DEVELOPING
INSIGHT
AND
ACKNOWLEDGING
COMPLEXITY…
IN WRITING!
“An essay scored a 9 demonstrates
exceptional insight and language facility. It
combines adherence to the topic with
excellent organization, content, insight, facile
use of language, mastery of mechanics, and
an understanding of the essential
components of an effective essay. Literary
devices and/or techniques are not merely
listed, but the effect of those devices and/or
techniques is addressed in context of the
passage, poem, or novel as a whole.”
-AP Essay Rubric
Students should “read deliberately and
thoroughly, taking time to understand a
work’s complexity, to absorb its
richness of meaning, and to analyze
how that meaning is embodied in
literary form.”
–AP Literature Course Description
WHAT IS INSIGHT?!
*HINT: CATS DON’T HAVE IT
INSIGHT IS “THE CAPACITY TO
GAIN AN ACCURATE AND DEEP
INTUITIVE
UNDERSTANDING OF A PERSON
OR THING.” (MERRIAM-WEBSTER DICTIONARY)
INSIGHTFUL, INTUITIVE PEOPLE…
-Can tell “what’s going on,” even when very little actual
information is available.
-Can articulate—spot on—what internal emotions and
motivations are causing others to act the way they do.
-Can imagine and justify the perspectives of others.
-See metaphorical messages everywhere; they read the
universe, life itself as a text.
-Are often deep thinkers, can be introverted, cultivate
rich intellectual lives, and spend real time pondering
life’s paradoxes and mysteries.
-Are emotionally struck by art… they are easily able to
interpret messages within an artistic expression.
Q. WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH
LIT ANALYSIS? A. EVERYTHING.
Well, almost everything. Yes, we need to include textual
evidence and identify literary devices to support our claims
about the text. However, it’s those claims—the CORE OF
YOUR ENTIRE PAPER—that need to be as insightful as
possible. Insight is what makes writing worth reading; it’s
what gives the reader that *wow* moment in your writing
where you’ve peeled back the words of a text to reveal
something truly striking.
Terms can only get one so far. The main purpose of writing
is to communicate something worth saying. Insightful
things are worth saying. Your score will reward solidly
supported insight far more than your identification of terms
(see side by side comparison on essays 1A/1E).
HOW CAN I LEARN HOW TO BE
MORE INSIGHTFUL?
Read other insightful things—Magazine articles (from good
stuff like National Geographic, Harper’s, The Utne Reader,
etc.), professional film/music/book reviews, memoirs…
Experience art and think about it. Poetry. Music. Visual art.
Books. Film. Really think about it. Write about it. Respond
to it. Put the terms away for a moment and react from the
heart. THEN, go back to see how it’s achieved.
Have a real discussion with someone moderately wise
about important aspects of life—heartbreak, fear, faith,
love, value, power… not politics, but common human
experiences. The more perspectives you’re exposed to, the
more you’ll have in your mental bank to draw from.
Be willing to entertain risky ideas, if only for an afternoon.
INSIGHT IS VERY SIMILAR TO
Wisdom
Genius
Mind-reading abilities
WHAT ABOUT COMPLEXITY?
*HINT: CATS AREN’T VERY EXEMPLARY ON THIS
FRONT EITHER
“COMPLEXITY” REFERS TO THE
FACT THAT…
Life, and
everything in it, is
far from simple. It’s
intricate—
frustratingly
complex. This
goes for us just as
much as it goes for
characters. Stuff is
complicated!
NO EASY ANSWERS
Complexity comes from opposing forces, conflicts of
interest, uncertainty, a plethora of variables, lack of human
control, discrepancies in ethical/moral code, chance, and
just general human unpredictability.
This means that there are, at any given time, MULTIPLE
POSSIBILITIES for the question “What is true?” And,
beyond that, there are MULTIPLE FACTORS that shape
what is true.
Complexity creates tension, and, therefore, stories.
COMPLEXITY SHOWS ITS FACE
In relationships
In self-concepts
In emotions and reactions to them
In choices, all of which have multiple options
In social commentary
In paradoxes
In possibilities
In personalities
In the answer to the question “Who is right?”
In the answer to the question “What is the cause?”
In the answer to the question “Who is in power?”
DO YOU SEE THIS…
OR THIS?
WHAT MUST I DO ABOUT THE
PRESENCE OF COMPLEXITY?
Acknowledge it in your writing!
Describe to us how and why your subject is
__________ yet also _____________ .
Refrain from making generalizations,
establishing simple judgments, or assuming
“that’s just the way it is.” Explore each facet of
your subject carefully, and don’t dismiss
options other than the one you’re automatically
drawn to as impossibilities.
FOR EXAMPLE, LET’S TAKE THE
SITUATION OF MAIN CHARACTER SETHE
IN MORRISON’S BELOVED…
NOT ACKNOWLEDGING
COMPLEXITY
ACKNOWLEDGING COMPLEXITY!
While the act of killing one’s own child is
unthinkable in a normal moral climate, a
Sethe killed her own
culture of slavery disturbs and rewrites
child. Regardless of
what is “right” for both the enslavers and
the reasons she may the enslaved. Sethe makes this move to
have had for doing it, avoid what is, in her eyes, an even greater
sin—allowing her children to be captured
this was an
and sold. Sethe’s past experiences with
unacceptable act. She abuse and sexual violence bolster the fear
knows she is wrong, she has for the path her daughter’s life
could take, and transform the murder into a
and spends the
protective act that, ironically, is a result of
majority of the novel maternal instinct. While confident in her
choice, Sethe is far from comfortable with it,
atoning for this
and is haunted in more than one way by the
wrongdoing.
spirit of the daughter that died by her own
hand.
THESE ARE THINKING SKILLS
THAT FUNCTION AS THE
FOUNDATION OF A CREATIVE,
WISE, AND SMART-AS-A-WHIP
MIND. THEY TRANSCEND AP
LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
TO ENCOMPASS AND BENEFIT…
WELL… YOUR WHOLE LIFE AS A
THINKING PERSON! PRACTICE
THEM DEVOTEDLY.