1. How To Write an AP Literature & Composition Thesis Statement for Q3
January 2016

2. Step 1: TAG TAG- You MUST label the work
Do it as the initial part of your thesis statement
Include the title of the piece of lit, the author, literary movement, the genre and a descriptive adjective
In his/her adjective (type of genre: novel, novella, short story) title, written in the (lit. movement) period, author…
In his seminal dystopian novel, 1984, written in the Post-Modern period, George Orwell…

3. Step 2: Theme/MOWAW Why did the author write the book?
What is his purpose?
What message is he trying to convey?
Include a tone word (adverb), a power verb, and an explanation of the author’s purpose
End with a period.
…tone word power verb theme/MOWAW
In his seminal dystopian novel, 1984, written in the Post-Modern period, George Orwell… firmly denounces the communist system as a system that stifles individual freedom and intellectual thought.
You need to state what the literary work asserts about the abstract topic – the universal theme. In other words, what is the author/poet revealing and asserting about the human condition.

4. Sentence #1 Checkpoint TAG + Theme/MOWAW
Your theme is the most important part of your thesis
It sets you up for the perfect connection to literary analysis
In his seminal dystopian novel, 1984, written in the Post-Modern period, George Orwell firmly denounces the communist system as a system that stifles individual freedom and intellectual thought.

5. Step 3: Identify Literary Topics
Re- read the prompt!
The prompt may include:
literary “topics”
How you must connect to the theme
The lit. topic will indicate what you will discuss in your body pps.
Move through the novel from beginning to end as your organization and how the literary topic ties to theme throughout the novel

6. Step 3: Identify Literary Devices* (cont.)
Here is a sample Q3 AP prompt from 2015:
“In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social or political factor. Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which acts of cruelty are important to the theme. Then write a well-developed essay analyzing how cruelty functions in the work as a whole and what the cruelty reveals about the perpetrator and/or victim.”
What does the prompt tell us?
Cruelty is our one literary topic
We must connect cruelty to our theme/MOWAW
We must write about what the cruelty reveals
Context for 1984:
Cruelty is one of the major tools of the government to keep order
The cruelty reveals that the government is evil
Connection to MOWAW is that Orwell uses the cruelty to convince us that the communist system is wrong.

7. Step 4: Implement Literary Devices*
Now that you know which devices to use, you must write them into a sentence that connects to the MOWAW
For EACH device:
Identify the device
Write its purpose
Author uses device to power verb purpose (theme statement).
In this section of your thesis, you must adapt the structure to fit the prompt

8. Step 4: Implement Literary Topics (cont.)
Orwell uses the motif of cruelty as one of the major tools of the government to keep order, which assigns an evil persona to the government, proving his point that communism is an awful form of government.
Three purposes, connected by commas
A connection to the MOWAW
Answers the prompt
“In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social or political factor. Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which acts of cruelty are important to the theme. Then write a well-developed essay analyzing how cruelty functions in the work as a whole and what the cruelty reveals about the perpetrator and/or victim.”
Context for 1984:
Cruelty is one of the major tools of the government to keep order
The cruelty reveals that the government is evil
Connection to MOWAW is that Orwell uses the cruelty to convince us that the communist system is wrong.
Author answers how cruelty functions by writing “uses cruelty as one of the major tools of the government to keep order”

9. Summary Notice that the thesis is not only one sentence
It is the entire first paragraph
It is the most important paragraph of the essay
A well thought out and constructed thesis will set you up for success
Our completed thesis paragraph:
In his seminal dystopian novel, 1984, written in the Post-Modern period, George Orwell firmly denounces the communist system as a system that stifles individual freedom and intellectual thought. Orwell uses cruelty as one of the major tools of the government to keep order, which assigns an evil persona to the government, proving his point that communism is an awful form of government.
Note in a handwritten essay, You MUST underline the title of the books. In a typed essay you will put the titles in italics.