In the first sememster, we focused on tearing apart a text, AKA close readings. We used Diction, Imagery, Details, Language and Syntax to find effects in texts. These effects are used as evidence to formulate a hypothesis(or meaning) for the piece. In essence, a close read is an experiment. A question is posed, the prompt, and you must use your observations, techniques, to formulate and thesis, hypothesis. Within each technique, there are specific subcategories. These subcategories are essentially how you go about analyzing a text. For instance in diction, you look at the elevation of speech, regionalism, and connotations of certain phrases. These sub categories are what you look through during your second read, when you mark up your text.
The introduction and thesis was another spot that we, as a class, spent a lot of time on. We looked at the three sentence intro format as well as the thesis statement. The thesis must include every aspect of the prompt in order to obtain a high score on the AP exam. The thesis statement is the end product of a string of arguments. These arguments are stated in the topic sentence of each body paragraph and thus elaborated on in the respective body paragraph. Together it forms a cohesive and high scoring essay.
I like how you focused the entire second paragraph on introductions and thesis statements. I felt like we spent a ton of time on those too and it's good to be reminded of that for studying. Its interesting that you chose to put DIDLS with another thing - since Sarah and I had them in their own post - but it seems to make sense to you this way and works out pretty well since DIDLS and essays are so closely related.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very good post. You touch on a lot of different aspects we covered in class and each is extremely helpful when preparing for the AP. I would suggest, however, that if this is the only post touching on AP material (while it might not be because I haven't read all of the posts), make sure to include other important aspects as well. If I was you I would add both our open and closed prompts along with multiple choice into this section.
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