AP Language and Composition Essay Reflections, Insights, Considerations and Understandings
After completion of a first draft, please reflect upon the qualities of your essay. Choose a few of the talking points
below to analyze your writing in specific terms.
Syntax
Paragraphs
Diction
1. Appositives
1. Introduction
1. Adjectives
2. Conciseness
A. Approach
2. Adverbs
3. Coordinate Adjectives
1. Anecdote
3. Connotation
4. Dep./Ind. Clauses
2. Definition
4. Euphemism
5. Gerunds
3. Fact/Stat
5. Dysphemism
6. Interrupters/Interjections
4. Humor
6. Denotation
7. Loose/Periodic
5. Historical
7. Levels of Diction
8. Noun Phrases
6. Quote
A. Cliché
9. Parallel Structure
B. Claim/Thesis
B. Colloquial
10. Sentence Patterns
C. Grabber
C. Informal/Formal
11. Signal Phrases
2. Body Paragraphs
D. Jargon
12. Simple/Compound/Complex
A. Concessions
E. Standard
13. Quotes
B. Evidence
8. Modifiers
14. Fluidity
C. Organization
A. Coord. Adj.
D. Sophistication
B. Hyph. Mod.
E. Topic Sentences
9. Mono vs. polysyllabic
F. Warrants
10. Tone
3. Conclusion
11. Verbs with Imagery and
A. Framing Device
Action
B. Approach
Punctuation
Rhetorical Devices
Figurative Language
1. Brackets
1. Amplification
1. Alliteration
2. Colon
2. Apostrophe
2. Allusion
3. Comma
3. Asyndeton
3. Antithesis
4. Dashes
4. Commoratio
4. Assonance
5. Ellipses
5. Distinctio
5. Hyperbole
6. Hyphens
6. Forms of Repetition
6. Irony
7. Parentheses
7. Hypophora
7. Kenning
8. Quotation Marks
8. Rhetorical Question
8. Metaphor
9. Zeugma
9. Onomatopoeia
10. Oxymoron
11. Paradox
12. Simile
13. Understatement
Pacing and Style
Rhetorical Appeals
Content
1. Writer’s Commentary
1. Bathos
(see also body paragraphs)
2. Conjunctions
2. Ethos
1. Dirimens Copulation
3. Punctuation
3. Logos
2. Examples
4. Sentence Length
4. Pathos
3. Juxtaposition
5. Sentence Beginnings
4. Proper Nouns
6. Transitional Words
5. Relevance
7. Writer’s Sophistication
6. Uniqueness
8. Writer’s Tone
7. Development
9. Writer’s Voice
The Prompt and the Process
Verbs
Weak Words and Structures
1. Mistakes/ Errors (specific)
1. Active/Passive Voice
1. I think, I believe, In my
2. Preparations/Prewriting
2. Avoiding “To Be” Verbs
opinion
3. Time Management
3. Infinitives
2. Contractions
4. Writing Environment
4. Tense
3. Fallacies
5. Verbing
4. Thing(s)
6. Vivid Verbs
5. This/That/These/Those
AP Language and Composition Essay Reflections, Insights, Considerations and Understandings
Using the chart on the other side of this page, write a reflection that discusses some of the talking points available.
Please be specific in your commentary. Below, I have provided exemplars of acceptable and unacceptable essay
reflections. Please use the Praise-Question-Polish (PQP) approach to offer your analysis.
Inaccurate Reflection Commentary:
This prompt was difficult to write. I hate argumentative essays, and I didn’t know where to start. I used a lot of
examples, but I am unsure of which one is the best, or if I even answered the prompt. I feel like I was clear in the
beginning, but I lost sense of what the prompt was asking near the end. My body paragraphs lack coherence, and I
will probably have to rewrite this essay, maybe even type it because I have bad handwriting.
Satisfactory Reflection Commentary:
Praise
After the topic sentence in the first body paragraph (line 22), the dirimens copulation regarding Kenneth’s assertion
that “America’s values in petroleum dependency…ranges according to civil war in the oil producing nations” offers
a stark contrast to the three subsequent body paragraphs to follow. In essence, the concession paragraph(first body
paragraph) that I created elicits the nation’s polemical feelings about America’s conflicting attitude toward foreign
oil dependency, a debate that produces the anti-bipartisan sentiments in Washington.
Question (optional)
Should I use alliteration in lines 28-29 instead of assonance? I was thinking that the harsh consonant sounds might
create a more belligerent tone to the paragraph-the B-sound, perhaps.
Polish
The grabber is too awkward for the rest of the introductory paragraph; note the use of a personal anecdote in lines 310-such a story is too long for the entire essay and leaves a disproportional feeling to the rest of the essay. For
example, look at lines 22-25; that’s the entire body paragraph-too short to maintain a balanced essay that offers any
significant insight. In addition, the introductory paragraph lacks any transitional words, thus creating a choppiness
from my anecdote to the essay’s thesis statement in line eleven.