AP Essay Format
AP ESSAY FORMAT
You must address the prompt in its entirety. If the prompt asks for analysis of imagery, metaphor, tone and irony in the author’s development of the theme and you only address three of the devices but ignore the fourth, the reader of your paper will count off for that.
It has been suggested that you try to answer the entire prompt in the first paragraph as a safe guard against running out of time.
The format for the A.P. essay can vary; however, if you are exhausted or not excited about the prompt, or for whatever reason you are not feeling inspired, then you can fall back on an essay structure that will get you through and quite possibly with a passing grade.
ALWAYS ADDRESS THE PROMPT.
The format is as follows:
Mini-topic sentence:
Example:
In Elsinore, the view of women is as dark and cold as the weather (“Tis bitter cold.”) as evidenced by the scolding tone of Polonius towards his daughter, Ophelia, and Hamlet’s brutal argument with his “aunt/mother”.
Development of the mini-topic sentence:
In Act 1, Scene 3, Polonius bids farewell to his son, Laertes, who is off to attend college. He offers his son warm and wise advice in his foray into the world. However, with his daughter, his attitude and tone are quite different.
Examples:
The diction spoken by Polonius to his daughter is associated with the hard currency of the market – tenders, silver, brokers, investments, etc. – which makes the point that a young maiden’s market value is determined by her chastity. He warns her to think herself a baby if she believes his counterfeit claims ("...That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay which are not sterling...") Polonius continues in this rough vein when he warns her not to believe Hamlet's vows for they are "brokers not of that dye which their investments show...."
Commentary:
No man wishes to purchase damaged goods and Polonius, being a “good and careful” father drives that point brutally home to her by warning her that “...Lord Hamlet …is young, / And with a larger (tether) may he walk / Than may be given you…” and that he is out of your orbit. (And earlier, Laertes makes the same point to his "dear sister" but by drawing more gentle comparisons with nature and flowers and flowerbuds "...The canker galls the infants of the spring / Too oft before their buttons be disclosed....")
Commentary/Examples:
Both men are displaying grave concern for Ophelia's reputation - Laertes, expressing concern for his "dear sister's" heart when he tells her,"Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain / If with too credent ear you list his songs..." and Polonius for the family's reputation when he says, "...Daughter...You'll tender me a fool...."
Commentary/Examples:
Both men take a proprietary view of Ophelia, but Laertes is loving and uses sweet words of endearment to "my dear sister", and sweet metaphors and imagery ("...unmask her beauty to the moon...") while Polonius uses harsh, patronizing words"...you do not understand yourself clearly...," and insulting comparisons to a silly bird, "...ah, springes to catch woodcocks..." which express contempt for what he perceives as her lack of will and intelligence.
Example:
In Act 2, Scene 2, Polonius shows a lack of concern for Ophelia's emotional well being and autonomy as a human being when he hits upon the brilliant idea of "loosing" his daughter to Hamlet so that he and the king may spy upon them.
Commentary:
The choice of words and the imagery of "I'll loose my daughter to him" implies an unconscious view of Ophelia as an animal. One may loose one's dog or cow, but one would not "loose" a person, particularly a person one holds in high regard. This view dovetails with the 17th Century view of one's wife and children as chattel, and that women, weak willed and unintelligent, need the protection of men's superior moral character and intelligence. The perceived superiority of men and the fiduciary protection afforded by men give them the apparent right to treat their wives, daughters and servants as property. Thus Polonius feels perfectly within his rights to offer up his daughter (to unloose her to Hamlet) without any regard for her emotional well being.
Example:
In Act 1, Scene 3, Polonius and Claudius watch the wretched humiliation of Ophelia at the hands of a crazed and possibly violent Hamlet - a situation in which a loving father would never have placed his daughter. When the devastated Ophelia rushes to her father for comfort, Polonius, more concerned with state and with liege, brushes her off with, "How now, Ophelia, / You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said / We heard it all..."
Commentary:
Here is a moment which should break the heart of any loving parent - watching the brutal and violent rejection of one's child by someone the child loved and trusted. However, Polonius is more concerned with currying favor with his king and with great matters of state - which is after all, within the great province of men - than with the small, emotional (and therefore "petty") concerns of a young girl.
There are moments in which Polonius does seem to care for his daughter; for example, he expresses concern for her in Act 2, Scene 1, after Hamlet has terrorized her in her bedroom, "Lord Hamlet...with a look so piteous in purport / As if he had been loosed out of hell / He comes before me!" Polonius expresses regret for telling her to avoid Hamlet. "I feared he did but trifle / And meant to wrack thee...." But the over all tenor of Polonius' relationship to his daughter is one of a tin-eared response to the anguished cry of an abused and unvalued child.
Ophelia, bound by tradition, culture and custom, is used as a pawn in a game conducted by men for their own advancement and for their own pleasure without regard to the devastating consequences to those who are bound to them in trust.
Make a comment about how your examples prove point.
In the 17th Century, marriage, unlike today, was based not on love but on economic necessity. Knowing the harsh reality of his time, Polonius gives brutal advice to his daughter, Ophelia. He uses terminology of finance to drive home his point that she must not act like a little fool “…Paw. You speak like a green girl” for fear that she might “tender him a fool” or bring home a bastard grandchild and embarrass him. He uses other terms of high finance such as tenders “…that you have ta’en these tenders for true pay…”; silver “…which are not sterling”; brokers “…do not believe his vows, for they are brokers”; and investments “…Not of that dye which their investments show…” All of these metaphors are designed to prove his point that her worth is calibrated to her chastity. The hard currency of the time was that men held the power in determining a woman’s worth.
When you are listing a long catalog of items, you use a semi-colon to set them off:
I am sending an invitation to the following people: Daion; Hector; Laura; Veronica and her sisters, Elizabeth, Anna, and Kathryn; Mary; Lillian; Moises; Maleko; Sebastian; Jordana
SHOW HOW ALL YOUR EXAMPLES PROVE YOUR POINT ABOUT SHAKESPEARE’S USE OF METAPHORICAL LANGUAGE TO SHOW THEME OF THE DARK VIEW OF WOMEN.
List of Don’ts:
Do not list metaphorical devices or ironic devices or rhetoric devices without ANALSYIS. (Don’t list! Well, there’s a metaphor…. And oh! There’s a simile….”)
Do not write what the devices are or give definitions for the devices. Example: A ritter uses imagarie to put da words n2 pitchers in r brains.” The reader of your paper already knows that imagery is and the purpose of imagery; s/he wants to read your analysis of how imagery is used and for what purpose it is used - i.e., to establish tone or to further the theme.
Do not over use quotations. Use just a snippet of the quotation you want to use to illustrate your point. The reader(s) of your paper are university professors and cold eyed A.P. teachers who are onto the wily tricks of A.P. students. These gimlet-eyed dinosaurs know that a student over quotes to hide the fact that s/he doesn't really have anything to say about the subject. BUT I KNOW YOU DO HAVE A LOT TO SAY!!!!
Do not write “The writer uses a lot of dictions.” Diction is another word for words.
No contractions in a formal paper.
"You are" can become "your" if you are not paying attention!
They are Their There
We were were where
Plural forms of verbs:
Avoid nasty subject verb agreement problems like this:
The student should turn in his/ her /their work on time.
Instead, use plural forms of the subject:
The students should turn in their work on time.
Vary your sentence structure. Vary your sentences with complex, complex-compound sentences and for emphasis use a simple sentence.
Compound sentences:
A sentence that combines two independent clauses with a conjunction (fanboy)
Shakespeare uses imagery in his writing and he employs a great deal of personification in his sonnets.
For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet
So
During the Third Act, Hamlet is beginning to slip into madness; in addition, he becomes consumed with vengeance.
Complex Sentence:
An independent clause combined with a dependent or subordinate clause:
Adverbial, Adjective, Noun
His jacket undone, Hamlet, in a state of perhaps feigned madness, enters Ophelia’s bedroom to set into motion his ploy to determine the King’s guilt.
Simple sentence:
It has a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought:
Hamlet wants vengeance on Claudius.
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