AP Lit Exam Q2
Essay: The Prose
Prompt
Strategies and Notes
Analyzing the Prose Passage
 Look



for answers to these three questions:
What is the passage about?
How does the author view the subject—
what is the tone of the passage? How does
the author use language and literary
devices to create meaning and tone?
What is the importance of this passage?
What does the author want us to
understand about the subject?
Then annotate
the passage
Pay attention to the prompt as
you do so: what should you
notice according to what you
are being asked to do?
Now Plan Your Writing
 What
is the dramatic situation?
 What literary devices are used (what are
you being asked to look for?)
 How do these tie to the dramatic
situation?
The Dramatic Situation

In poetry:
That is, who is the speaker (or who are the speakers)? Is the speaker a
male or female? Where is he or she? When does this poem take
place? What are the circumstances?
Sometimes you'll be able to answer all of these questions: For example,
the speaker is a male psychopath living in a remote cottage,
probably in Renaissance Italy, who has strangled his mistress and is
sitting with her head propped upon his shoulder (Browning's Porphyria's
Lover). Sometimes you'll be able to answer only a few, and sometimes
only vaguely: The speaker is unnamed, unplaced, and is addressing
an audience that's unknown. No matter. You've begun to understand
the poem.(teachers.ausd.net/classfile 42435)

In prose: what is happening? Who is involved? What is the tension
or conflict? What is the dynamic between characters?
As you plan (Briguglio)
 Consider
how you will respond precisely
to the question that is asked. The
questions offer a logical and focused
approach to the literary passage. Accept
the guidance the question is offering you;
it is designed to help you write an
effective response. Stick to the question,
focusing on ways to interpret and illustrate
each of its elements.
As you plan and write
 Think
through the framework for your
whole essay before you begin, but also
be open to new insights that arise from
your process of thinking and writing.
Connect continually and logically to your
thesis, your central idea, thus yielding a
unified essay.
Things to consider
 The
beginning/opening should
demonstrate that you understand the
prompt and set the tone of your essay. In
the first sentence, the lead sentence
include the author’s name and title of the
work along with the dramatic situation.
Do not parrot the prompt. Take ownership
and address the prompt.