AP English Literature & Composition Intro to The Essay Section

Intro to The Essay Section

• The Numbers
• Three essays, 120 minutes (about 40 minutes per essay)
• One essay on a prose passage
• One essay on a poem or pair of poems
• One open essay
• Worth 55 percent of your test grade
• Slightly more important than the multiple-choice section
• Not thatmuch more important
• Scored holistically by a specialized Reader on a scale from 0 to 9.
• The Prompt
• “Read the following work carefully. Then, write a well-organized essay in which you discuss the manner in which the author conveys ideas and meaning. Discuss the techniques the author uses to make this passage effective. Avoid summary.”
• What does that mean?
• “What does this passage mean?” (Don’t dwell on the literal meaning; focus on the emotional content, and DO NOT SUMMARIZE.)
• “How does the author make you understand that?” (This is the part where you talk about diction, imagery, pace, and all that stuff.)
• Holistic Scoring
• Your essays won’t be graded according to a checklist.
• Your score reflects the overall quality of your essay, taken as a whole—and it alsoreflects the reader’s opinion of that quality.
• ETS table leaders choose real essays from each year’s crop to represent typical essays of each level. They then use these samples to train the readers.
• A reader will end up re-reading and re-correcting certain essays at random, and every reader will grade some essays that other readers have already graded, to ensure consistency.
• What the Reader Wants
• The reader wants an essay that is easy to score.
• The clearer and more outstanding your writing, the greater the odds that you’ll quickly be given a high score, and then passed on.
• The reader wants an essay that is interesting.
• Three-quarters of the essays each reader encounters will be average or worse.
• A compelling beginning and a strong writing style will earn you a lot of points immediately.
• Scoring Guide
• Scores 8-9 (6%):
• A well-written, well-organized essay that clearly analyzes the work
• Uses apt, specific references to discuss diction, imagery, pace, point of view, etc.
• Demonstrates an understanding of the text and of the techniques of composition.
• Expresses ideas skillfully and clearly.
• Scores 6-7 (30%):
• Resembles a higher-scoring essay, but is less precise and has less apt support.
• Has most of the characteristics of higher-scoring essays, but uses them to less effect.
• 7 essays display fewer mechanical errors and use slightly better specific examples than 6 essays.
• Score 5 (23%):
• Superficial.
• On-topic, but misses the complexity of the text and offers only a perfunctory analysis.
• Overly generalized treatment of elements such as diction, imagery, point of view.
• Conveys writer’s thoughts, but is commonplace, ill-conceived, disorganized, and/or simplistic in its writing.
• An average score, and one dreaded by readers.
• Scores 3-4 (37%):
• Incomplete understanding of the passage
• Discussion unclear or misses the point
• Scanty treatment of literary elements
• Unsupported statements
• Marked weaknesses in English mechanics
• Scores 1-2 (4%):
• Like a 3 or 4, but worse!
• May completely misunderstand the prompt/passage, or simply summarize instead of analyzing.
• Incoherent, too short, or both.
• Poor organization.
• Poor English mechanics
• Score 0:
• Fails to address the question, and may only reference its existence.
• Score “—”:
• Completely off-topic or no answer.
• Receives no points.
• The Two Secrets of Essay Scores
• Clarity is everything!
• Clear organization, clear examples, clear prose style
• You don’t have to be profound if you can be clear.
• It’s all about level 5.
• Readers mentally divide essays into “above 5,” “5”, and “below 5”.
• Above level 5, essays sparkle (at least a little) and the reader can get into what the writer is saying more than how he or she is saying it.
• If you can understand what you read and write fairly well, your goal should be a 6 or 7 minimum.After that, the tricks to raise your score are more specialized.
• How to Make Any Essay Better
• Write neatly. Printing is fine (in fact, it’s usually better than cursive).
• Indent your paragraphs.
• Write your first paragraph perfectly.
• Use literary vocabulary (for poetry: diction, imagery, metaphor, rhyme, and form; for prose: point of view, characterization, diction, imagery, and metaphor).
• Use verbs that sizzle and nouns that soar.
• Be specific.
• Beware of logorrhea. Use the best word, not the longest one.
• Answer the question.
• How to Make a Good Essay Great
• Focus on the whatand the how—whatthe author is saying (or implying) and howhe’s getting that point across.
• Talk about language. Talk about imagery. These things are pretty much always important.
• Use opposition—the pairing of two or more unlike elements (big and small, inside and outside, introverted and extroverted, etc.).
• Trust your instincts. If a passage makes you think or feel a certain way, go with that.
• If a new idea occurs to you as you’re writing, work it in. Hyper-organized, conventional essays get 5s. Loosely organized, original essays get 6s, 7s, 8s, and 9s.