What is your routine for AP English Essay?

<p>I have taken a few practice tests already, and I keep falling into the same trap. I would look at the essay passage... and blank out. I wouldn't be able to pick out rhetorical strategies, my mind is just all over the place. I feel really unconfident about it. I mean, if you showed me any rhetorical strategy or literary device I would be able to spit out its definition and such, but it all seems to fail during the test.</p>

<p>Maybe I just need a routine I can rely on, a systematic way of gathering evidence and planning. </p>

<p>What is your routine?</p>

<p>what ARE some rhetorical strategies?
my teacher taught us nothing</p>

<p>LOL I just go through the passage in order, and select only important details to cite/refer to as examples of:
simile
metaphor
allusion
irony
synecdoche
anaphora
antithesis
metonymy
imagery
sentence structure (loose, periodic, long, short, commas/semi-colons?)
diction type (powerful, dark, etc.)</p>

<p>There are probably more, but these are the ones I refer to...I like to keep the overall purpose in mind when I select a literary device and by explaining how the device accomplishes that purpose I get an 8 or 9 on all my analysis essays.</p>

<p>the easiest and personally i think the best ones to use is always:</p>

<p>syntax
diction
check for parallel structure
symbolism
allusion
any metaphors or similies
imagery
irony / satire</p>

<p>i tend to get a little weak on the essay but remmber, they dont expect u to finish ur essay..so time urself..if u have an excellent intro, chances are they will read ur first paragraph or 2..and give u a good grade..if u have a poor into..they might just read the 1st paragraph or maybe not even read it, giving it a low grade.</p>

<p>MC is a bit hard for me though, im doin okkiee on the essays i usuall yget around a 5 or 6 for inclass.</p>

<p>uh, what are you talking about? They always read your essays; they just do so in a span of 2 minutes.</p>

<p>MC in the "yellow book" (that crappy company that creates practice exams) is nothing like the real thing - the real MC (from what's been released) is much easier. I only did half of the 2001 exam and got 22 right out of 26 questions attempted.</p>

<p>do u have the 2001? can u pm me the link?</p>

<p>Since my teacher didn't really teach us anything this year, could someone explain to me:
synecdoche
anaphora
metonymy</p>

<p>And maybe any other things that it would be useful to understand? I know about basic things like metaphor, irony, etc, but I don't really know some of the more advanced terms. Thanks!</p>

<p>Just so you guys know, the literary devices you mentioned aren't typically what they mean when they ask for rhetorical strategies . . . </p>

<p>My teacher is an AP grader and has taught us that 'rhetorical strategies' are things like compare-contrast; cause and effect; appeals to ethos, pathos, logos, religion, patriotism, blah blah blah; deduction/induction; ad hominem, etc. </p>

<p>Silver<em>and</em>Jade, synecdoche and metonymy are basically the same thing, a part for the whole. It's a type of metaphor, like in Shakespearean plays when they say 'the crown's to blame,' where they mean the king/monarchy is to blame, or saying 'thats a nice set of wheels,' meaning you have a nice car.</p>

<p>here's an easy thing to do.</p>

<p>read the passage
look at the prompt and see what words you're supposed to talk about.</p>

<p>follow standard expository paragraph, not knowing anything you talk about, just mention the words in their respective "body" paragraphs, OVER AND OVER again.</p>

<p>ex: if the prompt asks you to talk about point of view, selection of detail, and syntax, then set up 3 body paragraphs: in the first paragraph, start every sentence with "the point of view is important because...". in the next paragraph, start every sentence with "the selection of detail is interesting because...", and in the third paragraph, start every sentence with "I don't even know what syntax means, but it is important because..."</p>

<p>automatic 5.</p>

<p>[/sarcasm]</p>

<p>The list you guys posted are mainly literary devices, rhetorical techniques, style, etc. I believe UNEPgirl is right when it comes to rhetorical STRATEGIES which is like compare-contrast, argumentation, process analysis, etc.</p>