Pointers For AP Literature Students

While the works of literature vary, the prompts have similarities that students need to understand. There are three prompts on the AP exam. The first two focus on a designated work, perhaps a short story or an excerpt from a longer work, perhaps a single poem, perhaps two poems to read and compare. The third essay is called the open prompt  because the work is open to the student. Lists of works that fit the idea are given but the student chooses which work is discussed.

No matter what else a prompt asks, a central notion in all prompts is the skill of the author. So if a prompt's topic is characterization (a common focus), at least part of the prompt is about how the author uses characterization to magnify the message of the story. Authors make characters likeable or detestable, sympathetic or distasteful for reasons relating to narrative and meaning.

In the open prompts an idea is presented. The student is asked to consider the idea in relation to a specific work of literature and then using that as context, discuss how the author uses X to enhance meaning. Simply discussing the original idea, even demonstrating the author's skill at portraying whatever the idea is, will not satisfy the prompt. The essays I am scoring today question the notion of "moral ambiguity." The text the students read is Crime and Punishment. Most of the students are using Raskolnikov as the character who displays moral ambiguity. Where they show weakness is only discussing Raskolnikov's issues without connecting them to the broader idea of how this moral ambiguity is used by Dostoevsky to make a point.

So if you have a student in AP Literature or in a preparatory class for AP Literature, make sure the student understands the ideas of context and argument.