Whose Point of View is this Anyway?
A narrator who uses “I” and participates in the story is usually telling it from this point of view.
What is first-person point of view?
This term means the specific words an author chooses.
What is diction?
“My backpack weighs a thousand pounds” is an example of this deliberate exaggeration.
What is hyperbole?
This literary element deals with the way an author arranges words, phrases, and sentences.
What is syntax?
This sentence presents the main defensible argument of an AP literary analysis essay.
What is a thesis?
In “The First Day,” the story is told through this character’s perspective.
Who is the daughter?
“Childlike” and “childish” have similar definitions but different emotional associations. Those associations are called this.
What are connotations?
“The moon was a silver coin” makes a comparison without using “like” or “as.”
What is a metaphor?
Short, abrupt sentences can often create this kind of pace.
What is a fast, tense, or urgent pace?
In Mr. McCauley's ACE structure, the “C” stands for this.
What is Citation?
This point of view uses “he,” “she,” or “they” but reveals the thoughts and feelings of only one character.
What is third-person limited?
An author replaces “walked” with “stumbled.” The basic action remains the same, but the new word suggests this additional idea.
What is difficulty, weakness, or lack of control?
Language appealing to sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch is known by this term.
What is sensory imagery?
Long sentences packed with clauses can imitate a character whose thoughts are doing this.
What is racing, wandering, or becoming overwhelmed?
Evidence without this becomes a quote sitting in your paragraph wondering why you invited it.
What is commentary/explanation?
In “Miss Brill,” readers experience events largely through Miss Brill’s perspective, which makes this realization especially painful: other people do not see her the way she sees herself.
What is her loneliness/isolation?
Words such as “darkness,” “weeping,” and “wailing” in Their Eyes Were Watching God help establish this attitude or emotional quality in the writing.
What is tone?
When Hurston writes that Janie “found a jewel inside herself,” the jewel is not literal; it represents something valuable within Janie. This technique is called this.
What is symbolism?
Jamaica Kincaid's “Girl” is essentially one enormous sentence filled with these punctuation marks separating the mother's instructions.
What are semicolons?
A strong body paragraph shouldn't just contain multiple quotations. Each quotation should be followed by this.
What is commentary explaining how the evidence supports the assertion?
When readers understand something about a character or situation that the character does not fully recognize, this literary device is at work.
What is dramatic irony?
If an author consistently chooses formal, elaborate words instead of casual everyday language, AP readers shouldn't just identify the diction—they should explain this.
What effect the diction creates or how it contributes to meaning?
A student writes, “The author uses imagery.” To turn that observation into actual AP analysis, the student needs to explain this next.
What the imagery reveals, creates, or contributes to the meaning of the text?
“Do this; don't do that; remember this; never do that.” Repeating similar grammatical structures creates this syntactical technique.
What is parallel structure?
A strong AP writer doesn't simply say that an author's choice “shows” something. Instead, the writer explains this relationship between the author's choice and the text.
What is how the author's choice contributes to the text's meaning?