I am tired because it is hot.
IMAGERY the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person ,
a thing, a place, or an experience.
INVERSION the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase.
IRONY a discrepancy between appearances and reality.
Literary Terms page 6
VERBAL IRONY occurs when someone says one thing but really means
something else.
SITUATIONAL IRONY takes place when there is a discrepancy between
what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what
really does happen.
DRAMATIC IRONY is so called because it is often used on stage. A
character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader
knows better.
JUXTAPOSITION poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas,
words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit.
Ezra Pound: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd;/ Petals on a wet, black bough.”
Juxtaposition is also a form of contrast by which writers call attention to
dissimilar ideas or images or metaphors.
Martin Luther King: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
LITOTES is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through
the negation of a negative form: Hawthorne--- “…the wearers of petticoat and
farthingale…stepping forth into the public ways, and wedging their not unsubstantial
persons, if occasion were, into the throng…”
LOCAL COLOR a term applied to fiction or poetry which tends to place special
emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs, clothing, dialect and landscape.
LOOSE SENTENCE one in which the main clause comes first, followed by further
dependent grammatical units. See periodic sentence.
Hawthorne: “Hester gazed after him a little while, looking with a half-fantastic curiosity
to see whether the tender grass of early spring would not be blighted beneath him, and
show the wavering track of this footsteps, sere and brown, across its cheerful verdure.”
LYRIC POEM a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or
thoughts of the speaker. A ballad tells a story.
METAPHOR a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things
without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles.
IMPLIED METAPHOR does not state explicitly the two terms of the
comparison: “I like to see it lap the miles” is an implied metaphor in which the
verb lap implies a comparison between “it” and some animal that “laps” up
water.
EXTENDED METAPHOR is a metaphor that is extended or developed as far
as the writer wants to take it. (conceit if it is quite elaborate).
Literary Terms page 7
DEAD METAPHOR is a metaphor that has been used so often that the
comparison is no longer vivid: “The head of the house”, “the seat of the
government”, “a knotty problem” are all dead metaphors.
MIXED METAPHOR is a metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes
its terms so that they are visually or imaginatively incompatible. “The President
is a lame duck who is running out of gas.”
METONYMY a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by
something closely associated with it. “We requested from the crown support for our
petition.” The crown is used to represent the monarch.
MOOD An atmosphere created by a writer’s diction and the details selected.
MOTIF a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used
throughout a work (or in several works by one author), unifying the work by tying the
current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme. Kurt Vonnegut uses “So it
goes” throughout Slaughterhouse-Five to remind the reader of the senselessness of death.
MOTIVATION the reasons for a character’s behavior.
ONOMATOPOEIA the use of words whose sounds echo their sense. “Pop.” “Zap.”
OXYMORON a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a
brief phrase. “Jumbo shrimp.” “Pretty ugly.” “Bitter-sweet”
PARABLE a relatively short story that teaches a moral, or lesson about how to lead a
good life.
PARADOX a statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth.
KOAN is a paradox used in Zen Buddhism to gain intuitive knowledge: “What is
the sound of one hand clapping?”
PARALLEL STRUCTURE (parallelism) the repetition of words or phrases that have
similar grammatical structures.
PARATACTIC SENTENCE simply juxtaposes clauses or sentences. I am tired: it is
hot.
PARODY a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the
writer’s style.
PERIODIC sentence that places the main idea or central complete thought at the end of
the sentence, after all introductory elements.
Literary Terms page 8
PERSONIFICATION a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human
feelings, thoughts, or attitudes.
PLOT the series of related events in a story or play, sometimes called the storyline.
Characteristics of PLOT:
EXPOSITION introduces characters, situation, and setting
RISING ACTION complications in conflict and situations (may introduce new
ones as well)
CLIMAX that point in a plot that creates the greatest intensity, suspense, or
interest. Also called “turning point”
RESOLUTION the conclusion of a story, when all or most of the conflicts have
been settled; often called the denouement.
POINT OF VIEW the vantage point from which the writer tells the story.
FIRST PERSON POINT OF VIEW one of the characters tells the story.
THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW an unknown narrator, tells the story, but
this narrator zooms in to focus on the thoughts and feelings of only one
character.
OMNISCIENT POINT OF VIEW an omniscient or all knowing narrator tells
the story, also using the third person pronouns. This narrator, instead of
focusing on one character only, often tells us everything about many characters.
OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW a narrator who is totally impersonal and
objective tells the story, with no comment on any characters or events.
POLYSYNDETON sentence which uses a conjunction with NO commas to separate the
items in a series. Instead of X, Y, and Z... Polysyndeton results in X and Y and Z... Kurt
Vonnegut uses this device.
PROTAGONIST the central character in a story, the one who initiates or drives the
action. Usually the hero or anti-hero; in a tragic hero, like John Proctor of The
Crucible, there is always a hamartia, or tragic flaw in his character which will lead to
his downfall.
PUN a “play on words” based on the multiple meanings of a single word or on words
that sound alike but mean different things.
Literary Terms page 9
QUATRAIN a poem consisting of four lines, or four lines of a poem that can be
considered as a unit.
REFRAIN a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several
times in a poem.
RHYTHM a rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and
unstressed syllables in language.
RHETORIC Art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse.
RHETORICAL QUESTION a question asked for an effect, and not actually requiring
an answer.
ROMANCE in general, a story in which an idealized hero or heroine undertakes a quest
and is successful.
SATIRE a type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an
attempt to bring about a change.
SIMILE a figure of speech that makes an explicitly comparison between two unlike
things, using words such as like, as , than, or resembles.
SOLILOQUY a long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are
on stage.
STEREOTYPE a fixed idea or conception of a character or an idea which does not
allow for any individuality, often based on religious, social, or racial prejudices.
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS a style of writing that portrays the inner (often
chaotic) workings of a character’s mind.
STYLE the distinctive way in which a writer uses language: a writer’s distinctive use of
diction, tone, and syntax.
SUSPENSE a feeling of uncertainty and curiosity about what will happen next in a
story.
SYMBOL a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands
for something more than itself.
SYNECDOCHE a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole. “If you don’t
drive properly, you will lose your wheels.” The wheels represent the entire car.
SYNTACTIC FLUENCY Ability to create a variety of sentence structures,
appropriately complex and/or simple and varied in length.
Literary Terms page 10
SYNTACTIC PERMUTATION Sentence structures that are extraordinarily complex
and involved. Often difficult for a reader to follow.
TALL TALE an outrageously exaggerated, humorous story that is obviously
unbelievable.
TELEGRAPHIC SENTENCE A sentence shorter than five words in length.
THEME the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work.
TONE the attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or
the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization.
TRAGEDY in general, a story in which a heroic character either dies or comes to some
other unhappy end.
TRICOLON Sentence of three parts of equal importance and length, usually three
independent clauses.
UNDERSTATEMENT a statement that says less than what is meant.
Example: During the second war with Iraq, American troops complained of a
fierce sand storm that made even the night-vision equipment useless. A British
commando commented about the storm: “It’s a bit breezy.”
UNITY Unified parts of the writing are related to one central idea or organizing
principle. Unity is dependent upon coherence.
VERNACULAR the language spoken by the people who live in a particular locality.
AP LIT AND COMP IV 101: AP "OPEN-ENDED" QUESTIONS FROM 1970-2004
| Open-ended Questions for Advanced Placement English Literature: 1970-2004
1970 A. Choose a character from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you (a) briefly describe the standards of the fictional society in which the character exists and (b) show how the character is affected by and responds to those standards. In your essay do not merely summarize the plot. 1970 B. Choose a work of recognized literary merit in which a specific inanimate object (e.g., a seashell, a handkerchief, a painting) is important, and write an essay in which you show how two or three of the purposes the object serves are related to one another. 1971. The significance of a title such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is so easy to discover. However, in other works (for example, Measure for Measure) the full significance of the title becomes apparent to the reader only gradually. Choose two works and show how the significance of their respective titles is developed through the authors' use of devices such as contrast, repetition, allusion, and point of view. 1972. In retrospect, the reader often discovers that the first chapter of a novel or the opening scene of a drama introduces some of the major themes of the work. Write an essay about the opening scene of a drama or the first chapter of a novel in which you explain how it functions in this way. 1973. An effective literary work does not merely stop or cease; it concludes. In the view of some critics, a work that does not provide the pleasure of significant closure has terminated with an artistic fault. A satisfactory ending is not, however, always conclusive in every sense; significant closure may require the reader to abide with or adjust to ambiguity and uncertainty. In an essay, discuss the ending of a novel or play of acknowledged literary merit. Explain precisely how and why the ending appropriately or inappropriately concludes the work. Do not merely summarize the plot. 1974. Choose a work of literature written before 1900. Write an essay in which you present arguments for and against the work's relevance for a person in 1974. Your own position should emerge in the course of your essay. You may refer to works of literature written after 1900 for the purpose of contrast or comparison. 1975 A. Although literary critics have tended to praise the unique in literary characterizations, many authors have employed the stereotyped character successfully. Select one work of acknowledged literary merit and in a well-written essay, show how the conventional or stereotyped character or characters function to achieve the author's purpose. 1975 B. Unlike the novelist, the writer of a play does not use his own voice and only rarely uses a narrator's voice to guide the audience's responses to character and action. Select a play you have read and write an essay in which you explain the techniques the playwright uses to guide his audience's responses to the central characters and the action. You might consider the effect on the audience of things like setting, the use of comparable and contrasting characters, and the characters' responses to each other. Support your argument with specific references to the play. Do not give a plot summary. 1976. The conflict created when the will of an individual opposes the will of the majority is the recurring theme of many novels, plays, and essays. Select the work of an essayist who is in opposition to his or her society; or from a work of recognized literary merit, select a fictional character who is in opposition to his or her society. In a critical essay, analyze the conflict and discuss the moral and ethical implications for both the individual and the society. Do not summarize the plot or action of the work you choose. 1977. In some novels and plays certain parallel or recurring events prove to be significant. In an essay, describe the major similarities and differences in a sequence of parallel or recurring events in a novel or play and discuss the significance of such events. Do not merely summarize the plot. 1978. Choose an implausible or strikingly unrealistic incident or character in a work of fiction or drama of recognized literary merit. Write an essay that explains how the incident or character is related to the more realistic of plausible elements in the rest of the work. Avoid plot summary. 1979. Choose a complex and important character in a novel or a play of recognized literary merit who might on the basis of the character's actions alone be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain both how and why the full presentation of the character in the work makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot summary. 1980. A recurring theme in literature is the classic war between a passion and responsibility. For instance, a personal cause, a love, a desire for revenge, a determination to redress a wrong, or some other emotion or drive may conflict with moral duty. Choose a literary work in which a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with his or her responsibilities. In a well-written essay show clearly the nature of the conflict, its effects upon the character, and its significance to the work. 1981. The meaning of some literary works is often enhanced by sustained allusion to myths, the Bible, or other works of literature. Select a literary work that makes use of such a sustained reference. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain the allusion that predominates in the work and analyze how it enhances the work's meaning. 1982. In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. Choose a work of literary merit that confronts the reader or audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a well-organized essay, explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work. Avoid plot summary. 1983. From a novel or play of literary merit, select an important character who is a villain. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze the nature of the character's villainy and show how it enhances meaning in the work. Do not merely summarize the plot. 1984. Select a line or so of poetry, or a moment or scene in a novel, epic poem, or play that you find especially memorable. Write an essay in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to the work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness. 1985. A critic has said that one important measure of a superior work of literature is its ability to produce in the reader a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude. Select a literary work that produces this "healthy confusion." Write an essay in which you explain the sources of the "pleasure and disquietude" experienced by the readers of the work. 1986. Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of events may be altered, or time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an epic, or a play of recognized literary merit and show how the author's manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot. 1987. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views. Avoid plot summary. 1988. Choose a distinguished novel or play in which some of the most significant events are mental or psychological; for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in consciousness. In a well-organized essay, describe how the author manages to give these internal events the sense of excitement, suspense, and climax usually associated with external action. Do not merely summarize the plot. 1989. In questioning the value of literary realism, Flannery O'Connor has written, "I am interested in making a good case for distortion because I am coming to believe that it is the only way to make people see." Write an essay in which you "make a good case for distortion," as distinct from literary realism. Analyze how important elements of the work you choose are "distorted" and explain how these distortions contribute to the effectiveness of the work. Avoid plot summary. 1990. Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a 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. Avoid plot summary. 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 opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work. 1992. In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much "the reader's friend as the protagonist's." However, the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well. Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work. You may write your essay on one of the following novels or plays or on another of comparable quality. Do not write on a poem or short story. 1993. "The true test of comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful laughter." Choose a novel, play, or long poem in which a scene or character awakens "thoughtful laughter" in the reader. Write an essay in which you show why this laughter is "thoughtful" and how it contributes to the meaning of the work. 1994. In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant presence. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write an essay in which you show how such a character functions in the work. You may wish to discuss how the character affects action, theme, or the development of other characters. Avoid plot summary. 1995. Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, class, or creed. Choose a novel or a play in which such a character plays a significant role and show how that character's alienation reveals the surrounding society's assumptions or moral values. 1996. The British novelist Fay Weldon offers this observation about happy endings. "The writers, I do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from their readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate events -- a marriage or a last minute rescue from death -- but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death." Choose a novel or play that has the kind of ending Weldon describes. In a well-written essay, identify the "spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation" evident in the ending and explain its significance in the work as a whole. 1997. Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel or play that includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or another novel or play of literary merit. 1998. In his essay "Walking," Henry David Thoreau offers the following assessment of literature:
From the works that you have studied in school, choose a novel, play, or epic poem that you may initially have thought was conventional and tame but that you now value for its "uncivilized free and wild thinking." Write an essay in which you explain what constitutes its "uncivilized free and wild thinking" and how that thinking is central to the value of the work as a whole. Support your ideas with specific references to the work you choose. 1999. The eighteenth-century British novelist Laurence Sterne wrote, "No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man's mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time." From a novel or play choose a character (not necessarily the protagonist) whose mind is pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or influences. Then, in a well-organized essay, identify each of the two conflicting forces and explain how this conflict with one character illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You may use one of the novels or plays listed below or another novel or work of similar literary quality. 2000. Many works of literature not readily identified with the mystery or detective story genre nonetheless involve the investigation of a mystery. In these works, the solution to the mystery may be less important than the knowledge gained in the process of its investigation. Choose a novel or play in which one or more of the characters confront a mystery. Then write an essay in which you identify the mystery and explain how the investigation illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot. 2001. One definition of madness is "mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it." But Emily Dickinson wrote
Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a "discerning Eye." Select a novel or play in which a character's apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an important role. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain what this delusion or eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable. Explain the significance of the "madness" to the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot. 2002 A. Morally ambiguous characters -- characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good -- are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary. 2002 B. Often in literature, a character's success in achieving goals depends on keeping a secret and divulging it only at the right moment, if at all. Choose a novel or play of literary merit that requires a character to keep a secret. In a well-organized essay, briefly explain the necessity for secrecy and how the character's choice to reveal or keep the secret affects the plot and contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. You may select a work from the list below, or you may choose another work of recognized literary merit suitable to the topic. Do NOT write about a short story, poem, or film. 2003 A. According to critic Northrop Frye, "Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning." Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole. 2003 B. Novels and plays often depict characters caught between colliding cultures -- national, regional, ethnic, religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character's sense of identity into question. Select a novel or play in which a character responds to such a cultural collison. Then write a well-organized essay in which you describe the character's response and explain its relevance to the work as a whole. 2004 A. Critic Roland Barthes has said, "Literature is the question minus the answer." Choose a novel, or play, and, considering Barthes' observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers answers. Explain how the author's treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary. 2004 B. The most important themes in literature are sometimes developed in scenes in which a death or deaths take place. Choose a novel or play and write a well-organized essay in which you show how a specific death scene helps to illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary. |
Plot is defined as “The spectacle of the will striving towards a goal.”
There are eleven basic aspects to plot, the first eight concern how the story moves forward, the last three concern the concentration of time, place and action.
1. EXPOSITION: The immediate laying out of the story in order to situate the audience. This can occur through stage setting, a major character speaking about or explaining the plot, minor characters talking about an event that clues in the audience, a narrator, a prologue, a soliloquy, slides, charts, maps, music, lighting. In short, anything that cues the audience into at least the beginnings of the plot (read: “conflict”) within the first few minutes.
2. DISCOVERY AND REVERSAL: Discovery is the first piece of information that reveals something unknown about a character or a situation or something that a character finds out. Reversal is the first piece of information that sends the story in a direction that was not expected. These two aspects usually happen within the first 10 or 15 minutes and are designed to “thicken of the plot.” Discovery and reversal can happen to many characters all along the play, but then they are labeled under the aspect of “Complication.”
3. POINT OF ATTACK: The moment when equilibrium is disturbed and turbulence results. This may follow directly upon the discovery and before the reversal or it may occur after the reversal. It can be a comment or a gesture that a character makes or the sudden appearance of something or someone. Or it might be some unexpected news. It this moment the gears of the play really begin turning. Or, to use the thickening metaphor, this is where the plot begins to bubble.
4. FORESHADOWING: The carefully inserted clues about what might be coming-- done to build suspense, create tension and make further events believable. NOTE: Most of the foreshadowing is done in the first half of the play.
5. COMPLICATION: The “further” events in the play that cause the straining forward of interest and that keep the point of attack moving. They can be new discoveries and reversals, new appearances, or new foreshadowings. They are used to intensify emotions, arouse suspense and generally provide the building blocks of the play’s structure. These complications cause continual readjustment of forces among the characters.
6. CLIMAX: The culmination of a course of action, the maximum disturbance of the equilibrium, the moment of the most intense strain. Note: there can be a series of minor climaxes leading up to the major one.
7. CRISIS: The time of decision, the turning point or crossroads. The crisis usually-- but not always--sets the stage for the climax. Think of the crisis as a longer period of time and the climax as a moment inside it. Note: there may be many small crises as the play develops.
8. DENOUEMENT: The ending of the play, the final resolution. It’s like the unraveling of a knot that the complications have formed, the committing of the protagonist to his or her fate. It begins with the final crisis and ends with the final curtain. The denouement restores order or provides and ending that seems probable based on what came before.
THE THREE UNITIES
UNITY OF TIME: A story that takes place as close to real time as
possible or at least attempts to create a sense of contracted time. Many
playwrights ignore this unity, being more interested in characterization,
staging, or the stretching of time.
UNITY OF PLACE: A story with the least amount of places possible or a sense of only a few crucial places. Many playwrights ignore this as well, feeling the need to create as many locations as the story needs.
UNITY OF ACTION: A story where the plot can be simply held in the mind of the spectator, with no wasted scenes and each element so important that if it were taken out the play would seem disjointed. Also a play that is centered in tragedy or comedy but not both. Playwright swill often focus on one character to achieve a unity of action, or only a few germane incidents, or simply an atmosphere.
1. The hero is introduced in the midst of turmoil, at a point well into the story; antecedent action will be recounted in flashbacks.
2. The hero is not only a warrior and a leader, but also a polished speaker who can address councils of chieftains or elders with eloquence and confidence.
3. The hero, often a demi-god, possesses distinctive weapons of great size and power, often heirlooms or presents from the gods.
4. The hero must undertake a long, perilous journey, often involving a descent into the Underworld (Greek, "Neukeia"), which tests his endurance, courage, and cunning.
5. Although his fellows may be great warriors (like Achilles and Beowulf, he may have a commitatus, or group of noble followers with whom he grew up), he undertakes a task that no one else dare attempt.
6. Whatever virtues his race most prizes, these the epic hero as a cultural exemplar possesses in abundance. His key quality is often emphasized by his stock epithet: "Resourceful Odysseus," "swift-footed Achilles," "pious AEneas."
7. The concept of arete (Greek for "bringing virtue to perfection") is crucial to understanding the epic protagonist.
8. The hero establishes his aristeia (nobility) through single combat in superari a superiore, honour coming from being vanquished by a superior foe. That is, a hero gains little honour by slaying a lesser mortal, but only by challenging heroes like himself or adversaries of superhuman power.
9. The two great epic adversaries, the hero and his antagonist, meet at the climax, which must be delayed as long as possible to sustain maximum interest. One such device for delaying this confrontation is the nephelistic rescue (utilized by Homer to rescue Paris from almost certain death and defeat at the hands of Menelaus in the Iliad).
10. The hero's epic adversary is often a "god-despiser," one who has more respect for his own mental and physical abilities than for the power of the gods. The adversary might also be a good man sponsored by lesser deities, or one whom the gods desert at a crucial moment.
11. The hero may encounter a numinous phenomenon (a place or person having a divine or supernatural force) such as a haunted wood or enchanting sorceress that he most use strength, cunning, and divine assistance to overcome.
© http://www.victorianweb.org/genre/epic2.html
1875 First swim across the English channel; London medical school created for women
1876 Bell invents the telephone
1877 Edison invents the phonograph
1878 Electric street lighting in London
1879 Australian frozen meat on sale in London; Ibsen’s A Doll’s House
1880 Canned fruits and meats first appear in stores
1881 City populations explode: London 3.3, Paris 2.2, New York 1.2
1882 Breuer uses hypnosis to treat hysteria--beginning of psychoanalysis
1883 Brooklyn Bridge open to traffic; Orient Express makes first run--Istanbul-Paris
1884 First subway in London; Oxford English Dictionary Begins Publication
1885 Proof of individuality through fingerprints; Benz builds single-cylinder engine for motor car
1886 Canadian Pacific Railway completed
1887 Germany and England fight for control of East Africa; Horsley becomes first to remove spinal tumor
1888 George Eastman perfects “Kodak” box camera
1889 Van Gogh’s “Starry Night;” punch card system developed,
1890 First entirely steel frame building erected in Chicago; first moving pictures in New York
1891 Monet exhibits fifteen haystack paintings; beginnings of wireless telegraphy
1892 First automatic telephone switchboard; Diesel patents his internal-combustion engine
1893 Henry Ford build his first car
1894 Edison opens his Kinetoscope Parlor in New York
1895 Rontgen discovers x-rays; Marconi invents radio telegraphy, Lumiere invents motion picture camera
1896 Becquerel discovers radioactivity; Chekov’s The Sea Gull; Nobel Prizes established
1897 Thompson discovers electron; Ross discovers malaria bacillus
1898 Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium; photographs first taken with artificial light
1899 Conrad writes Lord Jim, Dewey’s The School and Society—learning begins with experience
1900 First flight of Zeppelin; Planck formulates quantum theory
1901 Ragtime develops in US; Landsteiner demonstrates the existence of three blood groups—A, B, O
1902 First examples of modern terrorism during the Boar War in South Africa
1903 Wright Brothers successfully fly a powered airplane
1904 Work begins on the Panama Canal
1905 Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity; Freud’s theories on sex/subconscious; Wilde’s De Profundis
1906 Sinclair’s The Jungle—US Food and drug Act passed; Immigration to US—NY at 4 million
1907 Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon--Cubism begins
1908 Minkowski formulates four-dimensional geometry
1909 Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe; Peary reaches North Pole; Kandinsky’s first abstract paintings
1910 Murry and Hjort do first deep sea research expedition
1911 Rutherford’s nuclear theory of atoms; Amundsen reaches South Pole
1912 Jung’s“Theory of Psychoanalysis;” Titanic sinks
1913 Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring; “Armory Show” N.Y; Bodenstein’s concept of chemical chain reaction
1914 World War I starts; Chaplin introduces The Tramp; Carell performs successful heart surgery on a dog
1915 Jazz in New Orleans; wireless service between US and Japan; Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”
1916 Dadist cult in Zurich—Surrealism; blood for transfusions first refrigerated
1917 First jazz recordings; 100 inch reflecting telescope at Mt. Wilson, Ca.
1918 World War I ends-10 million dead; US burns copies of Ulysses; dimensions of Milky Way found
1919 Observation of solar eclipse proves Einstein correct, Varese conducts first concert of modern music
1920 Cushing develops new techniques for brain surgery, 9 million cars in the US, 19th amendment passed
1921 Morgan postulates chromosome theory of heredity; first radio broadcast of a baseball game
1922 T. S. Eliot “The Wasteland;” Louis Armstrong with King Oliver; insulin first given to diabetics
1923 Lee De Forest demonstrates process sound for motion pictures, Schonberg’s “Piano Suite”--atonal
1924 Eddington discovers luminosity of is star related to its mass; first insecticides used
1925 Baird transmits human features by television; Eisenstein’s Battleship Poetemkin; Scopes Trial
AP LANG AND COMP 001: WRITING MOVEMENTS AND STYLES TO KNOW
AP LANG AND COMP 101: TEXT OF "EVERYDAY USE"
AP LANG AND COMP 102: TEXT OF "IT'S A WOMAN'S WORLD"
AP LANG AND COMP 201: ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH RUBRICS
AP LANG AND COMP 202: THINGS AP READERS LOOK FOR IN GOOD AP ESSAYS
AP LANG III 001: WRITING MOVEMENTS AND STYLES TO KNOW
IMPRESSIONISM a nineteenth-century movement in literature and art which
advocated a recording of the artist’s personal impressions of the world, rather than a
strict representation of reality.
MODERNISM a term for the bold new experimental styles and forms that swept the
arts during the first third of the twentieth century.
NATURALISM a nineteenth century literary movement that was an extension of
realism and that claimed to portray life exactly as it was.
PLAIN STYLE Writing style that stresses simplicity and clarity of expression (but will
still utilize allusions and metaphors), and was the main form of the Puritan writers.
Literary Terms page 11
PURITANISM Writing style of America’s early English-speaking colonists.
emphasizes obedience to God and consists mainly of journals, sermons, and poems.
RATIONALISM a movement that began in Europe in the seventeenth century, which
held that we can arrive at truth by using our reason rather than relying on the authority of
the past, on the authority of the Church, or an institution. ALSO CALLED
NEOCLASSICISM AND AGE OF REASON
REALISM a style of writing, developed in the nineteenth century, that attempts to
depict life accurately without idealizing or romanticizing it.
REGIONALISM literature that emphasizes a specific geographic setting and that
reproduces the speech, behavior, and attitudes of the people who live in that region.
ROMANTICISM a revolt against Rationalism that affected literature and the other arts,
beginning in the late eighteenth century and remaining strong throughout most of the
nineteenth century.
SURREALISM in movement in art and literature that started in Europe during the
1920s. Surrealists wanted to replace conventional realism with the full expression of the
unconscious mind, which they considered to be more real than the “real” world of
appearances.
SYMBOLISM a literary movement that originated in late nineteenth century France, in
which writers rearranged the world of appearances in order to reveal a more truthful
version of reality.
TRANSCENDENTALISM a nineteenth century movement in the Romantic tradition ,
which held that every individual can reach ultimate truths through spiritual intuition,
which transcends reasons and sensory experience.
TIME LINE:
Puritanism 1620 - 1770s
Neoclassic 1770s - early 1800s
Romanticism early 1800s - 1870s
Realism 1850s -early 1900s
Regionalism 1884 - early 1900s
Naturalism - late 1800s - mid 1900s
Modernism - 1920s - [1945]
[Post-Modernism - 1945 - ]
by Alice Walker
I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon. A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living room. When the hard clay is swept clean as a floor and the fine sand around the edges lined with tiny, irregular grooves, anyone can come and sit and look up into the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside the house.
Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that "no" is a word the world never learned to say to her.
You've no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has "made it" is confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from backstage. (A pleasant surprise, of course: What would they do if parent and child came on the show only to curse out and insult each other?) On TV mother and child embrace and smile into each other's faces. Sometimes the mother and father weep, the child wraps them in her arms and leans across the table to tell how she would not have made it without their help. I have seen these programs.
Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort. Out of a dark and soft-seated limousine I am ushered into a bright room filled with many people. There I meet a smiling, gray, sporty man like Johnny Carson who shakes my hand and tells me what a fine girl I have. Then we are on the stage and Dee is embracing me with tears in her eyes. She pins on my dress a large orchid, even though she has told me once that she thinks orchids are tacky flowers.
In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man.working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls dur.ng the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. My fat keeps me hot in zero weather. I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing; I can eat pork liver cooked over the open fire minutes after it comes steaming from the hog. One winter I knocked a bull calf straight in the brain between the eyes with a sledge hammer and had the meat hung up to chill before nightfall. But of course all this does not show on television. I am the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake. My hair glistens in the hot bright lights. Johnny Carson has much to do to keep up with my quick and witty tongue.
But that is a mistake. I know even before I wake up. Who ever knew a Johnson with a quick tongue? Who can even imagine me looking a strange white man in the eye? It seems to me I have talked to them always with one foot raised in flight, with my head fumed in whichever way is farthest from them. Dee, though. She would always look anyone in the eye. Hesitation was no part of her nature.
"How do I look, Mama?" Maggie says, showing just enough of her thin body enveloped in pink skirt and red blouse for me to know she's there, almost hidden by the door.
"Come out into the yard," I say.
Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks. She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground.
Dee is lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure. She's a woman now, though sometimes I forget. How long ago was it that the other house burned? Ten, twelve years? Sometimes I can still hear the flames and feel Maggie's arms sticking to me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off her in little black papery flakes. Her eyes seemed stretched open, blazed open by the flames reflected in them. And Dee. I see her standing off under the sweet gum tree she used to dig gum out of; a look of concentration on her face as she watched the last dingy gray board of the house fall in toward the red.hot brick chimney. Why don't you do a dance around the ashes? I'd wanted to ask her. She had hated the house that much.
I used to think she hated Maggie, too. But that was before we raised money, the church and me, to send her to Augusta to school. She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice. She washed us in a river of make.believe, burned us with a lot of knowl edge we didn't necessarily need to know. Pressed us to her with the serf' ous way she read, to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand.
Dee wanted nice things. A yellow organdy dress to wear to her grad.uation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit she'd made from an old suit somebody gave me. She was determined to stare down any disaster in her efforts. Her eyelids would not flicker for minutes at a time. Often I fought off the temptation to shake her. At sixteen she had a style of her own: and knew what style was.
I never had an education myself. After second grade the school was closed down. Don't ask my why: in 1927 colored asked fewer questions than they do now. Sometimes Maggie reads to me. She stumbles along good.naturedly but can't see well. She knows she is not bright. Like good looks and money, quickness passes her by. She will marry John Thomas (who has mossy teeth in an earnest face) and then I'll be free to sit here and I guess just sing church songs to myself. Although I never was a good singer. Never could carry a tune. I was always better at a man's job. I used to love to milk till I was hooked in the side in '49. Cows are soothing and slow and don't bother you, unless you try to milk them the wrong way.
I have deliberately turned my back on the house. It is three rooms, just like the one that burned, except the roof is tin; they don't make shingle roofs any more. There are no real windows, just some holes cut in the sides, like the portholes in a ship, but not round and not square, with rawhide holding the shutters up on the outside. This house is in a pasture, too, like the other one. No doubt when Dee sees it she will want to tear it down. She wrote me once that no matter where we "choose" to live, she will manage to come see us. But she will never bring her friends. Maggie and I thought about this and Maggie asked me, "Mama, when did Dee ever have any friends?"
She had a few. Furtive boys in pink shirts hanging about on washday after school. Nervous girls who never laughed. Impressed with her they worshiped the well.turned phrase, the cute shape, the scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in Iye. She read to them.
When she was courting Jimmy T she didn't have much time to pay to us, but turned all her faultfinding power on him. He flew to marry a cheap city girl from a family of ignorant flashy people. She hardly had time to recompose herself.
When she comes I will meet—but there they are!
Maggie attempts to make a dash for the house, in her shuffling way, but I stay her with my hand. "Come back here, " I say. And she stops and tries to dig a well in the sand with her toe.
It is hard to see them clearly through the strong sun. But even the first glimpse of leg out of the car tells me it is Dee. Her feet were always neat.looking, as if God himself had shaped them with a certain style. From the other side of the car comes a short, stocky man. Hair is all over his head a foot long and hanging from his chin like a kinky mule tail. I hear Maggie suck in her breath. "Uhnnnh, " is what it sounds like. Like when you see the wriggling end of a snake just in front of your foot on the road. "Uhnnnh."
Dee next. A dress down to the ground, in this hot weather. A dress so loud it hurts my eyes. There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun. I feel my whole face warming from the heat waves it throws out. Earrings gold, too, and hanging down to her shoul.ders. Bracelets dangling and making noises when she moves her arm up to shake the folds of the dress out of her armpits. The dress is loose and flows, and as she walks closer, I like it. I hear Maggie go "Uhnnnh" again. It is her sister's hair. It stands straight up like the wool on a sheep. It is black as night and around the edges are two long pigtails that rope about like small lizards disappearing behind her ears.
"Wa.su.zo.Tean.o!" she says, coming on in that gliding way the dress makes her move. The short stocky fellow with the hair to his navel is all grinning and he follows up with "Asalamalakim, my mother and sister!" He moves to hug Maggie but she falls back, right up against the back of my chair. I feel her trembling there and when I look up I see the perspiration falling off her chin.
"Don't get up," says Dee. Since I am stout it takes something of a push. You can see me trying to move a second or two before I make it. She turns, showing white heels through her sandals, and goes back to the car. Out she peeks next with a Polaroid. She stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of me sitting there in front of the house with Maggie cowering behind me. She never takes a shot without mak' ing sure the house is included. When a cow comes nibbling around the edge of the yard she snaps it and me and Maggie and the house. Then she puts the Polaroid in the back seat of the car, and comes up and kisses me on the forehead.
Meanwhile Asalamalakim is going through motions with Maggie's hand. Maggie's hand is as limp as a fish, and probably as cold, despite the sweat, and she keeps trying to pull it back. It looks like Asalamalakim wants to shake hands but wants to do it fancy. Or maybe he don't know how people shake hands. Anyhow, he soon gives up on Maggie.
"Well," I say. "Dee."
"No, Mama," she says. "Not 'Dee,' Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!"
"What happened to 'Dee'?" I wanted to know.
"She's dead," Wangero said. "I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me."
"You know as well as me you was named after your aunt Dicie," I said. Dicie is my sister. She named Dee. We called her "Big Dee" after Dee was born.
"But who was she named after?" asked Wangero.
"I guess after Grandma Dee," I said.
"And who was she named after?" asked Wangero.
"Her mother," I said, and saw Wangero was getting tired. "That's about as far back as I can trace it," I said. Though, in fact, I probably could have carried it back beyond the Civil War through the branches.
"Well," said Asalamalakim, "there you are."
"Uhnnnh," I heard Maggie say.
"There I was not," I said, "before 'Dicie' cropped up in our family, so why should I try to trace it that far back?"
He just stood there grinning, looking down on me like somebody inspecting a Model A car. Every once in a while he and Wangero sent eye signals over my head.
"How do you pronounce this name?" I asked.
"You don't have to call me by it if you don't want to," said Wangero.
"Why shouldn't 1?" I asked. "If that's what you want us to call you, we'll call you."
"I know it might sound awkward at first," said Wangero.
"I'll get used to it," I said. "Ream it out again."
Well, soon we got the name out of the way. Asalamalakim had a name twice as long and three times as hard. After I tripped over it two or three times he told me to just call him Hakim.a.barber. I wanted to ask him was he a barber, but I didn't really think he was, so I didn't ask.
"You must belong to those beef.cattle peoples down the road," I said. They said "Asalamalakim" when they met you, too, but they didn't shake hands. Always too busy: feeding the cattle, fixing the fences, putting up salt.lick shelters, throwing down hay. When the white folks poisoned some of the herd the men stayed up all night with rifles in their hands. I walked a mile and a half just to see the sight.
Hakim.a.barber said, "I accept some of their doctrines, but farming and raising cattle is not my style." (They didn't tell me, and I didn't ask, whether Wangero (Dee) had really gone and married him.)
We sat down to eat and right away he said he didn't eat collards and pork was unclean. Wangero, though, went on through the chitlins and com bread, the greens and everything else. She talked a blue streak over the sweet potatoes. Everything delighted her. Even the fact that we still used the benches her daddy made for the table when we couldn't effort to buy chairs.
"Oh, Mama!" she cried. Then turned to Hakim.a.barber. "I never knew how lovely these benches are. You can feel the rump prints," she said, running her hands underneath her and along the bench. Then she gave a sigh and her hand closed over Grandma Dee's butter dish. "That's it!" she said. "I knew there was something I wanted to ask you if I could have." She jumped up from the table and went over in the corner where the churn stood, the milk in it crabber by now. She looked at the churn and looked at it.
"This churn top is what I need," she said. "Didn't Uncle Buddy whittle it out of a tree you all used to have?"
"Yes," I said.
"Un huh," she said happily. "And I want the dasher, too."
"Uncle Buddy whittle that, too?" asked the barber.
Dee (Wangero) looked up at me.
"Aunt Dee's first husband whittled the dash," said Maggie so low you almost couldn't hear her. "His name was Henry, but they called him Stash."
"Maggie's brain is like an elephant's," Wangero said, laughing. "I can use the chute top as a centerpiece for the alcove table," she said, sliding a plate over the chute, "and I'll think of something artistic to do with the dasher."
When she finished wrapping the dasher the handle stuck out. I took it for a moment in my hands. You didn't even have to look close to see where hands pushing the dasher up and down to make butter had left a kind of sink in the wood. In fact, there were a lot of small sinks; you could see where thumbs and fingers had sunk into the wood. It was beautiful light yellow wood, from a tree that grew in the yard where Big Dee and Stash had lived.
After dinner Dee (Wangero) went to the trunk at the foot of my bed and started rifling through it. Maggie hung back in the kitchen over the dishpan. Out came Wangero with two quilts. They had been pieced by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee and me had hung them on the quilt ftames on the ftont porch and quilted them. One was in the Lone Stat pattetn. The other was Walk Around the Mountain. In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had wotn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jattell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's unifotm that he wore in the Civil War.
"Mama," Wangro said sweet as a bird. "Can I have these old quilts?"
I heard something fall in the kitchen, and a minute later the kitchen door slammed.
"Why don't you take one or two of the others?" I asked. "These old things was just done by me and Big Dee from some tops your grandma pieced before she died."
"No," said Wangero. "I don't want those. They are stitched around the borders by machine."
"That'll make them last better," I said.
"That's not the point," said Wangero. "These are all pieces of dresses Grandma used to wear. She did all this stitching by hand. Imag' ine!" She held the quilts securely in her atms, stroking them.
"Some of the pieces, like those lavender ones, come ftom old clothes her mother handed down to her," I said, moving up to touch the quilts. Dee (Wangero) moved back just enough so that I couldn't reach the quilts. They already belonged to her.
"Imagine!" she breathed again, clutching them closely to her bosom.
"The truth is," I said, "I promised to give them quilts to Maggie, for when she matties John Thomas."
She gasped like a bee had stung her.
"Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she said. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use."
"I reckon she would," I said. "God knows I been saving 'em for long enough with nobody using 'em. I hope she will!" I didn't want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told they were old~fashioned, out of style.
"But they're priceless!" she was saying now, furiously; for she has a temper. "Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they'd be in rags. Less than that!"
"She can always make some more," I said. "Maggie knows how to quilt."
Dee (Wangero) looked at me with hatred. "You just will not under.stand. The point is these quilts, these quilts!"
"Well," I said, stumped. "What would you do with them7"
"Hang them," she said. As if that was the only thing you could do with quilts.
Maggie by now was standing in the door. I could almost hear the sound her feet made as they scraped over each other.
"She can have them, Mama," she said, like somebody used to never winning anything, or having anything reserved for her. "I can 'member Grandma Dee without the quilts."
I looked at her hard. She had filled her bottom lip with checkerberry snuff and gave her face a kind of dopey, hangdog look. It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught her how to quilt herself. She stood there with her scarred hands hidden in the folds of her skirt. She looked at her sister with something like fear but she wasn't mad at her. This was Maggie's portion. This was the way she knew God to work.
When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet. Just like when I'm in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout. I did some.thing I never done before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero's hands and dumped them into Maggie's lap. Maggie just sat there on my bed with her mouth open.
"Take one or two of the others," I said to Dee.
But she turned without a word and went out to Hakim~a~barber.
"You just don't understand," she said, as Maggie and I came out to the car.
"What don't I understand?" I wanted to know.
"Your heritage," she said, And then she turned to Maggie, kissed her, and said, "You ought to try to make something of yourself, too, Maggie. It's really a new day for us. But from the way you and Mama still live you'd never know it."
She put on some sunglasses that hid everything above the tip of her nose and chin.
Maggie smiled; maybe at the sunglasses. But a real smile, not scared. After we watched the car dust settle I asked Maggie to bring me a dip of snuff. And then the two of us sat there just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed.
AP LANG AND COMP 102: TEXT OF "IT'S A WOMAN'S WORLD"
IT'S A WOMAN'S WORLD
Eavan Boland
Our way of life has hardly changed since a wheel first whetted a knife. Maybe flame burns more greedily and wheels are steadier, but we're the same: we milestone our lives with oversights, living by the lights of the loaf left by the cash register, the washing powder paid for and wrapped, the wash left wet: like most historic peoples we are defined by what we forget and what we never will be: star-gazers, fire-eaters. It's our alibi for all time: as far as history goes we were never on the scene of the crime. When the king's head gored its basket, grim harvest, we were gristing bread or getting the recipe for a good soup. It's still the same: our windows moth our children to the flame of hearth not history. And still no page scores the low music of our outrage. Appearances reassure: that woman there, craned to the starry mystery, is merely getting a breath of evening air. While this one here, her mouth a burning plume - she's no fire-eater, just my frosty neighbour coming home.
AP LANG AND COMP ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH RUBRICS
Advanced Placement English
Literary Analysis Scoring Guide
9-8 With apt and specific references to the story, these well-organized and well-written essays clearly analyze how _____ uses literary techniques to _____. The best of these essays will acknowledge the complexity of this _____. While not without flaws, these papers will demonstrate an understanding of the text as well as consistent control over the elements of effective composition. These writers read with perception and express their ideas with clarity and skill.
7-6 These papers also analyze how ___ uses literary techniques to ___, but they are less incisive, developed, or aptly supported than papers in the highest ranges. They deal accurately with technique as the means by which a writer _____, but they are less effective or less thorough in their analysis than are the 9-8 essays. These essays demonstrate the writer's ability to express ideas clearly, but they do so with less maturity and precision than the best papers. Generally, 7 papers present a more developed analysis and a more consistent command of the elements of effective composition than do essays scored 6.
5 These essays are superficial. They respond to the assignment without important errors in composition, but they may miss the complexity of _____'s use of literary techniques and offer a perfunctory analysis of how those techniques are used to _____. Often, the analysis is vague, mechanical, or overly generalized. While the writing is adequate to convey the writer's thoughts, these essays are typically pedestrian, not as well conceived, organized, or developed as upper-half papers. Usually, they reveal simplistic thinking and/or immature writing.
4-3 These lower-half papers reflect an incomplete understanding of the _____ (story, passage, essay, poem, etc.) and fail to respond adequately to the question. The discussion of how _____ uses literary techniques to _____ may be inaccurate or unclear, misguided or undeveloped; these papers may paraphrase rather than analyze. The analysis of technique will likely be meager and unconvincing. Generally, the writing demonstrates weak control of such elements as diction, organization, syntax, or grammar. These essays typically contain recurrent stylistic flaws and/or misreadings and lack of persuasive evidence from the text.
2-1 These essays compound the weaknesses of the papers in the 4-3 range. They seriously misunderstand the _____ or fail to respond to the question. Frequently, they are unacceptably brief. Often poorly written on several counts, they may contain many distracting errors in grammar and mechanics. Although some attempt may have been made to answer the question, the writer's views typically are presented with little clarity, organization, coherence, or supporting evidence. Essays that are especially inexact, vacuous, and/or mechanically unsound should be scored 1.
0 This is a response with no more than a reference to the task or no response at all.
Advanced Placement English
Poetry Scoring Guide
9-8 These well-organized and well-written essays clearly demonstrate an understanding of how the speaker / author in _____ uses _____ to convey _____. In their references, they are apt and specific. Though not without flaws, these papers will offer a convincing interpretation of the poem, as well as consistent control over the virtues of effective composition, including the language unique to the criticism of poetry. They demonstrate the writer's ability to read perceptively and to write with clarity and sophistication.
7-6 These essays also demonstrate an understanding of _____'s poem; but, compared to the best essays, they are less thorough or less precise in their analysis of how the speaker / author uses _____ to convey _____. In addition to minor flaws in interpretation, their analysis is likely to be less well-supported and less incisive. While these essays demonstrate the writer's ability to express ideas clearly, they do so with less mastery and control over the hallmarks of mature composition than do papers in the 9-8 range.
5 While these essays deal with the assigned task without important errors, they have little to say beyond what is easiest to grasp. Their analysis of how _____ conveys _____ may be vague. As a critical explanation, they deal with the poem in a cursory way. Though the writing is sufficient to convey the writer's thoughts, these essays are typically pedestrian, not as well conceived, organized, or developed as upper-half papers. They may reveal simplistic thinking or immature writing.
4-3 These lower-half essays often reflect an incomplete or over-simplified understanding of the poem. Typically, they fail to respond adequately to part of the question. Their analysis may be weak, meager or irrelevant, inaccurate or unclear. The writing demonstrates uncertain control over the elements of effective composition. These essays usually contain recurrent stylistic flaws and/or misreadings, and they often lack persuasive evidence from the text. Essays scored 3 exhibit more than one of the above infelicities; they are marred by a significant misinterpretation, insufficient development, or serious omissions.
2-1 These essays compound the weaknesses of the papers in the 4-3 range. Writers may seriously misread the poem. Frequently, these essays are unacceptably brief. They are poorly written on several counts and may contain many distracting errors in grammar and mechanics. While some attempt may have been made to answer the question, the writer's observations are presented with little clarity, organization, or supporting evidence. Essays that are especially inexact, vacuous, and/or mechanically unsound should be scored 1.
0 This is a response with no more than a reference to the task or no response at all.
Advanced Placement English
Persuasive Scoring Guide
9-8 Papers meriting these scores persuasively defend, challenge, or qualify the _____ through a well-reasoned presentation of evidence from observation, experience, or reading. Evidence from reading does not, of course, automatically put papers in this scoring range. Papers in this category aptly support what they have to say and demonstrate stylistic maturity by an effective command of sentence structure, diction, and organization. The writing reveals an ability to choose from and control a wide range of the elements of effective writing, but it need not be without flaws.
7-6 Essays earning these scores defend, challenge, or qualify the _____ through a coherent presentation of evidence from observation, experience, or reading, but lack the more carefully nuanced thought or the more detailed development of examples of 9-8 papers. Some lapses in diction or syntax may be present, but the writing demonstrates sufficient control of the elements of composition to present the writer's ideas clearly. The arguments in these essays are sound, but may be presented with less coherence or persuasive force than essays in the 9-8 range.
5 These essays present a position that attempts to defend, challenge, or qualify the _____ but do not sustain a coherent presentation. They are adequately written, but may demonstrate inconsistent control over the elements of composition. Organization is evident but may not be fully realized or particularly effective.
4-3 Essays earning these scores do not respond adequately to the question's tasks. They may not define a clear position or may attempt to develop a position with evidence that is not well chosen or well integrated for the purpose. The writing is sufficient to convey the writer's ideas, but may suggest weak control over diction, syntax, or organization. These essays may contain consistent spelling errors or some flaws in grammar.
2-1 These essays fail to respond adequately to the question's tasks. Although the writer attempts to respond to the _____, the response exhibits little clarity about the writer's attitude or only slight or misguided evidence in its support. These essays may be poorly written on several counts, be unpersuasively brief, or present only assertions without substantive evidence. They may reveal consistent weaknesses in grammar or other basic elements of composition. Essays that are especially inexact, vacuous, and/or mechanically unsound should be scored 1.
0 This is a response with no more than a reference to the task or no response at all.
AP LANG AND COMP 202: THINGS AP READERS LOOK FOR IN GOOD AP ESSAYS
1. Impressive control of language
· interesting and precise diction, especially the use active verbs
· use of subordinate clauses or a series of clauses to demonstrate that you
can sustain a complicated thought
· varying sentence length
· doesn’t over use the rhetorical vocabulary which can smack of the five-
paragraph essay
· outside references cited that can demonstrate some world knowledge
· variation in the use of SVO
· employs quotes and ellipses for economy
· creates sophisticated transitions (EX: “The most salient feature is the
use of blank.” “Another integral element in the piece is blank.” “Blank
is also in evidence here. One can recognize it in the…” “Finally, Blank,
which really (verb)…”
· has a distinct voice
· smoothly leads the reader from point to point
· seems to have had fun writing the essay--a mix of sophisticated and
causal language
2. Sophisticated and coherent argument
· demonstration of dialectical and nuanced thinking
· use of contrasting transitions--however, conversely, on the other
hand, even so
· skillful in synthesizing sources.
· organic structure. The piece has an individuality to it. It doesn’t feel
like there is a template superimposed over the analysis
· sustained interaction with the text. The essay is not drifting.
· uses parallelism
· recognizes irony
3. Position developed with evidence
· not simply quoting a passage but explaining how the passage works
with proof that is appropriate and convincing.
· analyzes the evidence in chronological order rather than jumping
around to find examples of specific rhetorical strategies
4. Thesis examined implicitly as well as explicitly
· you don’t have to spell it out step-by-step in some five paragraph
formula
COLLEGE WRITING 102: SEVEN QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN ANALYZING AN OP-ED PIECE / RYCHLEWSKI
COLLEGE WRITING 103: PEGGY’S TONE LIST
COLELGE WRITING 104: BLOOM'S TAXONOMY
COLLEGE WRITING IV 101: QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN READING NON-FICTION PROSE / RYCHLEWSKI
The following questions can be applied to such non-fiction prose as essays, speeches, histories, scientific articles, social science reports, legal decisions, research papers and chapters in textbooks. These are invaluable questions to ask in order to have a deeper understanding of the structures and themes of such texts. These are also excellent questions for working in study-groups.
General / Functional Questions
Top-Down Rhetorical Analysis Questions
(Exigence, Audience, Purpose, Ethos, Pathos, Logos)
Bottom-Up Rhetorical Analysis Questions
(Schemes, Tropes, Diction, Syntax, Imagery, Tone, Rhetorical Questions)
Intertextuality and Context Questions
c. most of the above information was adapted from the Supplemental Materials Book from Summer Institute for Advanced Placement English Language and Composition at DePaul University.
COLLEGE WRITING 102: SEVEN QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN ANALYZING AN OP-ED PIECE
OP-ED means opposite editorial. These are opinions in the newspaper about current events or social or cultural conditions. In these opinions the writer is making an explicit argument. There is usually an exigency, audience and purpose for all OP-ED pieces.
1. Underline the thesis. If it is an implicit thesis, write in your own words what that thesis is.
2. What method of introduction does the writer use? (EX: Fact, Image, Question, Quote, Story)
3. Identify the tone using three specific words and mark the spot in the text where there are any shifts in the tone.
4. What method of development does the author use? (states, appeals, inductive, deductive, comparison/contrast, description, narration, process analysis, division and classification, example, cause/effect)
5. What transitional devices does the author use?
6. What method of conclusion? How does the author conclude the piece while leaving an idea in the reader's mind?
7. Does the author repeat the thesis in the conclusion?
DEFINITION OF IRONY
As a figure of speech, irony refers to a difference between the way something appears and what is actually true. Part of what makes poetry interesting is its indirectness, its refusal to state something simply as "the way it is." Irony allows us to say something but to mean something else, whether we are being sarcastic, exaggerating, or understating. A woman might say to her husband ironically, "I never know what you're going to say," when in fact she always knows what he will say. This is sarcasm, which is one way to achieve irony. Irony is generally more restrained than sarcasm, even though the effect might be the same. The woman of our example above might simply say, "Interesting," when her husband says something that really isn't interesting. She might not be using sarcasm in this case, and she might not even be aware that she is being ironic. A listener who finds the husband dull would probably understand the irony, though. The key to irony is often the tone, which is sometimes harder to detect in poetry than in speech. If you can ascertain the tone of any written text, you can discover where the writer is coming from. Tone is an essential element of reading and writing.
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This is no joke. |
serious, somber |
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I’m superior, of course. |
condescending, patronizing, haughty |
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So-o-o-o bland. |
insipid, vapid, diffident |
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I feel playful about this. |
bantering, |
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I’m positive. |
cheerful, vibrant, hopeful, |
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Psssst! |
confidential |
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I’m angry about this. |
indignant, irate, agitated |
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I want to create trouble. |
inflammatory, contentious |
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I feel kindly towards this. |
benevolent, warm, |
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Evil is coming this way. |
sinister, ominous |
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It is just not worthy enough for me. |
petty, taunting, scornful, contemptuous, disdainful, insolent, flippant |
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Mr. Wry and Dry. |
mock-serious, mock-scornful, sardonic, burlesque |
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This makes me sad. |
melancholy, mournful/lugubrious, elegiac, sentimental |
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I know the right way to do it. |
imperious |
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Pompous and preachy. |
turgid, pedantic, pretentious, learned |
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Down-home, that’s me. |
colloquial, informal |
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Just the facts. |
informative, candid, factual, clinical, detached, objective, impartial, restrained |
|
We gotta do it now! |
urgent, insistent, imperative, emphatic |
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This is just the way it is: bad. |
pessimistic, resigned, cynical, fatalistic |
|
It was a golden time. |
nostalgic, poignant, eulogistic, affectionate |
COLLEGE WRITING 103: BLOOM'S TAXONOMY
Bloom's Taxonomy *
Benjamin Bloom created this taxonomy for categorizing level of abstraction of questions that commonly occur in educational settings. The taxonomy provides a useful structure in which to categorize test questions, since professors will characteristically ask questions within particular levels, and if you can determine the levels of questions that will appear on your exams, you will be able to study using appropriate strategies.
Competence |
Skills Demonstrated |
| Knowledge |
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| Comprehension |
|
| Application |
|
| Analysis |
|
| Synthesis |
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| Evaluation |
|
* From Benjamin S. Bloom Taxonomy of
educational objectives.
Published by Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA. Copyright (c) 1984 by Pearson
Education.
Adapted by permission of the publisher
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT OF WRITING:
THE SECOND COMMANDMENT OF WRITING:
A GRAPHIC ORGANIZER FOR DIALECTICAL THINKING
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT OF WRITING:
…THOU SHALT CARE.
IF WHAT YOU’RE WRITING DOESN’T MATTER TO YOU, THE READER WILL KNOW IT. THEN IT WON'T MATTER IF YOU PUT A COMMA IN THE RIGHT SPOT BECAUSE NOBODY WILL CARE.
Read your piece. If you can answer these questions, you're serious about what you have say.
What is the one thing I wanted to say, the single, most important message I intended to deliver?
What single message does the draft deliver?
To whom is the message being sent?
© Donald M. Murray. The Craft of Revision.
George Orwell's famous list from “Politics and the English Language.”
1) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure a speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2) Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3) If it is possible to cut a word out, cut it out.
4) Never use the passive when you can use the active.
5) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbaric.
THE SECOND COMMANDMENT OF WRITING:
…THOU SHALT BECOME ONE’S OWN READER
IF YOU CAN’T STEP OUTSIDE YOURSELF AND SEE YOUR FIRST DRAFT AS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF YOUR JOURNEY, YOU’LL NEVER GO ANYWHERE.
Here are some ideas to take you outside yourself.
1. Listen to the draft.
2. Welcome the unexpected.
3. Expand what works.
4. Turn the music of the draft.
5. Start closer to the end.
6. Cut the end.
7. Cut or extend the length.
8. Play with a new focus.
9. Reconsider the audience.
10. Put the draft in a new context.
11. Make new connections.
12. Reorder the draft.
13. Change the pace.
14. Unbalance the proportions.
15. Try a new genre.
16. Add new evidence.
17. Look for instructive failure.
18. Role-play the reader.
19. Use a test reader. Observe the draft.
Here’s a chart that may help you write with a little more verve. Check for these four items in each sentence. If you see a pattern of repetition, you’ve got a problem. And you’re probably boring your reader to death. Mix it up. Variety is the spice of life.
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Opening words |
Verbs |
words per sentence |
Transition words |
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A few more questions you might ask:
1. Does the first sentence make me want to read the second?
2. Is there some fact, image, question, quote, story or surprise that gets me going? FIQQSS.
3. Do you have a ton of boring words in your essay like: different, really, a lot, great, good, important, bad, very, many, first, second, third? ….ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
4. Do a lot of your sentences start with “there are” or “there is?” ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz!
5. Does the ending kick me in the teeth? Or did I just finish a mushy apple?
|
Points |
Comments/Criteria |
|
4 |
· Writing is coherent and easy to follow. § Writing is organized with good use of transitions. § Writing has clear main ideas supported by details and examples. § Writing is focused and pertinent to topic. § The response is clear and relatively error-free. § Use of voice and tone are appropriate to piece. (Formal vs. informal, use of slang, jargon, dialect, etc.) |
|
3
|
§ Writing shows a significant understanding of topic. § Writing may have minor errors in grammar, usage and mechanics. Errors do not impede meaning. § Provides nearly complete supporting points. § Organization is coherent and easy to follow |
|
2
|
· Writing shows some understanding of the topic. · Writing provides some supporting calculations, arguments, justifications, and evidence. · Sentence structure is correct but basic, awkward, and difficult to follow. · Recognizes an appropriate strategy of development, but uses it inappropriately. |
|
1 |
§ Writing attempts a strategy with little understandable shape or direction. § Shows minimal understanding of content. § Shows reasoning but makes serious errors in sentence structure, grammar and mechanics, vocabulary, and calculations. § Provides little support for arguments, justifications, and calculations. |
|
0
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o Blank/ No response. o Completely unrelated to topic. § Response written in a language other than English. |
A GRAPHIC ORGANIZER FOR DIALECTICAL THINKING
|
List of Positives 1. 2. 3. 4. |
FIQQSS intro paragraph (fact, image, question, quote, story, surprise) |
List of Negatives 1. 2. 3.. 4. |
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Body P 1 = Example 1
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Body P 2 = Example 2 |
Body 3 = Example 3 |
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Body P 4 = Strongest opposing argument to thesis is presented and refuted.
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SKILL AREA |
6 Responses at this level: |
5 Responses at this level: |
4 Responses at this level: |
3 Responses at this level: |
2 Responses at this level: |
1 Responses at this level: |
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Meaning: the extent to which the writing exhibits sound understanding, analysis, and explanation, of the writing task and text(s) |
· convey an accurate and in-depth understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose for the writing task · offer insightful and thorough analysis and explanation in support of the topic |
· convey an accurate and complete understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose for the writing task · offer clear and explicit analysis and explanation in support of the topic |
· convey an accurate although somewhat basic understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose for the writing task · offer partial analysis and explanation in support of the topic |
· convey a partly accurate understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose of the writing task · offer limited analysis or superficial explanation that only partially support the topic |
· convey a confused or largely inaccurate understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose for the writing task · offer unclear analysis or unwarranted explanations that fail to support the topic |
· provide no evidence of understanding the writing task or topic · make incoherent explanations that do not support the topic |
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Development: the extent to which ideas are elaborated using specific and relevant details and/or evidence to support the thesis |
· develop ideas clearly and fully, effectively integrating and elaborating on specific textual evidence from a variety of sources · effectively discriminate between relevant and irrelevant information and between fact and opinion
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· develop ideas clearly and consistently, incorporating and explaining specific textual evidence from a variety of sources · discriminate between relevant and irrelevant information and between fact and opinion |
· develop some ideas more fully than others, using relevant textual evidence from a variety of sources · attempt to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant information and between fact and opinion
|
· develop ideas briefly or partially, using some textual evidence but without much elaboration or from limited sources · may contain a mix of relevant and irrelevant information and/or confuse the difference between fact and opinion |
· attempt to offer some development of ideas, but textual evidence is vague, repetitive, or unjustified · contain irrelevant and/or inaccurate information and/or confuse the difference between fact and opinion |
· completely lack development and do not include textual evidence · contain irrelevant and/or inaccurate information and completely fail to distinguish fact from opinion |
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Organization: the extent to which the writing establishes a clear thesis and maintains direction, focus, and coherence |
· skillfully establish and maintain consistent focus on a clear and compelling thesis · exhibit logical and coherent structure with claims, evidence and interpretations that convincingly support the thesis · make skillful use of transition words and phrases |
· effectively establish and maintain consistent focus on a clear thesis · exhibit a logical sequence of claims, evidence, and interpretations to support the thesis and effectively used transitions · make effective use of transition words and phrases |
· establish and maintain focus on a clear thesis · exhibit a logical sequence of claims, evidence, and interpretations but ideas within paragraphs may be inconsistently organized · make some attempt to use basic transition words and phrases |
· establish but fail to consistently maintain focus on a basic thesis · exhibit a basic structure but lack the coherence of consistent claims, evidence, and interpretations · make an inconsistent attempt to use some basic transition words or phrases |
· establish a confused or irrelevant thesis and fail to maintain focus · exhibit an attempt to organize ideas into a beginning, middle, and end, but lack coherence · make little attempt to use transition words and phrases
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· fail to include a thesis or maintain focus · complete lack of organization and coherence · make no attempt to use transition words or phrases |
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Language: the extent to which the writing reveals an awareness of audience and purpose through word choice and sentence variety |
· are stylistically sophisticated, using language that is precise and engaging, with a notable sense of voice and awareness of audience and purpose · effectively incorporate a range of varied sentence patterns to reveal syntactic fluency |
· use language that is fluent and original, with evident awareness of audience and purpose · incorporate varied sentence patterns that reveal an awareness of different syntactic structures |
· use appropriate language, with some awareness of audience and purpose · make some attempt to include different sentence patterns but with awkward or uneven success |
· rely on basic vocabulary, with little awareness of audience or purpose · reveal a limited awareness of how to vary sentence patterns and rely on a limited range syntactic structures |
· use language that is imprecise or unsuitable for the audience or purpose · reveal a confused understanding of how to write in complete sentences and little or no ability to vary sentence patterns |
· use language that is incoherent or inappropriate · include a preponderance of sentence fragments and run-ons that significantly hinder comprehension |
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Conventions: tthe extent to which tthe writing exhibits cconventional sspelling, ppunctuation, pparagraphing, acapitalization, and ggrammar
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· demonstrate control of the conventions with essentially no errors, even with sophisticated language |
· demonstrate control of the conventions, exhibiting occasional errors only when using sophisticated language (e.g., punctuation of complex sentences) |
· demonstrate partial control, exhibiting occasional errors that do not hinder comprehension (e.g., incorrect use of homonyms)
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· demonstrate emerging control, exhibiting frequent errors that somewhat hinder comprehension (e.g., agreement of pronouns and antecedents; spelling of basic words) |
· demonstrate lack of control, exhibiting frequent errors that make comprehension difficult (e.g., subject verb agreement; use of slang) |
· illegible or unrecognizable as literate English |
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SKILL AREA |
6 Responses at this level: |
5 Responses at this level: |
4 Responses at this level: |
3 Responses at this level: |
2 Responses at this level: |
1 Responses at this level: |
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Meaning: the extent to which the writing exhibits sound understanding, analysis, and explanation, of the writing task and text(s) |
· convey an accurate and in-depth understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose for the writing task · offer insightful and thorough analysis and explanation in support of the argument or position |
· convey an accurate and complete understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose for the writing task · offer clear and explicit analysis and explanation in support of the argument or position |
· convey an accurate although somewhat basic understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose for the writing task · offer partial analysis and explanation in support of the argument or position |
· convey a partly accurate understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose of the writing task · offer limited analysis or superficial explanation that only partially support the argument or position |
· convey a confused or largely inaccurate understanding of the topic, audience, and purpose for the writing task · offer unclear analysis or unwarranted explanations that fail to support the argument or position |
· provide no evidence of understanding the writing task or topic · make incoherent explanations that do not support the argument or position |
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Development: the extent to which ideas are elaborated using specific and relevant details and/or evidence to support the thesis |
· support the position clearly and fully with arguments that effectively integrate and elaborate on specific ideas and textual evidence from a variety of sources · effectively anticipate and convincingly refute opposing view points |
· support the position clearly and consistently with arguments that incorporate and explain ideas and specific textual evidence from a variety of sources · anticipate and somewhat convincingly refute opposing viewpoints |
· support the position with arguments that use ideas and relevant textual evidence from a variety of sources · anticipate and attempt to refute opposing viewpoints at a basic level
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· support the position partially, using some ideas and textual evidence but without much elaboration or from limited sources · partially anticipate and with a limited or confused attempt to refute opposing viewpoints but |
· attempt to support the position, but textual ideas and evidence is vague, repetitive, or unjustified · allude to opposing viewpoints but make no attempt to refute them |
· completely lack development and do not include textual evidence · make no attempt to anticipate or refute opposing viewpoints |
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Organization: the extent to which the writing establishes a clear thesis and maintains direction, focus, and coherence |
· skillfully establish and maintain consistent focus on a clear and compelling thesis · exhibit logical and coherent structure with claims, evidence and interpretations that convincingly support the thesis · make skillful use of transition words and phrases |
· effectively establish and maintain consistent focus on a clear thesis · exhibit a logical sequence of claims, evidence, and interpretations to support the thesis · make effective use of transition words and phrases |
· establish and maintain focus on a clear thesis · exhibit a logical sequence of claims, evidence, and interpretations but ideas within paragraphs may be inconsistently organized · make some attempt to use basic transition words and phrases |
· establish but fail to consistently maintain focus on a basic thesis · exhibit a basic structure but lack the coherence of consistent claims, evidence, and interpretations · make an inconsistent attempt to use some basic transition words or phrases |
· establish a confused or irrelevant thesis and fail to maintain focus · exhibit an attempt to organize ideas into a beginning, middle, and end, but lack coherence · make little attempt to use transition words and phrases
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· fail to include a thesis or maintain focus · complete lack of organization and coherence · make no attempt to use transition words or phrases |
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Language: the extent to which the writing reveals an awareness of audience and purpose through word choice and sentence variety |
· are stylistically sophisticated, using language that is precise and engaging, with a notable sense of voice and awareness of audience and purpose · effectively incorporate a range of varied sentence patterns to reveal syntactic fluency |
· use language that is fluent and original, with evident awareness of audience and purpose · incorporate varied sentence patterns that reveal an awareness of different syntactic structures |
· use appropriate language, with some awareness of audience and purpose · make some attempt to include different sentence patterns but with awkward or uneven success |
· rely on basic vocabulary, with little awareness of audience or purpose · reveal a limited awareness of how to vary sentence patterns and rely on a limited range syntactic structures |
· use language that is imprecise or unsuitable for the audience or purpose · reveal a confused understanding of how to write in complete sentences and little or no ability to vary sentence patterns |
· use language that is incoherent or inappropriate · include a preponderance of sentence fragments and run-ons that significantly hinder comprehension |
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Conventions: the eextent to which the wwriting exhibits cconventional sspelling, ppunctuation, pparagraphing, ccapitalization, and ggrammar
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· demonstrate control of the conventions with essentially no errors, even with sophisticated language |
· demonstrate control of the conventions, exhibiting occasional errors only when using sophisticated language (e.g., punctuation of complex sentences) |
· demonstrate partial control, exhibiting occasional errors that do not hinder comprehension (e.g., incorrect use of homonyms)
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· demonstrate emerging control, exhibiting frequent errors that somewhat hinder comprehension (e.g., agreement of pronouns and antecedents; spelling of basic words) |
· demonstrate lack of control, exhibiting frequent errors that make comprehension difficult (e.g., subject verb agreement; use of slang) |
· illegible or unrecognizable as literate English |
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SKILLS |
LEVEL 4 |
LEVEL 3 |
LEVEL 2 |
LEVEL 1 |
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Topic
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Appropriately focused topic with a clearly communicated understanding of the purpose for the speech |
Focused topic with partially demonstrated understanding of the purpose for the speech |
Somewhat focused topic or a vague sense of the purpose for the speech, which require the audience to make assumptions |
A lack of focus or confused purpose, which result in confusion on the part of the audience |
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Research Analysis
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Clear and convincing command of facts and information with insightful explanations that help to illustrate the speaker’s ideas and arguments |
Clear use of facts and information with partially developed explanations in support of the speaker’s ideas or arguments |
Partially clear use of facts and information with limited or incomplete explanations to support the speaker’s ideas or arguments |
Confusing or incomplete facts with little and/or confusing explanations as to how the facts support the speakers ideas or arguments |
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Organization
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Clearly and logically organized speech with an engaging introduction, a logically sequenced body with appropriate transitions, and a clear and convincing conclusion |
Clear attempt at organization with a beginning, middle, and end and an attempt to use transitions |
Some inconsistencies in organization and/or a lack of sustained focus throughout the speech with inconsistently use transitions |
A lack of organization makes it difficult to follow the speaker’s ideas; speech may be too conversational and may ramble without a clear beginning, middle, or end |
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Language
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Uses sophisticated and varied language that is suited to the topic and audience; word choice is concise, original, and effectively conveys the appropriate tone given the purpose of the speech |
Uses appropriate language and word choice, but with less sophistication, expressiveness and/or originality |
Use words that may be unsuited to the topic, audience or purpose of the speech; word choice lacks originality and fails to convey an appropriate tone for the speech |
Inappropriate use of language distracts the audience because it is too informal or too imprecise given the topic and purpose of the speech |
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Stylistic Devices
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Skillful use of various stylistic devices (e.g., repetition, parallelism, anecdotes, analogies, figurative language, different types of appeals) greatly enhance the effectiveness of the speech |
Effective use of at least one stylistic device (e.g., repetition, parallelism, anecdotes, analogies, figurative language, different types of appeals) enhances the effectiveness of the speech |
An attempt to use at least one stylistic device (e.g., repetition, parallelism, anecdotes, analogies, figurative language, different types of appeals) but it does not enhance the effectiveness of the speech |
No attempt to use stylistic devices to enhance the meaning of the speech |
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Delivery
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A combination of appropriate and effective eye contact, clarity and projection of voice, tone and pace, and gestures significantly enhance the speaker’s words |
A combination of appropriate eye contact, clarity and projection of voice, tone and pace, and gestures are used but without the smoothness of level four |
Inconsistent use of eye contact, clarity and projection of voice, tone and pace, and/or gestures interrupt the flow of the speech |
Lack of eye contact, clarity and projection of voice, tone and pace, and/or appropriate gestures make the speech difficult to follow |
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Overall Effectiveness
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Speaker remains enthusiastic, audience attention is maintained, and the purpose of the speech is achieved |
Speaker shows some enthusiasm, the audience remains mostly interested, and the purpose of the speech is achieved |
Speaker shows limited enthusiasm, audience interest is not sustained, and the purpose of the speech is only partially achieved |
Speaker lacks enthusiasm, the audience shows a lack of interest, and the purpose of the speech is not achieved |
Pick a subject you want to persuade your reader about and make a list of examples that would help your argument. Your contention: “Football is exciting and worthwhile.” (You don’t necessarily have to use two words--it could be just “exciting”--but I’m offering you a slightly more sophisticated plan.) Some examples of exciting: kick-off returns, long passes, blitzes, milking the clock on the last drive, overtime, the announcers, the crowd roar in the stadium, the team bands and mascots. Some examples of worthwhile: builds discipline and teamwork, teaches respect, creates camaraderie, develops stamina, unites communities. Put this list to the side.
Decide on your audience. If you’re persuading them, it can’t be someone who already thinks football is exciting or worthwhile. Think about how they would see it. Write down the problems they might have with it. A possible list: too violent, not fair cause only big guys can play, destroys a family’s chance to do other things on a Sunday afternoon, boring cause there are only four or five really exciting plays per game, causes arguments in the house, players act like idiot showoffs during the game. These are your cons. Put this list to the side.
You now have a pro and a con list. You want to pick out the best examples from your pro list and give detailed examples for each one. Example: It’s exciting because of the team bands and mascots. Details: the colors of the band, the instruments moving back and forth while they play, the mascots jumping around, the cheerleaders shoving their faces in the camera. Another example: It’s worthwhile because it teaches discipline and respect. Details: working hard in practice, keeping free of drugs, shaking hands with opponents, accepting the decision of authority figures. Each example--with details--should constitute one paragraph.
Do the same thing with the con list. Find the strongest cons and explain their points in detail as well. Recognize their legitimacy. It’s important that your argument consider the other side. Find the cons you can argue the best against and put them in your paper when you are discussing an example that refutes this point of view. Example: the complex nature of an offensive strategy versus the belief that there are only four or five really exciting plays in a came. If you understood it, you’d find everything interesting.
Use ethos, logos and pathos. These are the classic rhetorical strategies for persuasion. Ethos means you’re appealing to a sense of trust. Logos means you’re appealing to a sense of logic. Pathos means you’re appealing to emotion. Use examples of each in your argument. Ethos: “I have been playing football for eleven years and I know how exciting the game is.” (We trust you; you’ve been playing for eleven years; you know the sport.) Ethos: “President Kennedy used to play football. He said it taught him a lot about life.” (We trust President Kennedy.) Logos: “73% of football players graduate college according to the NCAA. This is higher than the national average.” (It’s a worthwhile thing to do and the facts prove it out.) Logos: “77% of American’s polled say football as the most exciting sport.” (Facts not easily disputable.) Pathos: “There’s nothing like watching a young man cry tears of joy because his team has won a championship. (It can make every parent feel proud.) Pathos: “Is there anything more American than an football game on Thanksgiving when we all share our blessings?” (It’s worthwhile because it’s woven into the fabric of American life.) Put two examples of each strategy in a list and carefully choose opportune moments to insert them in the text.
You have assembled examples for why football is exciting and worthwhile--with specific details, examples of why it isn’t--with specific details, a selection of classical rhetorical strategies that appeal to trust, logic or emotion--with specific details.
Now you can start to write.
Begin with a sentence that attracts the reader and makes them want to read the second sentence. This is your grabber. If you want to convince the reader that football is exciting, show it. Describe a 108-yard touchdown return with the living room going up for grabs. Try to begin with FIQQSS: fact, image, question, quote, story, surprise. Then introduce your argument and offer to your reader four or five of your most arguable reasons for why football is exciting and worthwhile.
In each body paragraph focus on one example--with details. Also try to insert one classical rhetorical strategy that will help convince the reader of the validity of that example and one contrary example that you can acknowledge and defuse. Repeat this throughout with variations of sentence structure and sentence length, choice of interesting words, and sophisticated transitions.
Conclude with a punch. FIQQSS might work. Or a rhetorical strategy. Make people remember the ending.
Remember: People don't always
agree on what is good or bad, exciting or dull, right or wrong. The point of a
persuasive paper is to make someone take a closer look at their own and others'
ideas more carefully. Writing a persuasive paper helps us to look at evidence,
to state ideas more clearly, to consider the claims of the opposition fairly,
and to justify our own position.
AM STUDIES 001 / WAYS TO OPEN AND CLOSE ESSAYS
AM STUDIES 002 / TRANSITION WORDS
AM STUDIES 003 / 60 SUBJECTS FROM OUR CULTURAL MEMORY
AM STUDIES 004 / SAMPLE CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS
AM STUDIES 005 / ELEMENTS OF AN INTELLIGENT AND WELL-ORGANIZED ESSAY
AM STUDIES 006 / A LIST OF IMPORTANT AMERICAN EVENTS AND ARTISTS
AM STUDIES 101 / from WALKING by Henry David Thoreau
AM STUDIES: 102 / THE WHISTLE by Benjamin Franklin
AM STUDIES: 103 / SELF-RELIANCE by Ralph Waldo Emerson
AM STUDIES: 104 / THE TYRANNY OF THINGS by Edward Sanford Martin
AM STUDIES: 201 / RED JACKET ON THE RELIGION OF THE WHITE MEN AND THE RED by Red Jacket
AM STUDIES: 202 / SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD by Jonathan Edwards
AM STUDIES: 301 / THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
AM STUDIES: 302 / THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
AM STUDIES: 401 / from SONG OF MYSELF by Walt Whitman
AM STUDIES 001 / WAYS TO OPEN AND CLOSE ESSAYS / RYCHLEWSKI
You need to grab the reader’s attention right away. Remember--the first sentence is the most important sentence you're going to write. And the second sentence is the second most important. Start strong. If you don't, nobody is going to read the third sentence. Do the same thing when you finish. Finish strong. Take your reader in a new direction at the end. Look to the future. Imagine something new that will come of your ideas. Don't just rehash the body paragraphs; that's boring. Leave your reader wanting more. In both opening and closing you must think FIQQSS: Fact, Image, Question, Quote, Story, Surprise.
FACT. State a fact or a statistic. “If it’s November in Chicago, you can bet there aren’t many leaves on the trees.” or “Sixty-even percent of all married couples in a recent poll say they have thought about divorce at least once during their marriage.” or "A vast majority of the American people do not support this decision."
IMAGE. Create an image in the reader’s mind. “Picture a crowded subway with smelly and sweaty people smashed up against one another.” or “There is a small white church on the top of a hill." or "The boy stood silent as his kite disappeared into the gray sky." or "All she did was put her hands over her face and cry." Or use a metaphor or simile. "It was like taking candy from a rabid wolf."
NOTE: If you feel you must rehash the points you have made in the body paragraphs then go ahead and do it, but DO NOT use the same words. Draw together your main points in words you haven't used before. Or present a new idea from your main points or argument for your reader to think about.
AM STUDIES 002 / TRANSITION WORDS / RYCHLEWSKI
Here are a list of transition words. They are the nuts and bolts that make your essay stand or fall. Use them.
Transition Words That Add One Thought To Another
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in addition |
likewise |
moreover |
and |
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nor |
further |
and then |
next |
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besides |
last |
again |
furthermore |
Transition Words To Compare Ideas
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in the same way |
similarly |
likewise |
Transition Words To Contrast Ideas Or Admit A Point
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but |
although |
on the other hand |
in contrast |
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still |
however |
conversely |
on the contrary |
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after all |
while this may be true |
notwithstanding |
yet |
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even though |
granted |
in spite of |
though |
Transition Words To show that One Idea Or Event Results From Another
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as a result |
accordingly |
therefore |
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consequently |
then |
thus |
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because |
since |
hence |
Transition Words That Summarize
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therefore |
in conclusion |
consequently |
thus |
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finally |
as a result |
in short |
as I have (shown, said ) |
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to sum up |
accordingly |
in brief |
in other words |
Transition Words That Emphasize
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undoubtedly |
in fact |
certainly |
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indeed |
without a doubt |
to be sure |
truly |
AM STUDIES 003 / 60 SUBJECTS FROM OUR CULTURAL MEMORY / RYCHLEWSKI
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Rudolph Valentino Citizen Kane Scopes Monkey Trial Homestead Act Cuban Missile Crisis Rhapsody in Blue Woody Guthrie Uncle Tom’s Cabin Frank Lloyd Wright Rachel Carson Wounded Knee Haymarket Riots The Holocaust Theory of Relativity Brown vs. Board of Ed. |
It’s a Wonderful Life Pop Art James Meridith Muhammad Ali The Manhattan Project Zoot Suit Riots Sacco and Venzetti Leaves of Grass Louis Armstrong Irving Berlin Surrealism D-Day The Great Gatsby Impressionism Pullman Strike |
City Lights 2001 A Space Odyssey Transcontinental RR Harlan County My Lai Our Town Stephen Foster Caesar Chavez Pickett’s Charge The Black Sox Scandal The McCarthy Hearings Ellis and Angel Islands The Trail of Tears Karl Marx Woodstock |
Birth of a Nation Humphrey Bogart Charles Lindbergh Jesse Owens The Souls of Black Folk The Lost Generation The Little Big Horn Walden Pond Abstract Expressionism Gone with the Wind Watergate Sherman Anti-Trust Act The Panama Canal The French Revolution Tianammen Square |
AM STUDIES 004 / SAMPLE CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS
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DISPOSITIONS/ABILITIES
|
SAMPLE QUESTIONS |
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Seek a clear statement of the thesis or question. |
What point is the author/political figure/judicial ruling trying to make? What is the main idea? |
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Seek reasons. |
Why did the author say X? Why did the character do X? |
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Try to be well informed. |
What do you need to know more about to understand this text? Where could you get more information about X? |
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Use and mention credible sources. Judge the credibility of a source. Observe and judge observations, reports and criteria. |
Where did you get that information?
What makes you think that source is reliable? |
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Take into account the total situation. Try to remain relevant to the main points. Keep in mind the original or basic concern. Focus on a question. |
How does this relate to the part of the text where it says X? How does what you are saying relate to the question we are discussing? |
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Be open-minded. |
Why might someone reach a different conclusion than yours? How do you think X felt in that situation? |
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Take a position ( and change a position) when the evidence and reasons are sufficient to do so. |
