As you ascend the levels of AP writing, you are aware that the topic sentence of each paragraph sets the organization and direction of the analysis: author + active verb + strategy + specific purpose.
Following the topic sentence, you will then explain the strategy via analysis and multiple examples of evidence. The evidence should occur from the entire text (close reading) and be spaced out in the paragraph. If you evidence dump everything into one sentence, then you are limiting your paragraph analysis. If you spread out the evidence throughout the paragraph, then you can analyze each example and its purpose. A high scoring essay has more than one example of evidence, and this evidence is non-sequential, i.e. spread across the entire text.
Speaking of evidence, you are aware that at this level of writing you are selecting key words and phrases to transition into your own writing. This negates the need for full sentence quotes (distracting to flow) and ellipses (distracting to grammatical structure). Simply put, imagine if you are analyzing a type of textual diction. If you give a full sentence quote, you are making the reader figure out what words you are analyzing instead of selecting the key words for the reader. Plus, full sentence quotes take up your time writing!
Citations, citations, citations. Guh (that has been my sound effect for the past week).
Citations go at the end of the sentence (13). Notice the period position, the lack of a pg. or a ln. or anything else that wastes time writing. And, once again, note that there is not a second punctuation mark prior to the parentheses.
And, last but not least, you want a concluding sentence to wrap up the whole paragraph. Do not end a paragraph with evidence. Instead, end with a sentence that reflects your understanding of the purpose and the strategy at hand.
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