Writing Skills

The thesis statement is the core of your writing. Without a strong thesis statement, it is difficult to develop meaningful commentary because the thesis grounds what your evidence should be showing.

A strong thesis will have three elements:

1. An Idea: The major topic from the text. Often a couple of words, it is the concept the author is exploring. The idea is something that shows up across literature and life. If the prompt mentions a specific Idea, make sure the same wording shows up in your Thesis.

2. An Insight: What the author wants you to believe about the Idea. Be as specific as possible here. Just saying that there is a "complex relationship" often isn't enough because that is hard to find specific evidence for. Be clear about what the nature of the complex relationship is. Strong papers will not just acknowledge there is gray area, but will explain the exact nature of the gray area.

3. 2–3 Aspects: These are ways that the author is demonstrating their Insight into the Idea throughout the passage. It is often more than just literary devices they are using to demonstrate that Insight. Focus more on Tone or major Characterization. Your Aspects help organize your response because they become the topics of your body paragraphs.

Imagine the Idea as the broadest statement of what the text is about. The Hobbit is about Home. As true as that might be, you will need to get more specific to help show how we know it is about Home and why Home matters. The Insight makes us more specific on the importance of Home, the Aspects help us see how Tolkien develops the idea of Home. From there, to get more specific, you'll use Literary Devices to break down Evidence to help prove that your Aspects and Insight are correct.

Complex Thesis Stems:

• In [text], [author] reveals [idea + insight] by exploring the tension between [aspect 1] and [aspect 2].

• In [text], [author] reveals [idea + insight] by shifting from [aspect 1] to [aspect 2].

• In [title], [his/her] [contextualize the work], [author] contrasts/explores the tension between [aspect 1 and 2] to reveal that [idea +insight].

Note that the [idea + insight] is always "revealed" and not "explored." This is an intentional word choice. The author is always making a stand on what they are saying about the Idea and you need to make a stand as well. They want you to see something about it.

Looking at the Examples and Non-Examples below, try to identify the Idea, Insight, and Aspects. Consider what makes them good or poor examples of these elements of a strong thesis.

As you read, you are always looking for moments that support your Insight and Aspects. Let the moments drive your selection of key evidence and the the literary elements will fall into place. To select effective evidence:

1. Annotate where key information comes to light that reveals the relevance of your Insight and Aspects.

2. Looking only at those moments, what literary devices does the author use to help emphasize the Insight and Aspects.

3. After looking at all of the moments and the literary devices used, pay attention for trends of what devices are used the most and what are most effective at highlighting the author's Insight and Aspects.

To introduce evidence into your writing, you may either paraphrase the evidence or use direct quotations. Either way, the evidences needs to be specific. This is the importance of letting the moments drive your analysis because you will always be talking about specific moments that guide the story more than the specific literary devices used.

For example, if you only summarize The Picture of Dorian Gray by discussing how Dorian starts to harm people around him—or even if you state that he has harmed Sybil and Alan Campbell—it is hard to pull any argument from that evidence. Why does him harming people show that he values beauty over morality? To make that point, you want to be specific about the type of harm he caused, why he caused it, and how that reveals his values as a character. While you aren't using direct quotations, you still want to be as specific as possible in your summary so we know how the characters are acting.

Integrating Quotations:

If you choose to incorporate quotations throughout your writing—and there are valuable moments to do so—keep these tips in mind to make sure you are using them strategically and don't interupt the flow of your writing.

1. Never ever leave a quotation as a stand-alone sentence. Left alone, your reader has no idea what the quotation is doing.

• • Example: “He prayeth well, who loveth well / Both man and bird and beast.”

2. Introduce your quotation with some context of where it comes from.

• • Example: As the Mariner finishes his tale, he remarks to the Wedding-Guest, “He prayeth well, who loveth well / Both man and bird and beast."

  • You may:

    • Introduce the quotation with a short explanation followed by a comma (seen above).

    • Use short quotes (2–4 words) within a sentence paraphrasing the section (useful for diction and imagery)

    • Introduce the quotation with a short explanation followed by a colon.

3. After introducing the quotation, immediately explain what it means and why it matters for your thesis. Refer specifically back to the provided wording.

• • Example: As the Mariner finishes his tale, he remarks to the Wedding-Guest, “He prayeth well, who loveth well / Both man and bird and beast.” In this final advice to the Wedding-Guest, the Mariner emphasizes through the repeated use of “and” that the lesson he offers applies to everyone: humanity and nature. The “and” functions to spread the net of obligation far, uniting all of us under the same demand to love well. This means that all of us must love and we must love everyone, whether they are human or not.

One thing you might think about is the difference between causation and correlation. If you are summarizing the plot, you are showing how events are correlated because they might be happening at the same time in the story or be related to the same topic. To get to an analysis in your commentary, you want to make sure you are showing how one moment or one event causes another to fit into your larger thesis.

There are two types of transitions to be aware of and incorporate in your writing. Intra-paragraph transitions (including moving between sentences) and inter-paragraph transitions (including topic/concluding sentences and conclusion paragraphs). While one of the more difficult things to begin incorporating, transitions make or break a good piece of writing. Much of your commentary lives in your transitions because it helps you to show the relationships between your ideas.

Intra-Paragraph Transitions:

1. Sentence Transitions:

• These should show how the ideas between different sentences are related to one another. Think for yourself, is the next sentence elaborating on this idea? Is it providing an example? Is it a contradiction I am dispelling? Does it explore an effect of this sentence? Use these to decide how you should transition into that sentence.

2. Use Pointing Words:

• Words like "This" and "That" are valuable for showing how ideas, characters, or concepts flow from one sentence to another. They literally point to what you said before.

• Beware of "This shows..." because it leaves it unclear what "this" is. This technique only works if you are specific.

• Example: "This use of prosopopoeia allows Dickens to claim ______________."

3. Embrace Repetition:

• Coming back to the same Key Words throughout your writing allows readers to connect your ideas together.

• This is especially true of words from your Thesis Statement (the Big Idea and Insight).

  • If your reader took a needle and thread and put a stitch everywhere your Big Idea is mentioned in the paper, they should be able to cover the whole paper in thread.

4. Offer Metacommentary:

• As you write, return often to your goals for writing and distinguish your argument from other arguments it may be confused with.

• Use transitions such as:

  • "In other words, ____________."

  • "Ultimately, my goal is to demonstrate that ___________."

  • "My point is not ______________, but that ___________."

  • "What ____________ really means is _____________."

Inter-Paragraph Transitions:

Inter-paragraph transitions is a fancy way of speaking about Topic/Conclusion Sentences and Concluding Paragraphs. We speak about them as transitions because it is sometimes easy to forget that they play just as much a role in the flow of your ideas as the transitions between your sentences.

1. Topic Sentences

• These should be based on the Aspects from your Thesis. You established those early as a way that your Idea and Insight are revealed in the text, so it makes sense to explore those in their own paragraphs.

• All you need to do for a topic sentence is restate one of your aspects so your reader remembers what you mentioned early on.

• Example:

  • Thesis: Dickens reveals that Power is a double-edged sword that can quickly harm anyone who wields it. He reveals this through the juxtaposition of the cycle of violence during the French Revolution and the potential for the English to follow in their footsteps.

  • Topic Sentence 1: As part of his exploration of power as a double-edged sword, Dickens explores how even the revolutionaries during the French Revolution quickly become obsessed and misused their power.

  • Topic Sentence 2: The danger of power for the French Revolutionaries is held in contrast to England’s lower-classes—who have not yet turned against the crown—to offer a warning of how the English ought to approach their search for a more equal society.

2. Conclusion Paragraphs

• Repeat what you've said:

  • Re-establish your thesis in the context of your evidence. As you do this, avoid listing out your reasons again. Now that we understand those reasons better, we don't need a list. Instead, focus on helping your reader see the relationship between those reasons and how that relationship supports your Insight.

  • Dispel any misinterpretations that may have arose

• Answer So What: Why should we care about this work? Why has it stood the test of time?

  • What is the significance of your interpretation?

    • How does the work relate to other important pieces of literature?

    • How does the work relate to your own life as an example of the Human Experience?

    • How does the work explore complexities or tensions and resolve them?

    • How does the work relate to a broader context of world history or ethical questions?

As a starting note:

Sophistication is the trickiest part of the AP© Literature exam, but it is also the only part that is not required for a successful essay. It is often treated as the "icing" on the cake, an acknowledgement of writing and thought that goes above and beyond to truly reach college-level writing.

That said, many students make the mistake of chasing Sophistication, and making a weak literary analysis in the process. The result is they get neither the Sophistication nor Evidence/Commentary points and hurt themselves in the end. Only chase Sophistication if you are consistently getting 4s in the Evidence/Commentary criteria on practice writes.

To earn Sophistication, you must do ONE of the following:

1. Identify and explore complexities or tensions within the text.

2. Illuminate your interpretations by situating them within a broader context.

3. Account for alternative interpretations of the text.

4. Employ a style that is consistently vivid and persuasive.

You must do one of these four things throughout your entire response. It cannot be a passing phrase or idea, but something inherently part of your argument.

Identify and explore complexities or tensions within the text.

• This focuses on naming and explaining the importance of gray areas in the writing and why they matter for your overall interpretation. Note that it is not enough to say there is gray area, but that you must define that gray area and why it matters. For example, if we say that humanity is neither inherently good nor inherently evil, you'll need to say precisely how good/evil are we? Are where good/evil comes from, how the two interact, and how that shapes the way we live. You should already be doing this, but sophistication takes your awareness to heightened levels.

• Explore subtitles nuances, shifts, irony, and paradox.

• Identify these with opposing adjectives, especially in your thesis and transitions:

  • __ and __

  • __ but also __

  • __ in this case but __ in this other situation

• Consistently explain WHY these are important

Illuminate your interpretations by situating them within a broader context.

• Consider how your interpretation makes sense if we zoomed out to see around the text. Consider the time period, lenses that are relevant for the text's context, application to society, and relate it to the human condition.

• To situate in a broader context, consider:

  • The text's historical period and how it responds to that period.

  • It's connection to critical lenses like psychology, gender, or religious/ethical questions.

  • How characters fit and/or subvert literary archetypes, like the hero or the sharing of food.

Account for alternative interpretations of the text.

• Include how other people may interpret a passage and how that interpretation engages with or contradicts your own interpretation. Sometimes the critical lenses are useful for this since you can compare how a gender critic will focus on different elements than an economic critic.

• Make sure that you do not just mention an alternate interpretation. Support it with evidence and consider the strengths and weaknesses as opposed to your interpretation.

• Use transitions like "That said," "Some people may see it as _____, but in reality ___," or "Perhaps,".

Employ a style that is consistently vivid and persuasive.

• Your prose writing engages with elements of the poetic to enhance the beauty of your writing. The structural and poetic language reflects and enhances your ideas.

• You may use literary and rhetorical elements such as:

  • Anaphora (intentional repetition)

  • Varied Syntax (sentence length, sentence starters, sentence types)

  • Varied punctuation (em-dashes, rhetorical questions, semicolons)

  • Parallelism

  • Extended Metaphor or Analogy