PROSE PASSAGE REVIEW GUIDE!

By: Diana Pogio, Brenda Contreras, Joy Doko

ANALYTIC FOCUS:

AP Literature Prose Essay Prompts (1970–2013)

Originally compiled and shared by Cheryl DeLacretaz, Dripping Springs High School, Dripping Springs, TX

NOTE:  From 1956 (first official administration of AP tests) through 1979, one AP English examine was given. In 1980, separate Language and Literature exams were offered. The following prose essay prompts are from a variety of novels, essays, short stories, and nonfiction sources.

1970    Meredith’s “Ferdinand and Miranda” from The Ordeal of Richard Feveral:  Show how the young woman and the young man in the passage are made to seem naturally suited for one another.

1971    Orwell’s “Some Thoughts on the Common Toad”:  Demonstrate how the speaker establishes his attitude toward the coming of spring.

1972    Joyce’s “Eveline” from Dubliners:  Explain how the author prepares his reader for Eveline’s final inability or unwillingness to sail to South America with Frank.  Consider at least two elements of fictions such as theme, symbol, setting, image, characterization, or any other aspects of the narrative artist’s craft.

1973    Dickens’ Hard Times:  Explain how the author’s presentation of details is intended to shape the reader’s attitudes toward the place he describes — Coketown and the caves.  Give specific attention to the function of word choice, imagery, phrasing, and sentence structure.

1974    Henry James’s What Maisie Knew:  In the opening lines of the passage we are told the “new arrangement was inevitably confounding” to Maisie.  Write a descriptive or narrative piece which presents a person who is undergoing a new experience that is confounding. 

1975    Lagerkvist’s The Marriage Feast:  Define and discuss the subject of the story.  Direct your remarks to the significance of the events described.

1976    Work/author unknown:  Characterize briefly the world and way of life described in the passage, discuss the effect of the passage as a whole, and analyze those elements that achieve this effect.

1977    No prose selection (instead, had the following prompt:  A character’s attempt to recapture or reject the past is important in many plays, novels, and poems.  Choose a work in which a character views the past with such feelings as reverence, bitterness, or longing.  Show with clear evidence how the character’s view of the past is used to develop a theme in the work.)

1978    Johnson’s “Review of ‘A Free Enquiry Into The Nature and Origin of Evil’”: Analyze Samuel Johnson’s attitude toward writer Soame Jenyns and treatment of Jenyns’ argument.

1979    Quentin Bell on the Woolf family: Show how style reveals feelings about family.

1980    Two funerals:  Compare the different authors’ attitudes by examining diction and choice of detail; also discuss their effect on the reader.

1981    George Bernard Shaw on his mother’s cremation:  Analyze how diction and detail convey attitude.

1982    Stevenson’s “Cat Bill”:  Analyze strategies that make the argument effective for his audience.

1983    Thomas Carlyle’s “Work”:  Examine how he uses language to convince the reader of the rightness of his position.

1984    Austen’s Emma:  Explain how passage characterizes Emma more than Harriet.

Mailer’s “Death of Benny Paret”:  Explain and analyze effect on reader and how diction, syntax, imagery, and tone produce that effect. (Two prose prompts; no poem)

1985    Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms:  Compare two drafts of a passage from A Farewell to Arms and analyze the effect of revisions.

1986    Dickens’ Dombey and Son:  Define narrator’s attitude toward characters through imagery, diction, narrative structure, choice of detail.

1987    George Eliot’s “Leisure” from Adam Bede: Describe her two views of leisure and discuss stylistic devices she uses to convey those views.

1988    Updike’s “Reunion”:  Analyze blend of humor, pathos, and grotesque in their story.

1989    Conrad’s “Captain MacWhirr” from Typhoon:  Define attitude of speaker toward Captain and analyze techniques he uses to define Captain’s character.

1990    Didion’s “Self-deception - Self-respect”:  Show how style and tone help convey attitude.

1991    Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson:  Discuss the ways Boswell differentiates between the writing of Addison and Johnson.

1992    Beginning and ending of Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing”:  Analyze the narrative techniques and other resources of language Olsen uses to characterize the mother and her attitude.

1993    Lytton Strachey’s conception of Florence Nightingale:  Define Strachey’s view and analyze how he conveys it.

1994    Sarah Jewett’s “A White Heron”:  Show how the author dramatizes the young heroine’s adventure using diction, imagery, narrative pace, and point of view.

1995    Sandra Cisneros’ “Eleven”:  Show how the author uses literary techniques to characterize Rachel.

1996    Hawthorne’s “Judge Pyncheon” from House of the Seven Gables:  Analyze how the narrator reveals the character of Judge Pyncheon.  Emphasize such devices as tone, selection of detail, syntax, point of view.

1997    Joy Kogawa’s Obasan:  Analyze how changes in perspective and style reflect the narrator’s complex attitude toward the past. Consider elements such as point of view, structure, selection of detail, and figurative language.

1998    George Eliot’s Middlemarch:  Write an essay in which you characterize the narrator’s attitude toward Dorothea Brooke and analyze the literary techniques used to convey this attitude.

1999    Cormac McCarthy’s The Crossing:  Show how the author’s techniques convey the impact of the experience on the main character.

2000    Joseph Addison’s The Spectator (March 4, 1712):  Analyze how the language of the passage characterizes the diarist and his society and how the characterization serves Addison’s satiric purpose.  Consider such elements as selection of detail, repetition, and tone.

2001    Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749):  Analyze the techniques that Fielding employs in this scene to characterize Mr. Allworthy and Mrs. Deborah Wilkins.

2002    Alain de Botton’s Kiss and Tell:  Write an essay in which you analyze how the author produces a comic effect.

2002B Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News:  Note the author’s use of such elements as diction, syntax, imagery, and figurative language.  Analyze how the author’s use of language generates a vivid impression of Quoyle as a character.

2003    Mavis Gallant’s “The Other Paris”:  Explain how the author uses narrative voice and characterization to provide social commentary.

2003B Joyce Carol Oates’s We Were the Mulvaneys (1996):  Analyze the literary techniques Oates uses to characterize the speaker, Judd Mulvaney. Support with specific references to the passage.

2004    Henry James’s “The Pupil” (1891):  Analyze the author’s depiction of the three characters and the relationships among them.  Pay particular attention to tone and point of view.

2004B Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton (1848):  This is from a novel about mill workers living in Manchester, England, in the 1840’s.  Analyze how Gaskell uses elements such as point of view, selection of detail, dialogue, and characterization to make a social commentary.

2005    Katharine Brush’s “Birthday Party” (1946): Write an essay in which you show how the author uses literary devices to achieve her purpose.

2005B Norris’ McTeague: A Story of San Francisco: Discuss how the characterization in the passage reflects the narrator’s attitude toward McTeague.  Consider such elements as diction, tone, detail, and syntax.

2006    Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892):  Analyze how the playwright reveals the values of the characters and the nature of their society.

2006B From “a nineteenth-century novel”:  Discuss how the narrator’s style reveals his attitudes toward the people he describes.

2007    Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun: Analyze how Trumbo uses such techniques as point of view, selection of detail, and syntax to characterize the relationship between the young man and his father.

2007B Seamus Deane reflecting on his childhood experiences with books and writing:  Analyze how Deane conveys the impact those early experiences had on him.

2008    Aran from Anita Desai’s Fasting, Feasting (1999): Analyze how the author uses such literary devices as speech and point of view to characterize Aran’s experience.

2008B Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (1818): Analyze the literary techniques Austen uses to characterize Catherine Morland.

2009    Ann Petry’s The Street (1946): Analyze how Petry establishes Lutie Johnson’s relationship to the urban setting through the use of literary devices such as imagery, personification, selection of detail, and figurative language.

2009B Zorah Neale Hurston’s Seraph on the Suwanee (1948):  Analyze the literary techniques Hurston uses to describe Sawley and to characterize the people who live there.

2010    Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda (1801): The narrator provides a description of Clarence Harvey, one of the suitors of the novel’s protagonist, Belinda Portman. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze Clarence Hervey’s complex character as Edgeworth develops it through such literary techniques as tone, point of view, and language.

2010B Maxine Clair’s “Cherry Bomb”: Write an essay in which you analyze how Clair uses literary techniques to characterize the adult narrator’s memories of her fifth-grade summer world.

2011    George Eliot’s Middlemarch (1874): In the passage, Rosamond and Tertius Lydgate, a recently married couple, confront financial difficulties. Read the passage carefully. Then write a well-developed essay in which you analyze how Eliot portrays these two characters and their complex relationship as husband and wife. You may wish to consider such literary devices as narrative perspective and selection of detail.

2011B Tomson Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998): The following passage is the opening of the novel by the Cree novelist and playwright Tomson Highway. Read the passage carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Highway uses literary devices to dramatize Okimasis’ experience.

2012    Helena María Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus: Carefully read the following excerpt from the novel. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze the development of Estrella’s character. In your analysis, you may wish to consider such literary elements as selection of detail, figurative language, and tone.

2013    D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow (1915): The following passage focuses on the lives of the Brangwens, a farming family who lived in rural England during the late nineteenth century. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Lawrence employs literary devices to characterize the woman and capture her situation.

LITERARY TERMS USED THROUGHOUT THE YEARS

YEAR	LITERARY ELEMENTS
1972	THEME, SYMBOL, SETTING. IMAGE, CHARACTERIZATION
1973	WORD CHOICE, IMAGERY, PHRASING, SENTENCE STRUCTURE
1980	DICTION, DETAIL
1981	DICTION, DETAIL
1983	LANGUAGE
1984	CHARACTERIZATION
1984 (2)	DICTION, SYNTAX, IMAGERY, TONE
1986	IMAGERY, DICTION, NARRATIVE, STRUCTURE, CHOICE OF DETAIL
1990	STYLE, TONE
1994	DICTION, IMAGERY, NARRATIVE PACE, POINT OF VIEW
1996	TONE, SELECTION OF DETAIL, SYNTAX, POINT OF VIEW
1997	POINT OF VIEW, STRUCTURE, SELECTION OF DETAIL, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
2000	SELECTION OF DETAIL, REPETITION, TONE
2002 B	DICTION, SYNTAX, IMAGERY, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
2003	NARRATIVE VOICE, CHARACTERIZATION
2004	TONE, POINT OF VIEW
2004 B	POINT OF VIEW, SELECTION OF DETAIL, DIALOGUE, CHARACTERIZATION
2005 B	DICTION. TONE, DETAIL, SYNTAX
2007	POINT OF VIEW, SELECTION OF DETAIL, SYNTAX
2008	SPEECH, POINT OF VIEW
2009	IMAGERY, PERSONIFICATION, SELECTION OF DETAIL, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
2010	TONE, POINT OF VIEW, LANGUAGE
2011	NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE, SELECTION OF DETAIL
2012	SELECTION OF DETAIL, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, TONE

- THROUGHOUT THE YEARS, MANY PROMPTS HAVE ASKED DIRECTLY THE EXACT
LITERARY TERMS THEY WANT YOU TO USE IN THE ESSAY. 

- WE BELIEVE THE BEST LITERARY TERMS TO USE TO ANSWER THE PROSE PROMPT PASSAGE ARE THE FOLLOWING:

1.

• Imagery
• Visual
• Tactile
• Gustatory
• Olfactory
• Auditory

2. Symbolism / Symbolic Action

3.  Point of view-  Is the manner in which a story is narrated or depicted and who it is that tells the story. Simply put, the point of view determines the angle and perception of the story unfolding, and thus influences the tone in which the story takes place

4. Selection of Detail- Is the specific words, incidents, images, or events the author uses to create a scene or narrative.

5.Characterization- In literature refers the step by step process wherein an author introduces and then describes a character. The character can be described directly by the author or indirectly  through the actions, thoughts, and speech of the character.

6. 

• Figurative Language
• Hyperbole
• Litotes/other forms of understatement
• Metonymy / Synecdoche
• Metaphor
• Simile

7.Setting

• How is the setting portrayed? 
• What kind of mood does the description of the setting portray?
•  What types of words and images are used to establish setting?

8. Narration

• Who is narrating the story? Does the narrator's perspective color the reader's interpretation of events
• Is the narration first, second, third person? How may these different types of narration influence our perception of the prose?

9. Syntax

• Are the sentences curt and choppy? Long and overblown? Heavily or sparsely punctuated? 
• Any humor in the writing? 
• How may these writing styles reflect the themes of the work, or impact the reader's interpretation?

10. Diction

• Diction is the distinctive tone or tenor of an author’s writings. Diction is not just a writer's choice of words it can include the mood, attitude, dialect and style of writing. Diction is usually judged with reference to the prevailing standards of proper writing and speech and is seen as the mark of quality of the writing. It is also understood as the selection of certain words or phrases that become peculiar to a writer

11. Irony

• Is there a difference between the literal meaning of the words on the page, and the implied, or actual meaning?
• Do we know more than the speaker in the story? (Dramatic Irony)
• Do situations turn out differently than we and most people would expect?
• Is a character the victim of fate? (cosmic irony/irony of fate)

12. Tone, Theme, Mood

• These are separate from the other literary elements because they are "bigger picture" elements.
• They don't fall into the "how" portion of analysis, but rather, they fall into the "what" portion of analysis. A theme is conveyed through some other literary element, or, the "what" is conveyed through the "how." It is awkward to say "the overall meaning is conveyed/captured/demonstrated by the theme of..." Mood and tone are the same way.
• These elements do not stand alone, but rather, are built through the combined effects of other literary elements.

Thematic Focus

What is a Prose Passage?

• You will need to read and analyze a prose piece of literature, then write a one page excerpt answering the question they give you on this part of the test

What kind of prose piece of literature will be on the test?

• In general the prose piece of literature will be fiction. NOTE: Novels and short stories are the pieces of literature's that are selected the most.
• The Non-fiction selection can include essays, biographies, autobiographies and articles from periodicals.
• On rare occasions they may also include an excerpt from a drama.

Types of Prose Passage Essay Questions:

• There are many prose passage essay questions. some questions that have been asked on the test are:

1. Explain the effect of the passage on the reader
2. Compare/contrast two passages concerning diction and details for the effect on the reader.
3. How does a narrator reveal character (i.e, tone, diction, syntax, point of view)
4. Analyze style and tone and how they are used to explore the author's attitudes toward his or her subject.
5. What is the attitude of the speaker toward a particular subject?
6. Analyze the effect of revision when given both the original and the revised version of a text
7. How does the author reveal a character's predicament? (i.e, diction imagery, point of view)
8. Analyze narrative and literary techniques and other resources of language used for characterization
9. How does the passage provide characterization and evaluation of one character over another? (i.e, diction, syntax, imagery, tone)
10. how is the reader prepared for the conclusion of the piece?

• Most of the questions on the AP exam ask student to

1. Analyze narrative and literary techniques which reveal character (diction, syntax, point of view, imagery)
2. Analyze the altitude of the speaker or author using tone and style
3. Compare/contrast two passages for their effect on the reader, diction and details
4. Explain the effect of the passage on the reader

• Prose prompts will usually ask to identify what an author does and how they use literary techniques in their writing piece.

Grading the essay (Rubric):

•  The essay readers will grade the essays giving it the grade with a number between 1-9

1. A 9 essay has all the qualities of an 8 essay (addressing the prompt effectively and cohesively, analyze and/or discuss the stylistic elements called for in the question; using appropriate evidence from the given text, and show the writer's ability to control language well). It also shows a writing style that is impressive as is the analysis and/or discussion of the specifics related to the prompt and the text. 
2. A 5 essay demonstrates that the writer understand the prompt. The analysis/discussion is generally understandable, but the analysis/discussion is limited or uneven. The writer's ideas are expressed clearly with a few errors in syntax or diction,
3. A 1 essay is very simplistic, disorganized, and lacking in control of language.

• A "9" graded essay is a perfect score of a 100
• A "8" graded essay has the score of 95
• A "7" graded essay has the score of 90
• A "6" graded essay has a score of 85
• A"5" graded essay in the minimum passing score of 75 
• A "4" graded essay has a score of 65
• A "3" graded essay has a score of 55
• A "2" graded essay has a score of 45
• A "1" graded essay is the lowest failing score of 35

• A student needs a score of 5 or above to pass the essay portion of the exam

How to time the essay:

• The prose passage essay will be 40 minutes long, so use your time wisely. Plan out how you will use your time for each step that will lead to your finished paper. An example of how you can divide your time is to use...

1. 1-3 Minutes reading and working the prompt 
2. 5 Minutes reading and making marginal notes about the passage
3. 10 Minutes preparing to write (Ex: underlining, bracketing, circling, marginal notations, charts or key words)
4. 20 Minutes to write the essay
5. 3 Minutes for proofreading

• Its recommended to divide your time in this similar patter because this way you can use your time wisely to analyze and answer the question correctly, to get the highest score possible.