Helping you write a better response to an AP prompt
A thesis must…
 be concise
 include a “why”
 be arguable
 answer prompt
Body paragraphs
 Must be organized organically
 Must NOT be organized by device
Language of prompt
 Rhetorical devices
 Are more than just rhetorical appeals like pathos, logos
and ethos
 Look for repetition, rhetorical questions, parallelism,
paradox or analogy (to start!)
Tone
 Is the author or speaker’s attitude
 Is the author’s feelings about the topic
 You must analyze language in order to determine tone
 Look at word choice: connotations, loaded language
 Look for irony, hyperbole, repetition
Point of view
 Usually 1st person (narrator is part of story) or 3rd
person (narrator is outside of story).
 3rd person can be omniscient (knows everything about
what everyone is thinking) or limited (knows
everything about what some people are thinking)
 Can be free indirect speech: third person narration
that takes on some of the characteristics of 1st person
narration (Austen employs this)
POV
 If a prompt asks you to focus on POV, it is usually
because POV is interesting and important.
 Look for shifts in POV.
 Consider why the author chose this POV. What is
gained? What is lost? How does it achieve author’s
purpose?
“Theme for English B” prompt
 Write an essay in which you analyze how the poem’s
tone, point of view and rhetorical devices reveal
the speaker’s changing attitude towards the
assignment. Develop your essay with specific
references to the poem’s text.
Example
Langston Hughes expresses a changing attitude in the
poem as it progresses from one of simple observation to
one that expresses how what he writes will be looked at
differently. He expresses that he is still American and
lives a normal life despite being labeled black. (46)
What’s wrong?
 Wordy
 Buries prompt’s language in verbiage
 Not specific
Fixed it!
In his poem “Theme for English B,” Langston Hughes’s
tone changes from dubious to assertive as he reflects
upon his writing assignment. (21)
1. Concise!
2. Includes title of poem!
3. Specific (describes the tone)!
4. Arguable!
5. Uses prompt’s language (change, tone, assignment)!
Example
In “Theme for English B,” Hughes employs rhetorical
devices, first person point of view, and tonal shifts to
enhance the speaker’s progress from dubiousness of the
value of his instructor’s homework to realization of the
reciprocity of such an assignment. (40)
What’s wrong?
1. Wordy!!
2. “employs” is almost as bad as “uses”
Fixed it
In “Theme for English B,” Hughes’s rhetorical questions,
first person point of view, and tonal shifts reveal
the speaker’s attitude as it changes from playful
dubiousness to wry acceptance. (29)
Song of Solomon prompt
Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay in which
you analyze Michael-Mary Graham’s character as
Morrison develops it through such literary techniques
as tone, point of view, and language.
Example
Morrison uses bombastic language, interjected by brief
moments of practicality, to use Michael-Mary Graham’s
own perspective to depict her as an artistic phony
deluded within the world. (27)
What’s wrong?
1. OMG! “Use” is in there twice!
2. Wordy and unclear
3. Could better reflect prompt
Fixed it
Morrison’s bombastic language contrasts with her more
reasoned narration, and the resulting irony makes it
clear that Michael-Mary Graham is an artistic phony.
(23)
1. Much more clear!
2. Less wordy!
Example
Toni Morrison incorporates irony and hyperbole as well
as free indirect point of view to satirize the
pretentiousness of certain writers. (21)
What’s wrong?
1. It’s not wordy!
2. It uses prompt’s language!
3. But why say “certain writers” when, in fact, it is
Michael-Mary Graham she is satirizing?
Example
In Toni Morrison’s passage from Song of Solomon, she
displays Michael-Mary Graham’s character in a negative,
self-centered, and inconsiderate light in order to further
communicate the overarching theme of the primeval
strength of spoken language. (35)
What’s wrong?
1. Does not answer prompt! It’s a good idea usually to
relate part to whole, but for this prompt you have
only the passage.
2. Too wordy
Fixed it
In Toni Morrison’s passage from Song of Solomon, the
ironic tone and loaded language reveal Michael-Mary
Graham’s character to be self-centered and
inconsiderate. (23)
Example
Michael-Mary Graham is a socialite who poses as a poet.
Her concerns include appearances and her own
importance, not her art. She is published, which
provides her with followers to impress. Her own high
opinion of herself fuels her need to appear important
and impress everyone, but does not accept competition. (51)
What’s wrong?
1. Quite wordy
2. So what? Where’s the argument?
3. Does not address the prompt
4. Would make good topic sentences for body paragraphs!
You fix it
Michael-Mary Graham is a socialite who poses as a
poet. Her concerns include appearances and her own
importance, not her art. She is published, which
provides her with followers to impress. Her own high
opinion of herself fuels her need to appear important
and impress everyone, but does not accept competition. (51)
For compare/contrast
 When asked to compare and contrast, remember that
because one text uses devices x, y and z does not mean
that the second text uses the same devices.
 Look at the poem’s overall meaning and how the
author achieves that meaning regardless of the devices
involved.
 Answer the prompt! What, specifically, is it asking for?
Compare/contrast
 DO NOT bounce back and forth between
poems/prose in your analysis.
 DO NOT write paragraphs about poem A’s
diction/syntax/tone and then write paragraphs about
poem B’s diction/syntax/tone.
 DO analyze one poem organically, and then
 Analyze the other poem organically with reference to
the first
Compare/contrast
 Your thesis and conclusion should bring the poem’s
together.
 Example of introduction:
Both Poem A and Poem B present autumn as a
transitional moment , but they differ in their
appreciation of this time. (short and to the point)
 Example of conclusion:
 While both poems discuss autumn, their interpretations
are different. The first speaker sees autumn as a positive
time for change, while the second sees it as the melancholy
harbinger of death. (short and to the point again)