AP Literature and Composition
Mrs. Walsh and Mrs. O’Neill
Summary Overview of Q1, Q2, and Q3 Prompts
Q3 Summary of Exam Question Focus Areas:
1. realism vs. distortion—choose a work that’s “distorted” and discuss importance
to “meaning as a whole’
2. conflict between parent and child
3. contrasting places/two cities, country vs. city, etc.
4. confidant to protagonist/becomes a confidant to reader as well, sympathetic
ear
5. true test of comedy awakens a “thoughtful laughter” in reader
6. character who appears briefly but has a significant presence in book
7. character who is alienated due to race, social standing, gender, class, creed
8. happy ending due to a spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation
9. weddings, funerals, parties, social occasions that reveal values of society
10. In literature, it is the wild that attracts us—choose a story you value for its
“uncivilized, free, and wild thinking”
11. character whose mind is pulled in contrasting directions by two compelling
desires, ambitions, obligations, influences
12. novel where a mystery is central to its story—how does the process of the
investigation deepen/lead to the novel’s larger ‘meaning”
13. protagonist whose “madness” plays a key role in story/reveals themes—
madness may be perceived by society/ may be brilliance rather than real
14. country setting used to establish values of society—does country represent
place of peace or the primitive?
15. Childhood as a time of innocence and wonder or a time of terror and
deception?
16. “foil” minor characters whose actions or an event represents/reveals things
about the protagonist
17. major symbol in book that leads to greater understanding of “novel as a
whole.”
Q3 thesis: prompt focus + meaning of book as a whole (what does this focus area reveal
about the writer’s overall message/meaning/big ideas of novel?).
Q3 body paragraphs should focus on examples (characters, setting, pov, descriptions,
conflicts) that show/emphasize the ideas in your thesis/topic sentence ideas. Remember
that examples should be detailed and specific!
Q2 Summary of Exam Question Focus Areas:
1. “how this passage provides a characterization and evaluation of Emma more
than Harriet.”
2. Gives two passages of an early and late revision of a prose piece, then prompt:
“probable reasons for the writer’s additions and deletions and the ways in
which those revisions change the effect of the paragraph”
3. Opening of a novel: “define the narrator’s attitude toward the characters”
and “show how he directs the reader’s perceptions of those characters” using
“imagery, diction, narrative structure, and choice of details”
4. George Eliot presents a conception of leisure that has lost its place in the society
of her own time….”describe her views on “old leisure” and on leisure in the
society of her own time and discuss the stylistic devices used to convey those
ideas.
5. Complete short story: “analyze the blend of humor, pathos, and grotesque in
story”
6. “describes the attitude of the speaker toward Captain McWhirr” and
“analyzes the techniques used to define the captain’s character”
7. “Analyze the style and tone of the passage, explaining how they help to express
the author’s attitude” Remember author’s attitude/narrator’s attitude = tone!
8. “ways in which Boswell differentiates between the writing of Joseph Addison
and that of Samuel Johnson…and analyze Boswell’s views of both writers and
the devices he uses to convey those views”
9. “analyze the narrative techniques and other resources of language Olsen uses to
characterize the mother and the mother’s attitude toward her daughter.”
10. “define Strachey’s view [of Florence Nightengale] and analyze how he conveys
it…considering such elements as diction, imagery, syntax, and tone.”
11. “showing how the author dramatizes the young heroine’s
adventure….consider the literary elements….narrative pace and POV (and others
above)”.
12. “analyzing how the author, Sandra Cisneros, uses literary devices to
characterize Rachel.”
13. “analysis of how the author reveals the character of Judge Pycheon” “you
may emphasize whichever literary devices you find most significant.
14. “analyze how changes in perspective and style reflect the narrator’s complex
attitude toward the past…consider literary elements such as point of view,
structure, selection of detail, and fig. lang.”
15. “essay in which you characterize the narrator’s attitude toward Dorothea
Brooke and analyze the literary techniques used to convey this attitude.
16. “show how McCarthy’s techniques convey the impact of the experience on the
main character.”
17. “analyze how the language of the passage characterizes the diarist and his
society and how the characterization serves Addison’s satiric purpose.”
18. “analyze the techniques that Fielding employs in this scene to characterize Mr.
Allworthy and Mrs. Deborah Wilkins.
Q2 thesis: author/title + prompt focus + devices (optional) + tone + big idea (what does
this focus area reveal about the writer’s overall message about the character, characters,
relationships among the characters, or the character’s relationship to setting).
Sample Question: “show how McCarthy’s techniques convey the impact of the
experience on the main character.”
Sample Thesis: In his passage from The Crossing, McCarthy uses contrasting violent
and glorious diction, imagery, and figurative language to create a mournful, somber tone
that reveals the speaker’s conflicted feelings of grief and awe over the life and death of
the wolf he has just killed.
Q2 body paragraphs should pull quotes as examples (imagery, detail, description, POV,
tone, figurative language) that show/emphasize the ideas in your thesis/topic sentence
ideas. Remember that examples should be detailed and specific!
Q2 Topic Sentences: Remember to think through how to organize your paragraphs—
what is the unifying idea in your TS that ties to thesis?/What are the BEST examples to
show this TS idea?
Q1 Summary of Sample Question Prompts
Remember that tone = speaker/writer’s attitude toward subject of poem
1. (one poem) “describe the speaker’s attitude toward his former student.”
2. (one poem) “Identify at least two of the implications implicit in the society reflected
in the poem”
3. (one poem) “relate the imagery of the last stanza to the speaker’s view of himself
earlier in the poem and to his view of how others see poets”
4. (one poem) “discuss how the poet’s diction reveals his attitude toward the two
ways of living mentioned in the poem.”
5. (two poems) “explain what characteristics of the second poem make it better than
the first”
6. (one poem) “write an essay discussing the differences between the conceptions of
law in lines 1-34 and those in line 35-60”
7. (two poems) “show how the attitudes towards the coming of spring implied in
these two poems differ from each other”
8. (one poem but compare/contrast) “describe how the speaker’s attitude toward loss in
lines 16-19 is related to her attitude toward loss in line 1-15.” “show how verse form
and language contribute to the reader’s understanding of these attitudes”
9. (one poem) “explain how the organization of the poem and the use of concrete
details reveal both its literal and its metaphorical meanings.” “show how both of
these meanings relate to the title.
10. (one poem) “analyze how the language of the poem reflects the changing perceptions
and emotions of the speaker as he considers the metamorphosis of the dead groundhog.”
11. (one poem) “contrast the attitude of the clocks with that of the lover”
12. (two poems) “distinguish between the attitudes (toward nature, toward the
solitary individual, etc.) expressed in the poems and discuss the techniques that the
poets use to present these attitudes”
13. (one poem but compare/constrast) “You will note that it has two major sections that
are joined by another section…..discuss how the diction, imagery, and movement of the
verse in the poem reflect the differences in tone and content between the two larger
sections”
14. “analyze the presentation of the sow…consider particularly how the language of
the poem reflects both the neighbor’s and the narrator’s perceptions of the sow and how
the language determines the reader’s perceptions”
15. (two poems) “discuss their similarities and differences….consider both theme
and style”
16. (one poem) “analyze how the poem’s organization, diction, and figurative language
prepare the reader for the speaker’s concluding response”
17. (soliloquy) “briefly summarize the king’s thoughts and analyze how diction,
imagery, and syntax help to convey his state of mind”
18. (one poem) “describe the speaker’s attitude toward the woman’s death…show
how the use of language reveals the speaker’s attitudes”
19. “In the passage below…the speaker encounters unfamiliar aspects of the natural
world. ..trace the speaker’s changing responses to his experience and explain how
they are conveyed by the poem’s diction, imagery, and tone.”
20. (one poem) “discuss how such elements as language, imagery, structure, and POV
convey meaning in the poem”
21. (two poems) “Considering such elements as speaker, diction, imagery, form, and
tone, write a well-organized essay in which you contrast the speakers’ views of Helen”
22. (one poem) “analyze how the speaker uses the varied imagery of the poem to
reveal his attitude toward the nature of love”
23. (one poem) “discuss how the poem’s controlling metaphor expresses the complex
attitude of the speaker”
24. (one poem) “explain how formal elements such as structure, syntax, diction, and
imagery reveal the speaker’s response to the death of a toad”
25. (one poem) “analyze how the poem reveals the speaker’s complex conception of a
“woman’s world”
26. (one poem) “…paying particular attention to the physical intensity of the
language…explain how the poet conveys not just a literal description of picking
blackberries but a deeper understanding of the whole experience”
27. (two poems) “compare the portrayal of the Sirens (one is contemporary and one is
the original text in translation). Your analysis should include discussion of tone, POV,
and whatever devices seem most important.
28. (two poems) “compare and contrast the two poems and analyze the relationship
between them (England in 1802 and the U.S. about 100 years later).
Q1 thesis (one poem): author/title + prompt focus + devices (optional) + tone + big idea
(how does the writer convey the big idea/larger meaning using specific devices)
Q1 thesis (two poems): authors of both OR titles of both + prompt focus + devices
(optional) + tone + big idea that unites/divides them.
Q1 body paragraphs should pull quotes as examples (imagery, detail, description, POV,
tone, figurative language) that show/emphasize the ideas in your thesis/topic sentence
ideas. Remember that examples should be detailed and specific!
Q1 Topic Sentences: Remember to think through how to organize your paragraphs—the
challenge for the Q1 is what devices to choose from because there are so many. So, go
back the prompt and see if they have chosen specific literary devices that they want you
to focus on. Remember, if you haven’t focused on devices in your thesis, then be sure
to zero in on two or three for your topic sentence. But, don’t forget that your topic
sentence should also include an idea that expands upon and deepens your thesis idea.
Final Organizational Reminders:
1.Don’t forget to do the “thesis brainstorm”: What’s the big idea in your thesis? What
are three different aspects of the thesis idea that you will explore in your topic sentences
and possibly your conclusion?
2.Don’t forget that your concluding sentences in your body paragraphs allow you to
deepen the ideas in your TS, so don’t miss this opportunity to deepen/expand your ideas.
3.Remember to keep the writer in the driver’s seat to avoid passive voice: Dicken’s uses
the character of Carton to illustrate... Dickinson uses diction to show/reveal….
4. Don’t forget to use your opening sentences of your intro. to set the context (French
Revloution, Vietnam War, post WWII Japan, etc.) of your novel for the Q3. Remember
that a nice thematic overview of the novel, the poem, the passage is a nice way to open
your essay as well as begin the focus needed for your thesis.
5.Yes, the conclusion is important, so take a deep breath and make it count—look back at
your thesis, your examples, consider their significance (go deep)! Look at your “thesis
brainstorm” and see if there’s an aspect of your thesis idea you can explore.
6. Lastly, with all of your leisure time (just kidding), don’t forget sentence variety:
colons, dashes, opening introductory clauses, appositives, parallel verbs/clauses add spice
to your sentences and fluidity to your ideas.