I just have 2 essays left to evaluate for AP Lang, and I am very excited to have read and witnessed the growth of writing - whether it be via rhetoric, argument, or both - that many of you have indicated via the Lucy argument essay and the final. There are still some of you that are works-in-progress, which will be our goal to work on as we resume AP Lang in 2018. Our first few days back will concentrate on the skills tested on the final with reviews of rhetorical analysis prompt close reads, rhetorical strategy identifications, and multiple choice close reads and questions.
Prior to our resumption on Thursday, here are some thoughts on your most recent work and elements that will take center stage as we return to class. And due to a couple make-up finals that will be taking place shortly, I will have to be vague with the prompt and final content as to not give an unfair advantage.
For any essay we write in class, you are NOT USING RHETORICAL QUESTIONS. This should sound familiar since I have pointed out this persuasive technique that is not appropriate for rhetorical analysis or argumentation. Also, you are WRITING IN THIRD PERSON (unless it is a personal anecdote in an argument). The phantom "we" does not exist; "you" is persuasive and, remember, you are not persuasive for any essay that you are writing in this class.
For those of you completing the rhetorical analysis essay prompt, you had to close read the passage for at least 3 strategies, compose an organized essay with all the bells and whistles to attract your audience, include multiple examples of evidence with flow and proper citations, and construct a concluding thought to make your essay a memorable endeavor. And just a reminder to those of you stuck in the past, rhetorical analysis is written in present tense.
Before writing one sentence on that paper, you always want to close read the passage for understanding and overall strategies that can be found throughout the essay. The close reading will give you patterns, evidence, and connections to the purpose that are necessary for planning your writing.
As with every essay that you will write in this class, the introduction will feature a hook that sets up the context, the history, an analogy, or a mature look at the topic at hand. For this prompt, we had a wide range of ways to introduce the author, the text, and the topic at hand - including a reference to a popular phrase utilized during a certain president's tenure (Mama G was impressed when I mentioned that to her, CF). The thesis should clearly state the author, the active verb, the specific strategies, and the mature purpose.
The body paragraphs begin with clear indication of author, strategy, and purpose, move into an explanation of the topic sentence, add in at least 2 examples of evidence - words, phrases incorporated into the writing and cited with line numbers properly - explain all evidence, and conclude with a specific sentence tying everything together. Strategies selected can range from the standard (diction, tone, syntax) to upper-level strategies (anaphora, hypophora, epistrophe, specific forms of syntax, diction shifts, tone shifts, enumeration, the syndetons, and so on). For this essay, there was one big upper-level strategy that was required for 9 consideration.
The conclusion should not be a regurgitation of the show, but a way to end to essay with something memorable that the other 85 writers may not have completed. I recommend going back to the hook and reviewing the context in connection to what the essay just shared with the reader.
For this prompt, we had a range of 1-9 with three of you scoring that 9 zenith (BH, CH, CF). First hour's average was a 4.57, third hour's 4.54, fourth hour's 6.87, and seventh hour's 5.45.
The final also included one MC passage, which if close read, actually was a fair and - dare I say - easy passage. Looking over the finals, I saw a lot of blank passages, which does not bode well for when you have to complete process of elimination. Close reading is necessary for understanding and comprehension and for finding purpose, tone, and strategies. Unlike other MC tests (that shall remain nameless), you can't skim the passage and hope to answer the questions correctly. Take the time to read and the questions will come to you.
The last part of the final was strategy identification. While a couple of these were tricky, the majority of the statements covered strategies that we have studied in-depth (some were mentioned earlier in this blog post).
With the Lucy argument essay, I can be more specific with you! It looks like argumentation writing, with its clear structure and encouragement of varying positions, evidence selections, and explanations is a favored style of writing for many of you. Argument is a different beast than rhetorical analysis. You have a claim in place of your thesis, you have sub-claims operating as topic sentences, you have warrants explaining all of that evidence from the text, and then you have a concluding warrant ending each body paragraph. But, you know there is more: the counterclaim with multiple examples of evidence and a rebuttal with multiple examples of evidence. As modeled in class and delineated on your essay assignment sheet, this essay was a minimum 6 paragraph essay to incorporate all the above. Some of you wrote 3, 4, or 5 paragraphs, which was limiting your analysis and not fulfilling the assignment.
As with many of the rhetorical analysis prompts, Lucy had some strong hooks to set up her character. There were analogies (most impressive, BJ), medical context, Lucy context, expressive diction and syntax painting the portrait of a characterization of someone human. To add a dash of upper-level characterization, some brought in Lucy's and Ann's tones, oxymorons, telegraphic sentences, hyperbole, rhetorical questions, and other strategies to show how Lucy's character exists in all of the texts.
Overall, these were strong essays to read on these cold days stuck at home. Overall, there were four 9 scores (BH, CH, CO, KJ). First hour averaged 4.86, third hour 5.91, fourth hour 6.93, and seventh hour 6.26.
You will be receiving these essays back on Thursday, which means, if you choose to do so, that you will have 24 hours (start of class to next start of class) to revise and turn in a second draft for a better score. If absent on Thursday, you will have to wait until Monday and then you will have that 24 hour window. I highly recommend that you take this opportunity to revise your work - especially if you are on the bubble between 2 grades or would just like to bolster your overall first semester grade. I did not over-evaluate these essays. I left notes on the top and margins. It is up to you whether you decide to rewrite the work.
On the upcoming docket for AP Lang? Reviewing final skills using the final and a few other handouts (I have some typing to do), Modes of Discourse (satire, description, process analysis, exemplification), MC creation with practice passages and full test, allusion work, tone paragraphs (can't wait to see what topics we have this year), and argumentation!
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