Lessons Learned: Midwest Rhetorical Analysis
5&6: Simple answer-"She portrays the land in a negative light ..."
7: Complex answer with critical thinking- "This excerpt from Debra Marquart's memoir The Horizontal World provides a somewhat sarcastic but ultimately affectionate portrayal of the American Midwest through..."
Length: Aim for at least 2 1/2 pages if you desire a 6 or higher.
Pay attention to sarcasm, satire, irony, mockery, etc.!
Many people said that Marquart's long and complex sentences were boring and this mirrored the boring image of Midwest. DO NOT CRITICIZE the writing! If the AP reader's chose this piece, they must think it is good writing! Instead, "The long and involved complex syntactical structure of the paragraphs mirrors the neverending landscape of North Dakota." You're table reader might be from North Dakota...don't insult them!
Introduction- Address the prompt! Restate the author, the piece, and the specific wording. If is says, "How does the author characterize the Midwest," use the word characterize.
Don't "plop" AP terms. Many people used completely inaccurate terms, or they failed to give an example.
Thesis 3 Big "Umbrella ideas" (use AP terms,avoid small example driven like "simile, connotation, personification," ). Transition with topic sentences stem from the thesis. For example or For instance with specific example(use quotes; don't simply summarize) from text and the literary term. Elaborate- So what? Why is it there? What does it do? You must provide textual evidence from the piece for every paragraph. You should aim to have at least 2-3 specific textual examples for each paragraph.
The last paragraph should be longest and strongest with the most examples. Don't have 3 examples in body paragraph 1 and only one example in the last body paragraph.
Easy style "score bump" add anaphora, parallelism, rhetorical questions to intro or conclusion if you have time. Example-"The Midwest is seen as a place with endless plains or corn and other crops sprawling across the landscape. It is seen as a place with few inhabitants and attractions. It is seen as a place with ranchers leading cows to grazing fields..."