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Analysis Essay for the AP Language and Composition Exam. Introduction Information Advice. Just what is it?. Students are given prose to analyze: genres time periods Students need to analyze language rhetorical strategies stylistic elements. What is the Purpose?.
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Analysis Essayfor the AP Language and Composition Exam Introduction Information Advice
Just what is it? Students are given prose to analyze: • genres • time periods Students need to analyze • language • rhetorical strategies • stylistic elements.
What is the Purpose? • To determine reading, understanding, and analyzing challenging texts. • complete text • To assess how well you communicate a written analysis of a specific topic • maturity • To see the level of writing is a direct reflection of your critical thinking skills. • diction, syntax
Rhetorical Strategies • The tools in your toolbox • identification • comprehension • Purpose • SOAPSTone • Other strategies • analyzing writing vs. literature
Stylistic Elements • Diction • Syntax • Structure • Content • Rhetorical Devices
What do they want? • Connections between analysis and the passage • identify • comprehend • connect purpose • Connect it to the prompt!
Possible 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.
Examples of actual questions • Carefully read the following passage by ___. Then, paying particular attention to the changing tone within the passage, write an essay in which you analyze the techniques the author used to express his attitude toward ___. • The passage below is from ___ by ___. Read the entire passage carefully. Then write an essay analyzing the rhetorical strategies the author employs to convey her attitude toward ___. • Read the following two passages about ___ carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the distinctive style of each passage reveals the purpose of its writer.
What to do? • Be prepared. • Practice! • Anticipate questions when you read a work. • Keep a list/copy of the questions • Review toolbox • Review handouts. • Keep in mind that MC and PA are related.
What is consistent? • The task remains consistent RHETORICAL ANALYSIS. • The tools remain consistent • Other factors do not matter: • Length • Complexity • Time • Author
Recommended process • Read the prompt twice • Underline • Circle • Notes • Make sure you know what the prompt is asking you do to before you proceed. • Use incidental info in prompt to your advantage if possible
Read and Annotate the Passage • Read quickly to get the gist of the passage. • Underline, circle, highlight areas that stick out • Reread more slowly • Look for areas which did not stand out as much • Skim the high points • Look back at the prompt
General Tips • Remember, this is writing, not literature • Do not be thrown by complexity of passage • Become confident with tools • Address the prompt • Do not use “I think,” or “In my opinion” because it weakens your ideas.
SPECIFIC TIPS • Note time • 10-25-5 • Annotate before you write • Choose specific strategies to use • Ignore what you do not understand • Focus on what you do know.
Analysis Organization: Thematic • Introduce the text and author • Summarize or describe • Give pertinent context • Provide pertinent biographical details • Thesis: How the text works and what it means • Analyze the text: • Identify a theme or pattern • Use examples from the text • and appropriate contexts as evidence • Continue with 2-4 points (or more) as needed Restate the thesis, relating it to larger (world, text) issues /views: HOW THE TEXT / AUTHOR WORKS WHAT IT MEANS!
Analysis Organization: Chunking • Introduce the text and author • Summarize or describe • Give pertinent context • Provide pertinent biographical details • Thesis: How the text works; what it means • Analyze first section of text • Use examples from the text • and appropriate contexts as • evidence • Analyze next section of text • Use examples from the text • and appropriate contexts as • evidence • Continue sections as needed. • Use examples from the text • and appropriate contexts as • evidence Restate the thesis, relating it to larger (world, text) issues /views: HOW THE TEXT / AUTHOR WORKS WHAT IT MEANS!
How is PA related to MC? • 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?