Top 5 Things an AP Lang Student Should Know: #3

#3 Answer the Prompt


Don't forget to do this. If you do, then it's game over for you my friend.
Well, actually, you won't fail, but the highest grade you can get is a C if you're really that good at writing. And if you adhere to your thesis. Just promise that you won't forget to answer the prompt.

How do I know this?
Well, I learned it the hard way...

Here is a sample where the prompt was answered well. (You could barely read when I uploaded it so I retyped this)

Prompt: In the following passage from The Scarlet Letter, the narrator describes Hester Prynne in her isolation from the Puritan community. In a well-organized essay, analyze the language and rhetorical devices the narrator uses to convey his attitude toward Hester and toward women in general.


Essay: Hester Prynne, a social pariah from her Puritan community, is forced to wear the letter "A," for committing the sin of adultery. The narrator conveys his attitude towards Prynne through descriptions of her during her isolation. Based on his observations of Hester, the narrator then makes a generalization that women become oppressed because of their over reliance on emotions.
          By using personification, the narrator can treat the feelings of tenderness, passion, and heart as people, which magnifies the importance of human character to Hester Prynne. However, those are the very traits that led to her downfall, as her sin of adultery was a culmination of both passion and heart. The narrator hypothesizes "if she survive[s], the tenderness will either be crushed out of her...[or the tenderness will be' crushed so deeply in her heart that it can never show itself anymore." He also details in the first theory that if she were indeed to transcend her transgression, her "outer semblance" will match the inner suppression of tenderness within her heart. Further emphasizing the destruction of Prynne, the narrator also remarks "that Passion would [n]ever dream of clasping [Hester] in its embrace." These attributes defined Hester Prynne, but as society punished her for allowing these emotions to consume her, she lost her former self, which was comprised of heart, tenderness, and passion, and when combined, formed love.


I used an open thesis (which does not specifically mention which devices are going to be used) to answer the prompt and it was done nicely! (At least in my opinion)

Watch the video...

...and that was how my face looked when I got my paper back.

You may think,"how can you possibly have not answered the prompt?"
And I say,"..." I don't really know but it happens! Sometimes the prompt is tricky so be careful and read it thoroughly.