Deciphering A.P. Prompts

1. Deciphering A.P. Prompts How to do it, and WHY you should do it

2. On the AP Exam, you will be given one rhetorical analysis essay prompt. Your task, aside from reading the selection and writing an essay, is to decipher WHAT you are supposed to be doing in your essay. Rhetorical Analysis Prompts

3. Let’s look at a sample rhetorical analysis prompt, and try to “decipher” it. Read the following passage carefully.  Then write an essay in which you analyze how Zora Neale Hurston enriches our sense of her childhood world through her diction and her manipulation of point of view. Rhetorical Analysis Prompts

4. First of all, somewhere in a rhetorical analysis prompt, there is a requirement to analyze the language. Where in this prompt do you see that language? Read the following passage carefully.  Then write an essay in which you analyze how Zora Neale Hurston enriches our sense of her childhood world through her diction and her manipulation of point of view. Rhetorical Analysis Prompts

5. There is always at least ONE more task in a rhetorical analysis prompt. Typically, it involves WHAT a writer is doing with language. Can you find it? (the red highlights are how we are told to look at her language) Read the following passage carefully.  Then write an essay in which you analyze how Zora Neale Hurston enriches our sense of her childhood world through her diction and her manipulation of point of view. Rhetorical Analysis Prompts

6. So now you know what you need to do in your essay… Read the following passage carefully.  Then write an essay in which you analyzehow Zora Neale Hurston enriches our sense of her childhood world through her diction and her manipulation of point of view. Rhetorical Analysis Prompts

7. You have some sample AP Rhetorical Analysis prompts. Your assignment is to: • Circle all of the tasks that you are being asked to perform in your essay. • If there is a HIDDEN task, you are to note that as well. On your handout…

8. Look at the third prompt on the page. Read the following two passages about Florida’s Okefenokee Swamp carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the distinctive style of each passage reveals the purpose of the writer. For example…

9. Where is the “language” wording? Read the following two passages about Florida’s Okefenokee Swamp carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the distinctive style of each passage reveals the purpose of the writer. For example…

10. Where is the “other task” wording? Read the following two passages about Florida’s Okefenokee Swamp carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the distinctive style of each passage reveals the purpose of the writer. For example…

11. Where is the hidden task? Read the following two passages about Florida’s Okefenokee Swamp carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the distinctive style of each passage reveals the purpose of the writer. (What IS each writer’s purpose in the passages? You will have to determine each writer’s purpose in order to fully answer this prompt) For example…