AP Free Response Essay

AP Free Response Essay

Arranging a Paper by Literary Devices

"Having a sister or a friend is like sitting at night in a lighted house. Those outside can watch you if they want, but you need not see them...Anyone with one solid human bond is that smug, and it is the smugness as much as the comfort and safety that lonely people covet and admire.”

Literary Device: Robinson uses simile to emphasize the importance of relationships.

Idea: Robinson communicates the value and rarity of human relationships to her readers. It is in this that she conveys a sense of separation between those who have these relationships versus those who do not. The ones who do not have a close bond with someone seek it out and watch those who do with envy. Robinson conveys this longing and desire of the outsider through the simile of a lighted house. Sitting inside a lighted house when it is dark outside...

Criteria For Grading

Topics: Ideas vs. Literary Devices

Practice

Make sure to understand what the prompt is asking fully:

Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Lawrence employs literary devices to characterize the woman and capture her situation.

Arranging a paper by ideas rather than literary devices makes an argument more sophisticated. It is more analytical, less formulaic, and offers a greater amount of freedom to your argument. Arranging by ideas allows your reader to see how the literary devices are the way in which the author conveys his ideas.

Introductions only include information necessary for reader to understand the content of the essay

Thesis answers the "what" and the "how"

Paragraphs are arranged by ideas rather than literary devices.

Quotes are thoughtfully chosen to help support/illustrate the point being made

Argument only focuses on the passage, not the rest of the novel

Read the passage with your group. Underline the key words and phrases that help answer the prompt. Label them according to what literary device it is.

Form 3 topic sentences that are arranged by IDEAS rather than literary devices.

Sample Prompts

The following passage is from the novel The Known World by Edward P. Jones. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze how the author reveals the character of Moses. In your analysis, you may wish to consider such literary elements as point of view, selection of detail, and imagery.

The following passage is from D. H. Lawrence’s 1915 novel, The Rainbow, which focuses on the lives of the Brangwens, a farming family who lived in rural England during the late nineteenth century. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Lawrence employs literary devices to characterize the woman and capture her situation.