Prose Analysis Essay for the AP Language and Composition Exam Introduction Information Advice

Just what is “IT”? In the prose analysis essay, Students are presented with a prose passage that can be drawn from various genres and time periods (but mostly from non-fiction). Students are asked to analyze the language, including rhetorical strategies and stylistic elements.

What is the Purpose? The College Board wants to determine your facility with reading, understanding, and analyzing challenging texts. They also want to asses how well you manipulate language to communicate a written analysis of a specific topic to a mature audience. In short, they want to see that your level of writing is a direct reflection of your critical thinking skills.

What do they WANT? AP is looking for connections between your analysis and the passage… Identify Connect Analyze

Identify what device is being used here? “I said, ‘Who killed him?’ and he said ‘I don’t know who killed him, but he’s dead all right,’ and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights or windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was right only she was full of water.” (Ernest Hemingway, After the Storm)

What effect does this have? In a sentence analyze how the device creates effectiveness within the passage  Using this literary device, Hemmingway is able to make his readers feel the anxiety that his character is feeling.

Identify what device is being used here? “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.” Winston Churchill’s speech during the Second World War

What effect does this have? In a sentence analyze how the device creates effectiveness within the passage The repetitive structures in the above passage suggest the importance of the war for England. Moreover, it inspires patriotic sentiments among the masses.

What kinds of questions? Analyze an author’s view on a specific subject. Analyze rhetorical devices used by an author to achieve his or her purpose. Analyze stylistic elements in a passage and their effects. Analyze the author’s tone and how the author conveys his tone. Compare and/or contrast two passages with regard to style, purpose, or tone. Analyze the author’s purpose and how he or she achieves it. Analyze some of the ways an author recreates a real or imagined experience. Analyze how an author presents him or herself in the passage. Discuss the intended and/or probable effect of a passage.

What to do? Be prepared to write an essay based on any of these prompts. Anticipate questions when you read a work. Keep a list/copy of the questions discussed and/or written on in class. Review handouts. Keep in mind that MC and PA are related.

One constant: No matter the length, complexity, time, or author of the passage: The task remains consistent—RHETORICAL ANALYSIS. The source will change….BUT THE TOOLS REMAIN THE SAME. Therefore: knowledge of the terms and processes is CRUCIAL.

The PROCESS: PROMPT READ THE PROMPT TWICE. “WORK” The PROMPT by underlining, coding, or circling the key words and annotating. Work your own system. Sometimes the incidental data in the prompt can prove helpful to beginning your essay…. circling

WRITING THE ESSAY STUDY AND USE: SOAPStone Writing devices toolbox Analysis essay framework

GENERAL TIPS: Do not be thrown by the complexity of the passage. Be sure to address the prompt. Respond to the parts of the passage you understand *Remember, you are choosing the strategies, right?*

SPECIFIC TIPS: Note the time you start Annotate before you organize. Organize before you write. Choose specific strategies to use Always connect the strategies to the effect they produce (never let the reader have to connect the dots). Ignore what you do not understand Focus on what you do know.

Analysis Organization: Thematic Introduction: get it and get out Introductory hook Introduce the text and author Summarize or describe Thesis: How the text works, what it means Analyze the text: Identify device or effect Connect with example(s) from the text Analyze what it did for the overall effectiveness Continue with 2-4 points (or more) as needed Connect what the effectiveness means to the piece on a whole. Or, connect it to a larger (world, text) issues /views: HOW THE TEXT / AUTHOR WORKS WHAT IT MEANS!

How is Prose Analysis related to Multiple Choice? BOTH are Rhetorical Analysis! You are looking for the answers to two basic questions: WHO is the writer/speaker? WHAT is the meaning of the passage? What is the attitude of the writer/speaker? HOW does the author convey or reveal it? WHAT strategies does he/she use?