Grad Write-ups are due today. Please email me your blurb. Thanks.
Camus Test was today. If you were absent, be sure to study your notes. Arrive with the Absurdist response if you feel you will need more time.
Mock Exam Monday: Section TWO
Periods 4 and 5 for most of you.
Lunch time and period 4 for Jack and Chrystine.
Other times by arrangement-Hannah, Jonty, Mitch, Peter?
This section is the three 40 minute compositions piece.
1. Read a prose passage and write a composition. These questions are testing your ability to annotate prose. There will be a specific question regarding the character or the setting or some change in the piece and they want you to discuss it in terms of style-diction, syntax, tone, symbol, etc
2. Read a poem and answer a question in an essay. (Similar to above but using poetic techniques). Be sure to review previous compositions that you have written this year.
The key to success on 1 and 2 is to play close attention to the passages and to use a number of key quotations in your answer. For each quotation, be sure to clearly explain it. No need to repeat what is already there. Inferences are needed. Explain how the example proves your thesis. Be sure to stick to the topic. ANSWER THE QUESTION.
3. Composition on works you have read. There will be one question (see the list of 23 questions from the last few years) on the handout I gave you. They list possible titles and authors. Don't worry if a novel or play you wish to discuss is not on the list. Their list is a recommendation.
Use works we studied this year or any piece of literature from grades 9 to 12 that you know well.
The key here is to use specific examples. Discuss the graveyard scene, the bedroom scene, the nunnery scene from Hamlet, for example. Discuss the restaurant scene, the garden scene, the character of Ben in Death of a Salesman. Discuss the vigil, the shooting of the Arab, the reading and re-reading of the newspaper article in The Outsider. Without specific examples (and ideally quotes) you will not get a high mark. Review the elements of formal, literary writing. Style is a key element for AP Lit. They want to see accurate diction, sentence variety, a facility with language and punctuation, engaging
prose. Underline the titles of novels, plays and epic poems. These are the only three genres you may use on this section.
When trying to choose a book to write about, immediately think of three key scenes. If you cannot, DO NOT USE THAT BOOK.
Please arrive on time and bring two pens and some water. You will have two hours to write.
