How to Write a Poem Analysis Essay
AP essay responses are scored using a matrix of 0 to 9, from not responding at all to an excellent response with sophisticated writing, strong vocabulary and exceptional insight. The College Board reports that students received an average score of 4.33 on the 2010 poetry response essay to Marilyn Waniek's poem "The Century Quilt." Students who wrote about their own childhood blankets and who paraphrased instead of quoting received the lowest scores. Focus on answering the prompt using the author's words before writing about yourself.
The single greatest reason students write poor responses to readings, including poems, is a lack of specific focus on the reading itself. Low-scoring AP essays neglect to refer to authors by name or poems by title and fail to include even one quoted example of the poet's writing in their response. The more specific examples you can include in your essay response and the more focused your analysis of the examples, the higher score you will receive.
Let’s take a look at some examples of questions, answers and scorer responses that will help you to get a better idea of how to craft your own AP Literature exam essays.
How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay - A Step-by-Step Guide
So, for example, let’s say you’re presented with a passage from a short story to analyze. The AP Lit Exam will ask you to write an essay with an essay with a clear, defensible thesis statement that makes an argument about the story, based on some literary elements in the short story. After reading the passage, you might talk about how foreshadowing, allusion, and dialogue work together to demonstrate something essential in the text. Then, you’ll use examples of each of those three literary elements (that you pull directly from the passage) to build your argument. You’ll finish the essay with a conclusion that uses clear reasoning to tell your reader why your argument makes sense.
The last of these prompts attracts perhaps the most attention and, by extension, produces the most anxiety among students. Anyone would admit that such a capacious (‘open, roomy’) question is challenging, especially when a year of AP Lit has taught you to focus on the details of the book you’re reading. And it certainly doesn’t help that this question comes at the very end of the essay, and you and your fingers are about as tired as they could possibly be!
The topic of this poem, Fall–a season characterized by change and the deconstruction of the spring and summer landscape—is juxtaposed with the final line which evokes the season of Spring. From this, it is clear that the speaker appreciates beautiful and blossoming change. However, they resent that which destroys familiar paradigms and norms. Fall, seen as the death of summer, is characterized as a regression, though the turning of seasons is a product of the literal passage of time. Utilizing romantic imagery and hyperbole to shape the Speaker’s perspective, Cary emphasizes the need to embrace change though it is difficult, because growth is not possible without hardship or discomfort.
Whether for , the , or the , you’ve heard the dictum a million times—outlines make better essays, even when your time feels extremely limited! When it’s time for the test, this can feel a little bit trite, but we challenge you to find one soul in the grand history of the AP English Literature exam who hasn’t benefited from creating even a rough outline. This is the place where your reasoning and organization come alive. We recommend devoting 5-7 minutes to your outline—the lower end if you’re confident you know the text inside and out and just need to nail down your claims and evidence, and the higher end if you need to jog your memory and give your thesis a bit more time to gestate.
How to Write the AP Lit Poetry Essay | CollegeVine Blog
The third free-response prompt, and the AP Lit exam in general, is extremely structured. It can feel downright constricting. The little-known truth about the last essay is that it’s the most creative part of the whole exam. You not only get to choose the prompt, but within the roughly five-paragraph structure of the essay you’re penning, you get to be quite creative with what you say in each paragraph. There are so many ways to explain to your readers how, say, a symbol illuminates an important theme in a text. We find this knowledge incredibly liberating; paired wisely with the organization that the outline and the essay require, this creative approach can lead to a top-notch essay.
[PDF] AP Literature Poetry Essay
When taking the AP® English Literature exam, the part that intimidates many students is the Free-Response section. In other terms, the essay section. The AP® English Literature exam has an essay section where you get the opportunity to show the readers, AP® English Literature teachers and college professors from around the nation, what you can do. The readers are looking to see how well you read, how well you think, and how well you write in a timed setting. This is your chance to prove to the world (or to the readers) that you have thoughtfully prepared for this exam and you are ready for college-level literary analysis.
AP English Literature Exam Poetry Analysis Essay: Write Your Thesis
The AP® readers are not expecting perfection in the essays you write. You are writing under a time constraint and the readers are completely aware of this. However, they do expect you to write three essays in two hours, spending approximately 40 minutes on each essay. The three essays are quite different, so it helps to start preparing early for each type of essay. Timed essay writing can certainly improve, but only with repeated practice and constructive feedback (or intense analysis of previously-scores samples).
How to Write the AP Lit Prose Essay + Example | CollegeVine Blog
Follow time-saving strategies to produce the best essay response. Take five minutes to read the question carefully, underlining key terms, including structure, literary techniques and tone. Skim the poem and determine what kind of poem it is. Underline lines, phrases and words that exemplify literary techniques, show the tone and meaning, or are good examples of structure. Select four to five examples to include in your essay. Make careful note of the author's name and poem title.